Articles for tag: Academic Freedom, Palästina

Isn’t it Ironic?

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Since we do believe in the power of sharing personal experiences and in solidarity, we decided to share ours through this symposium as they highlight the different shapes and forms that silencing attempts and chilling effects can take, as well as the salience of solidarity in academia. They further unearth the hidden costs associated with pursuing publication projects that resist topical normalization and try instead to re-open space for important – yet often uncomfortable – conversations in a highly polarized political environment.

11. September 2025

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Hanan Ashrawi

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Few advocates of Palestinian liberation have become as familiar a name as Dr. Hanan Ashrawi. A principled activist and gifted speaker with a formidable academic background, she rose to international prominence during the First Intifada in 1988. Later, with the start of the Madrid Conference in 1991, she caught the world’s attention as the official representative of the Palestinian delegation.

1. September 2025

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Behemoth v. The Dual State in the Gaza War

Fraenkel’s The Dual State (1941) and Neumann’s Behemoth (1942) offer two diverging accounts of the legal reality under National Socialism. The controversy between the two is important not only for the Gaza War, but also for the future of international humanitarian law writ large. The picture, according to which if lawyers had more power post-World War I, democracies in Europe would not have collapsed, affected both constitutional and international law. Yet, the claim that Weimar and the world could have been saved if only the law and lawyers had possessed more power is inaccurate. We are now reliving the consequences of this mistake in the Gaza War.

4. August 2025

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Suspension of EU Association Agreements Does Not Require Unanimity

In its meeting on 15 July 2025, the Council of the EU failed to adopt concrete measures vis-à-vis Israel, limiting itself to an “exchange of views on an inventory of possible follow-up measures”. This hesitant approach stands in contrast to clear indications that Israel is in breach of its human rights obligations under Article 2 of the EU-Israel Association Agreement (AA), and to the EU’s own obligation to work towards consolidating human rights and the principles of public international law pursuant to Article 21 TEU. While a suspension of the entire AA was never really foreseeable, an important question relates to the voting threshold within the Council that would apply to such a decision relating to the AA.

19. Juli 2025

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Von Worten zu Taten

Am 23. Juni 2025 trafen sich die 27 Außenminister der Europäischen Union (EU) in Brüssel, um über die Zukunft des Assoziierungsabkommens mit Israel (AA EU–Israel) zu beraten. Das Außenministertreffen selbst führte zu keiner Entscheidung über eine mögliche Aussetzung des Abkommens. Gemäß Art. 21 EUV ist die EU jedoch verpflichtet, im Einklang mit dem Völkerrecht zu handeln und bei festgestellten Menschenrechtsverletzungen auf der Grundlage des AA EU–Israel zu reagieren. Andernfalls riskiert die EU, gegen ihr eigenes Primärrecht zu verstoßen.

12. Juli 2025

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Democracy Washing

The Israeli Supreme Court has recently adopted a highly activist approach in rulings that claim to strengthen the structural foundations of democracy, while neglecting its role in protecting the basic human rights of Palestinians. The stark contrast between the Court’s handling of cases involving Palestinians detained incommunicado and its swift intervention in the dismissal of the Shin Bet Director reflects a deeper pattern in the Court’s recent jurisprudence, one that can be described as “democracy washing”.

20. Juni 2025

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Exekutive Brecheisen

Das Landesamt für Einwanderung Berlin (LEA) hat nach übereinstimmenden Presseberichten drei Unionsbürger:innen wegen Straftaten im Zusammenhang mit der Teilnahme an der Besetzung des Präsidiums der Freien Universität Berlin im Oktober 2024 (unter anderem der Verwendung von „Äxten, Sägen und Brecheisen“) des Landes verwiesen, also den Verlust ihrer Freizügigkeit festgestellt. Ob diese Vorwürfe stimmen, kann jedenfalls dahinstehen, da die Maßnahme für sie als Unionsbürger:innen auch dann rechtswidrig sein dürfte.

11. April 2025

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The Death Knell for American Free Speech Tradition

In a case that has received global attention and reproach, Mahmoud Khalil, a lawful permanent resident of the United States and recent graduate of Columbia University (another target of the Trump administration’s ire), was arrested on 8 March by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in front of his apartment in New York and subsequently transferred to a detention facility in Louisiana. In this blog post, my aim is to show that the case of Mr. Khalil implicates perhaps the most sacrosanct of American constitutional rights: free speech. 

25. März 2025

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Die Idee der Staatsräson im neuesten deutschen Recht

Wer sich von rechtszerstörenden Fiktionen heute ein Bild machen will, lese das kürzlich veröffentlichte und inzwischen rechtskräftige Urteil der 9. Kammer des Verwaltungsgerichts Regensburg vom 7. Oktober 2024. Es ist eine der ersten bekannt gewordenen gerichtlichen Entscheidungen, die zu der im Juni 2024 in Kraft getretenen Reform des Staatsangehörigkeitsrechts ergangen sind.

2. Januar 2025

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Under Guise of War

The Knesset’s legislative work since October 2023 has included several legislative initiatives that may be creating a framework for furthering systemic discrimination against Arab Israelis. These new laws could pose a dangerous new precedent in Israel, stripping the right to equality and human dignity of their meaning and threatening the already fragile state of democracy as we know it.

4. Dezember 2024

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