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August 28th, 2021 
Awake Goy 
Meeting Imad A. Barghouthi is among those life experiences you are bound to remember. Imad is one of Palestine’s most prominent scientists; a Professor of Plasma Physics at Al Quds University and a loving husband and father of five. But it is his personality that will instantly strike you. Imad is an out-of-the-box thinker, both in his research and the way he runs his everyday life, hopelessly provocative and outspoken.
If there is anyone that academic freedom (if it were to exist) would protect, it would be him. Sadly, he is Palestinian and thanks to the Israeli occupation he does not have these privileges. Imad has in fact been arrested already three times by Israeli security forces and now once by those of the Palestinian Authority which released him after 24 hours on hunger strike only a few days ago.
His last detention in Israeli jail was the longest one. He was arrested at a checkpoint on his way home from campus, and only returned to his family and students nearly a year later, most of which spent in administrative detention. Despite his prominence, he was held in jail for several weeks without charges which later came on the basis of his Facebook posts. To this day, he has not been convicted.
Right after this outrageous arrest, tens of scholars worldwide, including Nobel laureates and Fields medalists, came together and supported Scientists for Palestine (S4P)’s international campaign to demand his release. The S4P initiative was followed by statements of other international organizations and quickly the petition gathered more than three thousands signatories. The outpouring of support for Imad’s case was so overwhelming that Prof. Barghouthi managed to win an international academic prize beyond the walls of Ofer prison; just few weeks before his release, in fact, a well-known Belgian academic society awarded Imad Barghouthi the 2021 Academic Honoris Causa prize for his steadfast support of the values of academic freedom. The prize will be officially received by Prof. Barghouthi on October 21st 2021 in Brussels.
Scientists for Palestine now has the unique privilege of hosting Prof. Barghouthi’s first interview since he was finally freed. We will hear firsthand about what it is like to be a professor in Palestine, the infringements of the Israeli occupation on academic freedom, and the enduring determination of Palestinian academics to overcome them.
Register here for “Academic freedom in Palestine: a conversation with Imad Barghouthi” on Saturday 28, 2021 at 7:00 pm Jerusalem time/12:00 pm EDT. For more information visit the S4P website and the S4P Facebook event.
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