This lecture and workshop will address how the notion of apartheid is central to the legal and political analysis, and prosecution, of the deep inequalities and violences characterising Israel's occupation and settler colonialism in Palestine. We will also explore how the creation of Apartheid Free Zones (AFZs) can counter these injustices and foster solidarity with the Palestinian people.

International legal bodies, such as the ICJ in its ruling of July 2024, have confirmed Israel’s violation of the CERD convention which includes the prohibition of racial segregation and apartheid in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Around 2021-2022, a number of prominent human rights organisations such as Al-Haq, Al Mezan, B'Tselem, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch, had already brought out reports confirming and analysing apartheid across the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.

Rania Muhareb, a legal researcher and one of the authors of the 2022 Al-Haq Report on Israeli apartheid, will give an introduction to the legal and political dimensions of Israeli apartheid, both historically and today. This will be followed by an introduction to the Apartheid Free Zone (AFZ) initiative and how people or venues can join it. The AFZ campaign is part of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.

After these lectures, there will be a more practical introduction session to the AFZ's project, and a workshop about what people can do at the universities for setting up AFZ's. It aims to create a community of places and people that commit to concrete and intersectional measures against the Israeli occupation and apartheid regime. It is a journey to be embarked on by grassroots groups, businesses, unions, and other organisations wishing to end complicity while building spaces that aspire to be ultimately free of all forms of oppression.

This event is organised in cooperation with BDS NL

Speakers: 

• Dr. Rania Muhareb, postdoctoral research fellow in the School of Law and Criminology at Maynooth University and visiting postdoctoral fellow at the Irish Centre for Human Rights in Galway, and co-author of the coalition report by Palestinian human rights organisations published by Al-Haq in 2022 titled: Israeli Apartheid: Tool of Zionist Settler Colonialism. 

Presentation Title: Evolution of the Apartheid Framework in Palestine

• Egbert Harmsen, Board member, BDS Netherlands.

Title: Introduction to the AFZs campaign

• Dr. Sneha Gaddam, Lecturer in the Amsterdam School of Economics, BSc programme coordinator, UvA, organiser for the AFZ campaign

Title: Introduction to AFZs: How can universities act?

• There will be ample time for discussion in smaller groups on setting up AFZs at the University of Amsterdam and other spaces and places in Amsterdam or across the Netherlands.