المنتدى

The ACSS issued a statement on October 20, 2023 condemning the Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. Today its head-office in Beirut is witnessing the same aggression against Lebanon – attacking its sovereignty and its people. Systematic assassinations, air, land and sea shelling and bombardment as well as explosive devices have resulted in the loss of thousands of lives and caused huge destruction in large swaths of the country.

With the overwhelming Israeli aggression, comes the ascendancy of colonial discourses in a number of academic and research institutions around the world. The ACSS strongly condemns the interrelated practices of physical and discursive violence and calls upon academic institutions around the world to use their relations, networks, and moral and ethical standing to put an end to these crimes of war and against humanity as well as all types of genocide. The ACSS also urges an activation of mechanisms of international legal accountability and an expansion of the academic boycott of Israeli institutions, universities and research centers.

As an institution representing Arab and Southern scientific communities, the ACSS respects principles of independent and critical thought, and advocates for safeguarding intellectual and academic freedoms, considering them as preconditions for the production of knowledge that serves humanity. This ACSS statement is thus in line with its ethical and moral compass, which guide it towards a much- needed critical knowledge for our region and for humanity. As an Arab scholarly community, we are determined to produce the kind of effective knowledge that serves the oppressed and marginalized around the world.

For over a decade, the ACSS has been experiencing harsh regional conditions, but this only highlights the urgent necessity for action. This includes the need to deepen the questioning of the critical and epistemic pillars of theoretical concepts and analytical trends that address the right to resist occupation, establish justice among peoples, and uphold international humanitarian law without employing double standards and the prejudice to, or prioritization of, some humanity at the expense of others.

We seize this opportunity to reaffirm our position that persistently and determinedly calls for an end to colonial knowledge that supports colonial oppression. We assert the need to pay utmost attention to the terms and conditions of producing free and critical humanistic knowledge.

In conclusion, the ACSS asserts that it will continue the work it has started since 2011 from its head-office in Beirut in an environment that respects and ensures academic freedom. It will continue to pursue its regional and global mission and role as well as its knowledge production related responsibilities towards the academic community in the Arab region and beyond, even in the darkest and most violent of times.