Manchester University reverses decision, puts statement on Israel’s ‘ethnic cleansing’ on display

The University of Manchester has reversed its decision to remove a statement declaring solidarity with the Palestinian people from an exhibition organised by Turner prize-nominated investigative group Forensic Architecture.

The decision comes after days of acrimony which saw Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester temporarily closing an exhibition that deals with Israel’s brutal military occupation, following an intervention by several UK-based pro-Israel groups. They protested the exhibition’s opening statement, which they claimed was “one sided.”

“Forensic Architecture stands with Palestine”, read the offending note at the entrance to the exhibition. “We believe this liberation struggle is inseparable from other global struggles against racism, white supremacy, antisemitism, and settler colonial violence and we acknowledge its particularly close entanglement with the Black liberation struggle around the world.”

UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) protested the wording of the statement in a letter to the vice-chancellor of the University of Manchester.  The pro-Israel lobbyist organisation, which has been grabbing headlines recently because of a number of high-profile campaigns, claimed that the language was “designed to provoke racial discord”.

READ: Citing apartheid 116 academics call on EU to stop funding Israeli universities 

It’s reported that in a letter written to the university’s vice-chancellor, UKLFI argued that the statement on Palestine included in the show, “falsely conflated Israelis with white supremacists” and “paints a multi-faceted conflict […] simply as a race issue” by comparing Palestinian resistance to “Black liberation struggles around the world”.

The decision by Manchester University to remove the statement following UKLFI’s protest caused outrage. Forensic Architecture’s Director, Eyal Weizman, a British-Israeli professor at Goldsmiths, is said to have learned of the statement’s removal from a blog post by UKLFI.

Forensic Architecture which comprises of a team of architects, archaeologists and journalists whose digital models of crime scenes have been cited as evidence at the international criminal court, demanded the closure of its exhibit “with immediate effect” upon learning of the removal of their Palestinian solidarity statement.

In the latest turn of events, the gallery’s Director Alistair Hudson announced yesterday that

it was important for Forensic Architecture’s exhibition “to remain open in full”. It’s reported that UKLFI is “considering all options”.

In April, UKLFI sparked outrage after two UK school textbooks on the Middle East had their content “significantly altered” following its intervention along with the Board of Deputies of British Jews (BoD).

The decision was condemned by leading academics on the Middle East who slammed the textbook as “propaganda for Israel.” The publisher responded by taking the decision to pause further distribution.