Just Academics? Complicity, Legal Accountability and Ethical Responsibility
We invite you to this public lecture on international law, boycott and how it relates to the university and society at large, with Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement co-founder Omar Barghouti.
In his lecture, Omar Barghouti will be discussing the BDS movement as a popular and peaceful tool in the enforcement of international law. He will be joined by legal scholar Markus Gunneflo and human rights student Taha Khatab, who will raise questions on BDS as a movement and a tactic, its relationship to norms and institutions of international law, and the role of universities as societal institutions. With the intensification of Israeli violence in Palestine, questions of the role of the university and of knowledge production have acutely surfaced. This event offers an opportunity to consider the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement as a venue for legal accountability and ethical responsibility.
About the scholars
Omar Barghouti is a Palestinian human rights defender, co-founder of the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, and recipient of the 2017 Gandhi Peace Award. He holds a B.Sc. and an M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University, NY, and is pursuing a PhD in Philosophy (ethics) at the University of Amsterdam. He is the author of, BDS: The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights (Haymarket: 2011). His commentaries and views have appeared in the New York Times, the Guardian, among others.
Markus Gunneflo is an Associate Professor (Docent) of Public International Law at Lund University, specializing in research on international law theory and the history of international law, with a particular focus on TWAIL (Third World Approaches to International Law), the regulation of force in international law, international humanitarian law, human rights, migration law, and sustainable development.
Taha Khatab is a Palestinian and a master's student in Social Work and Human Rights. He is active in GU Students for Palestine, advocating for human rights and social justice.
