The panel we presented at the London conference of the European Association of Israel Studies (EAIS) in September, ‘The “Delegitimization of Israel”: The Rhetorical and Political uses of a Formula,’ was initially supposed to host four Israeli lecturers. All four are participants in ADARR, a research group on Discourse Analysis, Rhetorics and Argumentation that is funded by the Israel Science Foundation and hosted by the Tel Aviv University.

It came as a surprise to us when the EAIS made the participation of one of us conditional on him not mentioning his affiliation to Ariel University, in the Samaria region (in the northern West Bank).

This request raised in our group both theoretical and practical questions related to the topic of our research. The moderator of the panel, Professor Ruth Amossy wrote to the conference organisers to understand the reasons for their policy, and discussed the answers she received with all the Israeli colleagues concerned.

Though we objected to the conditions placed on our colleague, the EAIS stood by its decision, and our colleague refused to participate. This left the rest of us with a number of alternatives. We could cancel the whole panel, but then who would ever know the reasons for our cancellation? Moreover, would a cancellation on our part mean that we were fighting to defend an Israeli institution in the West Bank which – given our own personal political stances – was not our intention? On the other hand, could the three remaining scholars belonging to Tel Aviv and the Open University attend the conference as if nothing had happened?

Read the article in full in Fathom Journal.