BRICUP has co-signed a letter in support of Eleonora Roldán
Mendívil who is being victimised for alleged antisemitism. She
has not been informed about what material of hers is claimed ot be antisemitic;
an allegtion she firmly denies.
We were dismayed to hear of the decision taken by the Otto Suhr Institute
for Political Science of the Freie Universität Berlin to suspend
the follow-up teaching contract of Eleonora Roldán Mendívil,
and to initiate an investigation of alleged antisemitic content in
material that she has published.
The precise allegations against her have not been made public, but
seem to relate to material posted on a website notorious for its links
to far right European politicians. The provenance of these claims
should itself give pause to any academic institution, a main part
of whose remit should be to protect academic freedom in research and
teaching. This website does not present any specific evidence to corroborate
its allegations, other than the young scholar’s impertinence
in applying a settler colonial analysis to the state of Israel. This
analysis was in any case outside her course ‘Racism in Capitalism’,
in which (see her recent interview) she also made no statements at
all on Israel…
Read
the open letter in full