In this piece, Mira Mookerjee, Editor and Website Curator at the Global Souths Hub, documents the discussions that took place at this year’s European International Studies Association (EISA) and examines the link between the criminalisation of Palestine solidarity and the global rise of fascism.
International Rela_[404 Not Found]: Politics for a Broken World was the theme of this year’s European International Studies Association (EISA) conference which took place in University of Bologna, Italy, in late August. The theme highlights that as “planetary changes become increasingly evident, and the erosion of the so-called international liberal order accelerates, the consequences of climate change, wars, and economic marginalisation become more and more widespread”, and posed the key question: how can we “remake International Relations (IR) for a broken world?”
The University of Bologna is one of the oldest in the Western world, dating back to 1088. While Bologna is commonly nicknamed “La Rossa” (The Red) due to its terracotta buildings, there is another reason, it being a stronghold for Italian left-wing politics – particularly the post-war Italian Communist party. The conversations that took place at EISA continued the legacy of the location’s political history with the wide-ranging programme spanning from Mending Global Governance, The Label of ‘Terrorism’ and the Permissibility of Violence, to Reimagining Peace Studies. The discussions were nuanced and insightful, however, in every session I attended, I found conversations circling back to the same subject – Palestine and the global rise of fascism.
The Label of ‘Terrorism’
The first session I attended covered Palestine, the label of ‘terrorism’ and the permissibility of violence. Chaired by Amna Kaleem (University of Sheffield), the panel included Madeline-Sophie Abbas (Lancaster University), Lisa Stampnitzky (University of Sheffield), Nicola Pratt (Warwick University) and Rabea Khan (Liverpool John Moores University). The conversation highlighted how ‘terrorism’ is a colonialist and highly racialised term directed towards those in the Global Majority, who are often from Arab diasporic communities, or who have Indigenous, Latinx and South Asian ancestry (who in contemporary discourse are racialised as Brown), yet it is rarely used to describe members of white communities.
In the UK, the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 came into force ten years ago. This iteration expanded the scope of the Prevent bill to include non-violent extremism. This update also meant that higher education institutions are obliged to monitor and report students who are likely to be drawn into terrorism. Under this act, universities are required to conduct risk assessments, implement mitigation plans, and provide mandatory Prevent awareness training to staff and students. However, the bill stretches further than higher education, and bizarrely, nursery educators are also legally obliged to report toddlers who are at risk of becoming terrorists under this act.
Madeline-Sophie Abbas discussed the relationship between UK Universities and the Prevent bill. She highlighted that students can be reported to Prevent without their knowledge, citing a case where a UK student of Palestinian heritage was reported as a possible terrorist threat to Prevent due to his entire family being killed in the ongoing genocide. Madeline-Sophie argues that this act clearly portrays the mirage of equality and care at universities, where the organisations that are assumed to act as parental bodies for their students are instead part of a system of surveillance.
With the recent proscription of Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation by the UK government, the fight against genocide and for the rights of Palestinian people have been deliberately recast as acts of terrorism. In the discussion at EISA, participants emphasised that in our world, which is structured by colonialism and white supremacy, colonial violence becomes normalised and justified, while victims of colonial violence, or those who speak out in solidarity, become vilified through the label of ‘terrorism’. As Nicola stated, “in the current moment, the label of terrorism serves to legitimise Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza and to criminalise solidarity with the Palestinian people.”
Rabea Khan emphasised the importance of critiquing the term ‘terrorism’ by exposing the contradictions at play. Israel, a state with nuclear weapons, has seen 1,139 people killed since October 7, 2023, compared with 62,614 Palestinians. Yet Israeli actions are still protected by governments in the Western world, while expressions of Palestinian solidarity are increasingly criminalised.
One recent example of this is evident in the removal of a Banksy mural outside the Royal Courts of Justice, depicting a judge hitting a protester with a gavel. The mural has been interpreted as a reference to those arrested who protested in support of Palestine Action, although there was no active indication in the imagery. In 2016, Banksy, a street artist and political activist created a mural opposite the French embassy that critiqued the use of tear gas in Calais refugee camps, and in 2009 he painted a satirical image of the House of Commons invaded by chimpanzees which sold in the Sotheby’s Post War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale for £9.9 million in 2019. However, he is currently being investigated by the Metropolitan Police for his mural on the Royal Courts of Justice.
The rise of fascism in the UK is evident not only in the British media, where the BBC has given Israeli deaths thirty-three times more coverage, but also on the ground, where openly Zionist organisations are protected by police, which, marchers on Saturday Palestine protests who have walked alongside members of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, BLM movement, Jewish Network For Palestine, members of the Orthodox Jewish community and countless other groups, organisations and individuals, will have seen with their own eyes.
Colonial Systems and Academic Freedom
I attend another panel at EISA on Colonialism/Coloniality as Historical Structure, which questioned the historical nature of colonialism. The speakers stressed how colonial systems still persist. “There has not been a rupture,” Marine Gueguin (University of Leeds) reminds us, as the structures that were put in place under colonialism continue to shape today’s world. This is evident in global power dynamics. For example, 157 out of 193 in the United Nations recognise Palestine as a state, while the US, Portugal, Germany, Italy, Greece do not recognise Palestine. The UK has only recently recognised Palestine as of the 21st of September. Yet, despite 81% of the countries in the UN recognising Palestine as a state, it currently remains a non-member Permanent Observer State. In April 2024, following the destruction of al-Shifa hospital Palestine submitted a request for renewed consideration of its 2011 application for full UN membership, but their application was denied. Today, there are no fully functioning hospitals left in Gaza.
Another discussion on Academic Freedom and the Autocratic Appeal (sponsored by Political Anthropological Research on International Social Sciences (PARISS)) addressed the growing amount of censorship within universities. Didier Bigo (University of Liverpool) warned that political and police interference within academia is intensifying. He argued that we “cannot ignore the management of universities and the transnational systems they are associated with.” Didier highlighted that in Germany, of all the “academics who are being accused of antisemitism, 30% of them are Jewish”, and that because “academics don’t know if they are being watched, many have begun to self-censor” out of fear for their own safety. Bigo finished his talk by emphasising that “as academics, our job is to be critical,” and that we cannot allow “academic freedom to collapse.”
How the UK has responded to the genocide in Palestine highlights the failures of our current system. Just as within universities, it brings into sharp focus the mirage of equality, the right to protest, and the supposed neutrality of our media outlets. At a time where the rise of fascism penetrates all our systems, the fight to protect our freedoms is critical.
At EISA’s closing grand reception, I talked to Mais Qandeel (Örebro University) who has worked with international human rights organisations across Switzerland, Belgium, The Netherlands, USA and Palestine. We talk about how a famine has been officially recognised in Gaza, where 22,000 loaded aid trucks remain at the crossings, unable to enter. The UN Secretary-General António Guterres has declared that the findings recorded in the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis confirm that “it is a man-made disaster, a moral indictment – and a failure of humanity itself”. “Yes,” Mais adds, “but the international community must mobilise its resources and meet with its legal obligations to stop the Israeli genocide and atrocity crimes in Palestine”.
Recently, the UN commission of enquiry has confirmed that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, and when when polled, 82 percent of Britons argue that Israel’s actions amount to genocide. However, the UK government, led my Keir Starmer, has refused to conclude that a genocide is taking place. Yet pressure is mounting, as Labour Party members have voted to accept that Israel is committing a genocide.
On my arrival back to the UK as I stand at passport control, I notice a Metropolitan Police sign about Travellers Who Have Been in Israel. The sign reads “if you have been in Israel and may have witnessed or been a victim of any possible terrorist incident, war crimes, or crimes against humanity then you can report this to UK counter terrorism command.” The positioning of this sign at border control is a stark reminder of how the label of terrorism is being used to stress pro-Israel propaganda.
Public Action
In Italy, after flotilla was attacked on the 8th of September, Italian labor unions, led by Unione Sindacale di Base, staged a 24 hour national strike on the 22nd of September. Truthout writes, “the general strike involved sectors from logistics to education, from medics to firefighters, from train personnel to dockworkers. It spanned more than 80 cities, blocking ports, highways, train stations, secondary schools, metro stations, universities, shops, hospitals, and public administration offices all over Italy.” A nationwide protest will be held on October 4th.
In the UK, mass protests have swept across the country in response to the proscription of Palestine Action. This week’s national mobilisation, led by Defend our Juries’ Lift the Ban campaign, will conclude on the 4th of October in London’s Trafalgar Square.
The US, Germany, Italy and the UK continue to manufacture and supply arms to Israel.
