{"id":90447,"date":"2021-05-26T12:32:37","date_gmt":"2021-05-26T16:32:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/?p=90447"},"modified":"2021-05-26T12:32:37","modified_gmt":"2021-05-26T16:32:37","slug":"architecture-professors-and-students-criticize-state-sponsored-apartheid-in-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/architecture-professors-and-students-criticize-state-sponsored-apartheid-in-israel\/","title":{"rendered":"Architecture professors and students criticize \u2018state-sponsored apartheid\u2019 in Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018We recognise that architecture and urban planning are both the means and the ends of Israeli settler colonialism and state terror\u2019<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

So far, 150 architecture and urban planning professors, students, institutions and companies have signed onto a letter<\/a> condemning Israel and accusing it of a number of human rights violations.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Jerusalem, state-sponsored apartheid planning aims to expel the remaining Palestinian residents from the city,\u201d the signers said. Supporters include the architecture school at London\u2019s Royal College of Art, Felicity Scott and Mark Wasiuta of Columbia University and Michael Askin, chair of Cornell\u2019s department of art.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe recognise that architecture and urban planning are both the means and the ends of Israeli settler colonialism and state terror,\u201d the letter said. \u201cAs architects and planners, it is our moral and ethical duty to acknowledge that the tools of our profession have been co-opted to violate the legal rights of the Palestinian people.\u201d<\/p>\n

The supporters said that \u201carchitecture and planning continue to be used by Israel to consolidate and extend its illegal occupation of Palestinian land.\u201d<\/p>\n

Examples cited include, \u201cstate-sanctioned execution of Palestinian people,\u201d \u201cviolent expulsion and dispossession of Palestinian people,\u201d and \u201cdeliberate maiming of Palestinian bodies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Employs anti-Semitic trope<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The maiming charge is a common accusation used against Israel by opponents of the state. Its proponents argue that Israel experiments on Palestinians and that Israeli Defense Forces try to wound Palestinians and then harvest their organs . Self-described \u201cqueer theorist\u201d Jasbir Puar<\/a>, a Rutgers University professor, is a frequent advocate<\/a> of this theory.<\/p>\n

Recognition of the role their fields have played in oppression has led to change, the signers said. \u201cA recognition of our complicity in settler colonialism, incarceration and white supremacy is resulting in calls for decolonisation, abolition, indigenous rights and class consciousness,\u201d the letter said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe welcome this change and its impact on curricula, studios, and lecture series across the world as architects and planners begin to center anti-racist, social justice and political liberation movements,\u201d the architects and urban planners said.<\/p>\n

MORE<\/strong>: YouTube twice removes, reinstates video of professor defending Israel<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

IMAGE: KelseyJ\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

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