GAPS Statements on Palestine

GAPS Statements on Palestine

In the AGM in May 2026, it was decided that, due to the complexity of the situation in Israel and Palestine, GAPS would publish several statements on the topic on one page in chronological order. This reflects the diversity of its members and illustrates the discourse and discussion taking place.

GAPS Commitment to Countering Group-Focused Enmity and Discursive Reductionism

January 2024

The Hamas attacks on 7 October 2023, the Israel-Gaza war, as well as their many discursive instrumentalisations have resulted in widespread questionings of solidarity among different actors dedicated to what we perceive as the shared aims of overcoming injustice, inequality and oppression. As scholars of anglophone postcolonial studies in German-speaking countries, we are particularly concerned by the resurgence of antisemitism in the public sphere and by the sweeping charges of antisemitism against our field.

GAPS condemns the brutal Hamas attacks on 7 October 2023 and is horrified by the numerous victims claimed by the attacks and the ensuing warfare in Gaza. We oppose all kinds of group-focused enmity. We oppose antisemitism, and we consider antisemitism to be incompatible with our understanding of postcolonial studies. At the same time, we oppose generalised and one-sided suspicions as well as their instrumentalisation in forms of discrimination such as anti-Muslim racism. We believe that in order to counter antisemitism and anti-Muslim racism, reductionist explanations and attributions are insufficient and indeed counterproductive. 

As an academic association, we strive to contribute to processes of differentiation, discussion, and dialogue. In order to do so, we have decided to introduce formats in which to facilitate a process of critical self-reflection about what it means to do postcolonial studies in German-speaking countries. These include organising further discussion meetings and public roundtables on the relationship of anti-antisemitic and antiracist scholarship in German-speaking countries and beyond, and a renewed focus on the role of anglophone Jewish and Arab/Middle Eastern literatures and cultures in envisioning peaceful futures. As we are intensifying our work on these projects, our compassion lies with the victims of violence and war.

GAPS Statement of Solidarity with Palestine 

August 2026

Preamble 

This is a statement on behalf of the Association for Anglophone Postcolonial Studies (GAPS), drafted by a working group consisting of individual members. In recognising the nuance of the region’s history, we find it necessary to establish some context – hence the length of the statement. To facilitate the reading process, we introduce each section with a subheading.

Introduction

On 16 January 2024, GAPS published a statement, titled “GAPS Commitment to Countering Group-Focused Enmity and Discursive Reductionism”, in response to the 7 October 2023 Hamas attacks and the subsequent Israeli military “intervention” in Gaza, which has since been overwhelmingly classified as a genocide by international legal experts. The statement was drafted by a working group and approved by the board. However, after an open discussion at the AGM in May 2025, the attendees voted to publish a new statement. The following text emerged from a number of meetings of a second working group responsible for preparing the statement.

Conflicting Positions within GAPS 

Within GAPS, views on Israel and Palestine differ in ways that reflect the complexity of the present moment as well as the diverse intellectual, ethical and historical commitments of our membership. Colleagues draw on different genealogies (including German memory politics and Holocaust responsibility, anti- and decolonial theory, racial-capitalist critique, and global histories of dispossession) and these commitments can lead to divergent emphases, interpretations, and forms of solidarity. Rather than conceal these tensions, we acknowledge them as part of an ongoing process of collective reflection. The absence of consensus is a reminder that Postcolonial Studies derives its strength from rigorous debate, from its refusal of reductionism and from its commitment to confronting violence and injustice in all forms.

We recognise that this statement cannot speak for all members, but rather documents an ongoing conversation within the association. We endeavour to make this process visible by adding the new statement to the website without deleting the earlier one, and possibly by entering into a dialogue with reaction statements that might be published in the future, so as to model the very principles of transparency and discursive plurality we seek to defend.

Relationship to the January 2024 Statement

While we respect the work that went into creating the first statement, we are unable to accept its singularity. The working group that formed in reaction to the initial statement would like to add more nuance to the issues discussed in the first statement. For instance, the earlier statement indicates a distinct reluctance to call out the Israeli state and its supporters as perpetrators (“brutal Hamas attacks” vs. “ensuing warfare”) and does not acknowledge the highly disparate distribution of power (“Israel-Gaza war”, as though Gaza were an independent country). The authors have also avoided drawing any parallels between Israel’s approach (which is also pursued elsewhere, specifically in the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan) and that of other (settler) colonial and imperial forces. Furthermore, the statement neglects the problematic involvement of a former colonial power – Britain – in the inception and reinforcement of the state of Israel. Finally, the statement fails to account for the suffering of the Palestinian population under the Israeli state, not only since 7 October 2023 but since the creation of the modern state of Israel in 1948. We recognise the need for safety of everyone in both Palestine and Israel, and we support Palestinian self-determination.

We recognise that the omissions in the first statement, no matter how unintentional, create a hierarchy of suffering, suggesting some lives and experiences are more valuable than others. We would like to echo the ethos of the first statement by insisting on the incompatibility between Postcolonial Studies and both anti-Muslim racism and anti-Semitism, and emphasise that it is our professional duty to expose and contest generalised, oversimplified and one-sided suspicions and any form of discrimination. As a Postcolonial Studies association, one of our preoccupations is to foreground the voices of those who are repeatedly marginalised and whose humanity continues to be called into question for reasons engendered by deep structural and systemic injustice.

In this light, we would like to draw attention to the suffering, mourning and death of Muslim and Arab communities globally and to the deaths of inhabitants elsewhere in the so-called Middle East and North African region. While we decidedly condemn attacks on Jewish life and the resurgence of anti-Semitism we argue that it is just as necessary to condemn attacks against Muslim life and the increase of Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism. It is alarming how quickly anti-Semitic sentiment is gaining traction again because of fascist and right-wing political parties and groupings all around the world. At the same time, we believe it is important to note that some prominent Jewish voices, such as Naomi Klein and Ben Lorber, whilst in no way excusing anti-Semitism, express serious concerns that the Israeli state’s actions exacerbate the Jewish Diaspora’s vulnerability and make them feel even more unsafe.

GAPS as a German Academic Association

As members of GAPS, we acknowledge the relevance of our speaking position as a German-based academic association situated in the field of Postcolonial Studies. GAPS is constituted predominantly of German (and Germanophone) members and thus shaped by very specific historical responsibilities and discursive contexts. As a result, GAPS recognises Germany’s enduring responsibility to confront anti-Semitism and to ensure that Jewish life and safety are protected. At the same time, we caution against conflating Jewish identity with the policies or actions of the Israeli state. Acknowledging the specificity of anti-Semitism must not preclude legitimate critique of state violence, or the naming of international war crimes. As an association for Postcolonial Studies based in Germany, we see it as our task to bring transnational knowledge and debates to discussions taking place in Germany, at the university and beyond. Our goal is to contribute meaningfully to the fights for justice against historical and ongoing oppression rooted in colonialism. We are witnessing a worrisome increase in racism and xenophobia, including Islamophobia and anti-Semitism, in Western countries, not least in Germany. We believe that, with right-wing forces in particular exploiting the horrific situation in Palestine and in Israel to depict Muslim and Jewish communities globally as irreconcilably antagonistic and incompatible, and to pit them against each other, attempts to bring these communities together through nuanced critique are deeply relevant. 

Postcolonial Studies 

Postcolonial Studies, similar to other fields (such as Gender Studies and Critical Race Theory), has increasingly come under attack by right-wing extremist and populist forces seeking to discredit critical thought, silence dissenting voices, and undermine the humanities’ role in fostering ethical and historical understanding. Such attacks are often framed as a defence of alleged “neutrality” or “objectivity”. They ignore the long histories of colonialism, racism, and structural violence that continue to shape our world and our disciplines. In this climate, it becomes all the more urgent to defend scholarly integrity, to insist on complexity over reduction, and to reaffirm the role of postcolonial inquiry as a practice of critical empathy and historical accountability. Postcolonial Studies has often worked closely with Jewish Studies (drawing on, e.g., Marianne Hirsch’s theories), which proves that both disciplines share the objectives of analysing structures of violence and suffering and of working on a world that is just to all. In the same vein, the inclusion of Muslim, Arab and Palestinian theory and culture (e.g., Edward Said’s foundational work) in Postcolonial Studies is vital in the context of the latter’s aim to think through colonial and neocolonial practices and to center marginalised voices. 

Commitment to Transnational Dialogue

As previously indicated, GAPS attempts to foster critical and inclusive forms of dialogue between different communities, perspectives and discourses that challenge structures of domination, colonial legacies, and epistemic violence. Our work is grounded in the conviction that academic inquiry must remain open to complexity, self-reflection, and the plurality of lived experiences.

What must be at the heart of all statements on war and genocide is a concern for human suffering in all its forms.

Under Israeli occupation (the continuity of which was confirmed in the Advisory Opinion of the ICJ from July 2024, see section ‘Other Institutions and Associations’ below), starvation is used as a mechanism of war, high numbers of children amputees and deaths have been recorded, Palestinian families and generations are wiped out, journalists and medical staff have been massacred, critical infrastructures as well as agricultural areas, cultural and educational sites have been deliberately targeted and destroyed. It is incumbent on us to raise our voices against the entity responsible for such suffering and to stand in solidarity with those who are victims and survivors of this violence. We believe that it is our human duty to care, and our moral duty to call out the military imbalance of the so-called “conflict” in Palestine. The Israeli state enjoys the military and financial support of the most powerful economies in the world. Any “both-sides” representation of the situation as being on equal footing is misleading and to be eschewed by those committed to epistemological rigour. 

Past, Present and Future in Palestine

Palestinians have a rich history, a vibrant culture, and a remarkable literary tradition. At a time when they are being attacked and ethnically cleansed by settler colonial forces, we must remember that the people of Palestine have the right not only to survive, but to live and thrive. As scholars, we need to actively counter their erasure; by reading their literature, translating their writers, and including Palestinian writers in our curricula.

GAPS witnesses the continued attacks on Palestinian life, even after the proclamation of a “ceasefire” in October 2025, with deepest concern. However, this is not new. Gaza has been an occupied, highly regulated and deliberately isolated territory for many years. The current conflict in Palestine has a long history that has its roots in the European colonisation of Palestine. The role of the British state – both as imperial power and in its current complicity in the Israeli state’s war on Gaza – cannot be underplayed. Through the Balfour agreement of 1917, the British state committed inhabited land that was not its own to give away towards the creation of a Jewish state. The agreement is the origin of much of the displacement and colonial violence that ensued. More than a century later, the Israeli government is propagating and implementing what the International Court of Justice has described as probable genocidal policies in Gaza and the West Bank. Additionally, we see Palestine in the context of global imperialism, with several countries vying for territorial control and economic opportunities (land and resources) as part of their objective of maintaining a global order that upholds their military, economic, and cultural hegemony.

While it is impossible to do justice to the historical context and recent developments in the scope of this statement, we wish to keep the conversation going in other forms. In our attempt to further and to nuance the discussion of the relationship between Israel and Palestine, we point to a number of sources in the ‘Further Readings’ section below. 

Closing Lines

In closing, we would like to reiterate that our compassion lies with all victims of violence, displacement, and historical injustice. Our commitment remains to scholarship that resists reductionism and upholds the integrity of the humanities in times of profound moral and intellectual challenge. We hope that we as academics and humans will continue to pay attention to the situation in Palestine/Israel and do our best to work on a better world.

Other Institutions & Associations (compiled by authors of the statement on June 22, 2026)

Since the discussions within GAPS are part of a larger debate, we would like to reference some statements and comments by other organisations and associations that have been published over the last two years and shed light on the topic from various perspectives and/or focus on different aspects of the evolving situation. Whilst recognising the heterogeneity of positions within GAPS, we offer this small list as a first start, with each statement/comment shining a spotlight on certain parts of a complex, layered, and culture-spanning conversation:

International and/or Legal Bodies

  • UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the OPT, legal analysis (September 2025): ohchr.org
  • International Court of Justice, Advisory Opinion (July 2024): icj-cij.org
  • International Court of Justice, provisional measures order, South Africa v. Israel (Jan 2024, reaffirmed March & May 2024): icj-cij.org
  • International Criminal Court, arrest warrants (November 2024): icc-cpi.int
  • UN General Assembly Resolution ES-10/24 (September 2024): docs.un.org

Human Rights NGOs  

  • IPC (Integrated Food Security Phase Classification) (ongoing tracking): ipcinfo.org
  • Amnesty International (December 2024): amnesty.org
  • Human Rights Watch (April 2021): hrw.org
  • B’Tselem (Jan 2021): btselem.org

Academic Associations and Scholars

Further Readings (compiled by authors of the statement on June 22, 2026)

For readers who would like to learn more about the region and its history, we have accumulated a list of links to websites or articles that we deem relevant, informative and helpful (last updates on June 22, 2026): 

  • Institute for Palestine Studies, Palquest: interactive encyclopedia palquest.org
  • The Britain Palestine Project: articles, film, primary documents britainpalestineproject.org
  • Yale Law School, Avalon Project: key documents (like the Balfour Declaration, 1917; the British Mandate for Palestine, 1922; the UN GA Resolution 181, 1947) avalon.law.yale.edu
  • Journal of the British Academy: “Scholasticide in Gaza” by Avi Shlaim, vol. 13 (10 March 2025). journal.thebritishacademy.ac.uk
  • UN Department of Global Communications: “The Palestine Question: A Brief History” (1980)  un.org/unispal

Ongoing trackers and institutional analysis

  • Council on Foreign Relations: Global Conflict Tracker: Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (continuously updated nonpartisan background/timeline) cfr.org
  • International Crisis Group: Israel/Palestine program (ongoing conflict analysis covering Gaza, the West Bank, and regional spillover) crisisgroup.org

Please note: These sources do not necessarily reflect the views of GAPS as an organisation.