RAMALLAH, Over 220 scholars from 14 Latin American countries have recently condemned Israel as an apartheid state.

The scholars signed a statement pledging to refuse participation in academic exchanges or collaborations with, and to decline funding from complicit Israeli institutions or the State of Israel, as reported by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI).

The scholars further call on Latin American universities to suspend cooperation with Israeli institutions complicit in Israel’s regime of military occupation and apartheid, until Israel respects the UN-stipulated political and human rights of the Palestinian people.

Among the signatories are Afro-Dominican anthropologist Ochy Curiel, Colombian anthropologist Arturo Escobar, Maya-Kaqchikel thinker Aura Cumes Simón, Chilean historians Igor Alexis Goicovic Donoso and Sergio Grez Toso, Chilean artist Ingrid Wildi Merino, Argentine philosopher (based in Mexico) Silvana Rabinovich, Colombian philosophers María del Rosario Acosta and Laura Quintana, and Chilean philosopher Rodrigo Karmy Bolton.

Earlier this month, Amnesty International issued a detailed report finding Israel guilty of the crime against humanity of apartheid.

Amnesty’s report, which follows similar reports last year by Human Rights Watch and prominent Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem, concludes that institutions should refrain from or cease activities that “contribute to maintaining the system of apartheid.”

Israeli universities have long played a key role in developing, maintaining implementing and justifying Israeli apartheid.

The pledge from Latin American scholars forms part of the unprecedented wave of effective solidarity measures from academics and academic departments around the world, prompted by Israel’s ongoing violent escalation of its brutal policies dispossessing Indigenous Palestinians.

Source: Palestine News & Info Agency