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Incident documentation Academics for Palestine

“The Palestine exception to free speech” on Swedish higher education institutions – a national initiative to collect testimonials on repression of palestine solidarity

Background

Censorship is creeping through academic institutions in Europe over expressions of support for Palestine and legitimate critiques of Israel and Zionism. Dr. Brendan Ciarán Browne calls it "the Palestine exception to free speech". In his words: "Attempts to intimidate both professors and students, or silence them outright, are becoming normalized in a blatant attack on the values that underpin academic freedom. This goes well beyond the question of Palestine and Israel to the fundamental ability of a university to foster free inquiry and debate. As scholars, we must remain vigilant and poised to push back publicly against attempts to silence or censor us over our speech on Palestine."

Purpose

This is an attempt to systematically collect stories of censorship, harassment and discipline that have occurred on Swedish higher education institutions since October 2023. The purpose is to create comprehensive data of the incidents, with the possibility to submit a coordinated notification to the Parliamentary Ombudsmen (JO). The initiative comes from the informal networks formed to bring together academics, public officials, and students at Swedish universities in solidarity with the Palestinian people. There is currently no involvement of unions (including student unions) in the initiative.

Method

The information collected is anonymized. All information added to the survey about occurred incidents will be cross-checked. We ask you who submit answers to confirm this information through secure channels. We are reachable via [email protected] (or personal Signal). Files can be uploaded and sent to our email securely via send.vis.ee - an end-to-end encrypted file-sending service. The data will be stored on an encrypted cloud service (Proton).

Type of incident. How would you categorize the incident?

Type of incident. How would you categorize the incident?

This report involves

This report involves

The incident involves me in my role as 

The incident involves me in my role as 

Date of the incident. If recurring, please explain under question 5

Name of the university where the incident occured

Place of event/incident. Describe the location

Describe the type of event/incident. Protest, sit-in, seminar, lecture, staff event, doctoral defense etc.

Describe the event/incident: what happened before, during, and after? I.e. if there were any warnings, if materials like posters, leaflets etc. were destroyed, if security showed up, if the police was called to the event, if anyone was arrested etc.). Where there managers involved and at what levels (no names)?

How many people do you estimate participated/were present at the event/incident?

Is there any documentation of the incident? Documentation can be photographs, video and sound recordings etc. 

Is there any documentation of the incident? Documentation can be photographs, video and sound recordings etc. 

Is the incident documented in any public records? Traditional media outlets, social media, staff communiqués etc.

Is the incident documented in any public records? Traditional media outlets, social media, staff communiqués etc.

If yes to the above question, please add links to available reports or information about the incident or indicate where we can find these.

Has anything happened after that can be connected to the event/incident? Emails, warnings, follow-up talks etc.

Would you be willing to answer any follow-up questions we might have? If so, please read information above on how you can get in contact with us.

Would you be willing to answer any follow-up questions we might have? If so, please read information above on how you can get in contact with us.

Have you made any formal complaint or reported the incident E.g. as a work-place incident, to management or have contacted the labor/student union?

Have you made any formal complaint or reported the incident E.g. as a work-place incident, to management or have contacted the labor/student union?

Anything else you would like us to know?