SOAS: Academic banned from Israel is 'an arbitrary breach of academic freedom'

In a statement issued Tuesday, the School of Oriental and African Studies – part of the University of London, and one of the world’s leading centers for academic research into the Middle East – condemned the actions of the Israeli Ministry of the Interior for an “an arbitrary breach of academic freedom”.

Dr. Adam Haneih, a Senior Lecturer in Development Studies and author of a range of highly regarded literature on Palestine-Israel and the Middle East more broadly, was detained at Tel Aviv airport on 12 September 2016. According to the statement:

On arrival at Ben Gurion airport he was held for questioning over a period of ten hours, taken overnight to a detention centre outside of the airport, and then returned back to London the following morning. A representative of the Israeli Ministry of Interior informed him that he was banned from entering the country for ten years.

Dr. Hanieh was in Tel Aviv on his way to lecture in the Ph.D. Program in Social Sciences at Birzeit University and “had helped develop the curriculum for this program and was due to deliver three classes to the first cohort of PhD students”.

The statement explains:

Immediately following this incident, SOAS Director Baroness Valerie Amos wrote to the Israeli Embassy requesting an explanation. Unfortunately no satisfactory response has been forthcoming.

Going on to say:

This is not the first time that members of the SOAS community have been denied entry to Israel. Ensuring access by staff and students to the regions in which we specialise is of vital importance to the university’s teaching and research. It is also critical to our ability to develop and strengthen ties with academic institutions outside of the UK.

Birzeit University had already issued its own condemnation of the action by Israel’s department for the interior in a statement issued just days after the event.

This act of denial of entry and deportation by the Israeli state and its agencies is part of a systematic policy of denial of entry to international academics, professionals and activists intending to visit Palestine. This policy represents an attack on Palestinian academic freedom, and is routinely practiced at the two entry points, the airport in Tel Aviv and the Jordan valley crossing from Jordan.

The Birzeit statement goes on to explain that the university is “determined to be part of the international academy” even though “it has been once again denied the opportunity to engage with an international academic who would have enriched its academic programs.”

In spite of his deportation from Israel Dr. Hanieh has continued his involvement in the PhD programme by presenting lectures to Palestinian Students via Skype.

Dr. Hanieh earned his PhD in Political Science from York University, Canada (2009) and his research interests include political economy of the Middle East; labour migration; class and state formation in the Gulf Cooperation Council; and Palestine.