June 14, 2024
ECREA’s Executive Board, Advisory Board, and Ethics Committee have been discussing the conflict in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories since Hamas’ attack on Israeli soldiers and civilians on October 7th 2023 and Israel’s response to that attack, which has resulted in the loss of tens of thousands of civilian lives. We have also been closely following the recent actions of the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in applying for arrest warrants for both Hamas and Israeli political leaders on May 20th 2024 and the International Court of Justice in its deliberations on whether or not Israel is committing acts of genocide in Gaza. We note that the ICJ ordered Israel to stop its offensive on Rafah on May 24th 2024.
ECREA is, first and foremost, a European learned society that seeks to support the field of communication in Europe and those working in it. ECREA has limited resources and competency to intervene in cases beyond this. When the Executive Board does make a public statement we obviously hope that the relevant authorities will listen and moderate their behaviour (although there is, to be frank, no evidence of this) but we do so primarily to offer solidarity to our members who may be pleased to know that they have not been forgotten or ignored.
There have been many significant conflicts and events outside of Europe that ECREA has not taken a position on, including many that have been scandalously ignored by European mainstream news media (for instance, the ongoing Ethiopian civil war). For the sake of moral consistency, if ECREA takes a position on Gaza we should also have taken positions on previous conflicts (including that in Israel and Palestine in 2014), should take positions on other ongoing conflicts, and on future ones. Otherwise, we could be rightly accused of valuing the lives of one group of people over another based largely on the prominence of the conflict in Western public spheres, which, as we know, tends to be related to the interests of, and conflicts within, European elites.
Unsurprisingly and understandably, ECREA as an organisation has struggled to reach a consensus about the appropriate way to respond to the conflict: what to say (if anything)? what to do (if anything)? We do agree though that this is an extremely important issue, which should be discussed. The International Organising Committee of the ECC have decided, therefore, to organise a special panel on the conflict at our forthcoming conference in Ljubljana in September that will give conference participants an opportunity to present contrasting perspectives. This will include debate about whether and, if so how, learned societies, such as ECREA, should respond to similar conflicts in the future.
On the advice of the Advisory Board and cognisant of the recent ICC and ICJ decisions ECREA’s Executive Board have decided that ECREA should not co-operate with universities that directly, publicly, and actively support the actions of either Hamas or the Israeli state (evidence of which would be an unambiguous public statement via official communication channels supporting either the actions of Hamas or the Israeli state with respect to the conflict). The Executive Board recognises this is a complex and evolving situation, that universities have contrasting degrees of autonomy vis-à-vis their respective governments and states, and steadfastly supports scholars exercising their academic freedom irrespective of location. Scholars who work at such institutions are welcome to attend the conference as individuals rather than as representatives of their universities. This is, of course, a symbolic gesture but, as we know, symbols are important. It signals ECREA’s desire to take its distance from academic institutions that support authorities that are subject to reproach from the ICC and ICJ while upholding the principle of academic freedom.
John Downey, President of ECREA, on behalf of the Executive Board.
