Part II: Engaging With Critical Refusals

Edward Said shed light on the complicity of academics who remained silent on what was—and continues to be—a seemingly controversial or complicated topic. He pointed to their complicity for not taking a clear and unwavering ethical and political position on the question of Palestine. As we have seen since October 2023 (and certainly before that), far too many self-proclaimed critical, antiracist, and decolonial academics have remained silent on the question of Palestine. They have not even shown minimal levels of solidarity, such as signing letters of support, calling for a ceasefire, and critiquing Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza or increasing violence in the West Bank and in historic Palestine. Is fear the only reason for their silence? Our colleagues, who like to begin their conference presentations with land acknowledgments, have apparently forgotten that Palestine is also a territorial struggle against settler-colonial dispossession. On the other hand, the academics who have spoken out and organized against the genocide in Gaza have been suspended, fired, beaten, and arrested.