Category Archives: International

The Chronicle News Blog: As Cease-Fire Takes Hold, Palestinian Universities Regroup and Israeli Colleges Reopen

Jerusalem — Israeli and Palestinian colleges affected by the three-week Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip are resuming studies after Sunday’s cease-fire. But some Gaza campuses have been so badly damaged it could take many weeks to return to normal.

Follow

The Chronicle: Ties to Hamas Raise Questions About the Role of Bombed University in Gaza

Israel’s bombing last week of three buildings at the Islamic University of Gaza has provoked outrage among many academics.

Israeli officials and security forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas insist that the university, which makes no secret of its close ties to Hamas, also serves as an operational center for the Hamas terrorist wing, the Qassam Brigades, making it a legitimate military target. (Mr. Abbas leads the Fatah movement, which has had its own struggles with Hamas in recent years.)

But students and lecturers flatly deny that the university is involved in military activities, arguing that it turns out 3,000 graduates each year from its 10 schools, including those in engineering and Islamic law.

Follow

Inside Higher Ed: Academics Struggle for Civil Society in Iraq

WASHINGTON – Two of the three scholars invited from Iraq to share analysis of academic conditions there could not get visas to attend this week’s meeting of the Middle East Studies Association. Those gathered at the annual meeting for a panel on “the role of academics in building civil society in Iraq” had to settle for having the papers paraphrased to them by a colleague. This twist of fate, however, prompted the remaining panelists to reflect on the challenges that still exist for students and scholars in a post-Saddam Iraq.

Follow

The Chronicle: Zimbabwe’s Universities Stay Shuttered as Crisis Deepens

Zimbabwe’s higher-education system has shut down completely, and universities are likely to remain closed until next year, as a deal struck last month to end the country’s political crisis is in danger of unraveling, according to students, faculty members, and news reports. The University of Zimbabwe, the country’s top university, has been closed since the end of the 2007-8 academic year, in July.

Follow

Penn Law and Human Rights Groups Seek Release of Iranian Scholar

PHILADELPHIA (Sept. 3, 2008) – The University of Pennsylvania Law School and two human rights groups today called on the government of Iran to release an Iranian legal scholar scheduled to teach in the U.S.

Mehdi Zakerian, an assistant professor of human rights at an independent university in Tehran, was reportedly detained by the Iranian government in mid-August while he awaited U.S. visa clearance to travel to Philadelphia as a visiting scholar at the University of Pennsylvania. The Iranian government has not released any information about his location or condition, nor have any formal charges been brought against him.

“Professor Zakerian is a leading scholar on human rights in the Islamic world,” said Michael A. Fitts, dean of Penn Law. “His scholarship is at the forefront of international and human rights law and we remain hopeful that we can welcome Professor Zakerian to our classrooms.”

Zakerian was detained in Tehran by governmental authorities on or about Aug.15, according to Iranian Human Rights Voice, which reports that he has been “in a ministry of intelligence detention center for the past two weeks.” (http://www.ihrv.org/inf/?p=783).

Penn Law was joined by the non-governmental organizations International League for Human Rights and Human Rights Watch in calling for Zakerian’s release.

Zakerian is “one of the leading thinkers on human rights in the Middle East whose writings have helped us all better understand the relationships between human rights and Islam,” said William Burke-White, a professor at Penn Law and an expert in international law. “Professor Zakerian’s detention appears to be part of a broader crackdown on independently minded academics at leading institutions across Iran.”

Zakerian is chairman of the Iranian International Relations Society and a senior researcher at the Center for the Strategic Studies of the Middle East. He is the editor of the journal, International Studies, published quarterly in both Farsi and English, which is devoted to issues of international affairs and human rights. In 2002, Zakerian was a fellow at the Hague Academy of International Law in The Hague, Netherlands.

Follow

The Herald: 2 Iraqi officials accused of aiding al-Qaida

BAGHDAD—A university president and a top local official in a restive province north of Baghdad are suspected of giving weapons and government cars to al-Qaida in Iraq insurgents, according to arrest reports obtained Wednesday.

The leak of the reports appeared aimed, in part, at countering claims by Sunni Muslim politicians that Shiite-led security forces arrested the two—both Sunnis—on political grounds in Diyala province.

Follow

The Chronicle News Blog: University President Arrested in Iraq’s Restive Diyala Province

The president of Diyala University, in northeastern Iraq, was arrested by Iraqi troops today and led away from his home in a hood and handcuffs, the Associated Press reported.

Follow

Haaretz: Why did the U.S. turn away Gaza Fulbright scholars?

WASHINGTON – “This is one of the oddest things we have encountered in recent years,” an Israeli official said of a long sequence of events that began with intense American pressure to allow two young Palestinian students to leave Gaza to study in the United States and ended with the U.S. barring their entry and canceling the visas it had granted them.

Follow

Sydney Morning Herald: Uni fees system branded irrational

A REVIEW of higher education will examine how to make the inconsistent fee system fairer.

A discussion paper released by the federal Minister for Education, Julia Gillard, at Macquarie University yesterday describes the funding system as “at best complex and at worst anomalous, inconsistent and irrational”.

Follow

The Chronicle: ‘Israel Lobby’ Professors Get Hospitable Greeting in Israel

Jerusalem — The first appearance in Israel by Stephen M. Walt and John J. Mearsheimer since the publication of their controversial book, The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, impressed a largely student audience at the Hebrew University, but left some faculty members wondering about their honesty.

Follow