Geographers for Justice in Palestine
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geogboycott.bsky.social
Geographers for Justice in Palestine
@geogboycott.bsky.social
420 followers 150 following 64 posts
Geographers supporting academic boycott of Israel / in solidarity with the liberation of Palestine. We are a campaign in support of BDS in AAG. https://linktr.ee/geog4pal
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geogboycott.bsky.social
Join us for the People's Special Meeting to discuss what BDS and solidarity should look like in the AAG!
Save the Date for the People's Special Meeting -- Oct 17 12PM EDT
October 10, 2025 at 2:50 PM
geogboycott.bsky.social
we anticipate that AAG's "authoritative history" will attempt to diminish the importance and meaning of a history of member-driven advocacy within the organization. though not every member vote was successful, we think it's important to note member opinion *was* important enough to be consulted - !!
On October 3, AAG will release an authoritative history of member organization which will try to diminsh the existence or importance of this history. While not all of these resolutions passed and while none of them were without AAG council organization, they clearly demonstrate a decades-long democratic undercurrent in our organization which we recognize as a lineage to be resuscitated.
September 30, 2025 at 3:12 PM
geogboycott.bsky.social
we think it's particularly important to remember and recover this vibrant history -- BDS efforts are by no means unprecedented
a graphic describes that "At certain points, the council would decide to consult members via a mail ballot. Under prior bylaws, the council could also be forced to recall their decisions by member petition and vote. This process was considered archaic in the 1990s due to the internet, but the bylaw changes instituted clearly diminished the vibrancy of member participation and democracy in our organization."
September 30, 2025 at 2:36 PM
geogboycott.bsky.social
some of these past efforts include resolutions to boycot states that had not passed the Equal Rights Amendment, to take a position against US funding of contras in Nicaragua, and against nuclear war.
A graphic shows a portion of "An open letter to members of the association" concerning the Equal Rights Amendment boycott. The graphic highlights the position taken that “Even a decision to hold oneself above the fray in some ivory tower is a profoundly political act, a vote to uphold the status quo, whatever that may happen to be.” the graphic highlights a portion of the reporting concerning the resolution against US funding of contra insurgency against Nicaragua. The graphic highlights the resolution against nuclear proliferation and war. An excerpt is highlighted describing that “Geographers, whose professional objectives include understanding the nature and implications of human interaction with all aspects of their global environment, have a special responsibility to express urgent warning of the risks to humanity inherent in the present course of world events.”
September 30, 2025 at 2:24 PM
geogboycott.bsky.social
What is the history of member-driven change in the AAG?

Our archival research has shown that member-driven political activity has been common in AAG's history, including struggles around the Equal Rights Amendment; the US funding of contras in Nicaragua; and nuclear proliferation and war.
What is the history of member-driven change in the AAG? (hint: there have indeed been previous member votes in AAG, and some were even on "troubling world events"!). The graphic shows the AAG newsletter heading and describes following posts as "a look into the AAG archives"
September 30, 2025 at 2:19 PM
geogboycott.bsky.social
meanwhile, geographers in the United States have faced immense backlash, extending a historic experience that Palestinian geographers have long faced in our discipline and when conducting fieldwork
Geographers in the United States have faced retribution for their political stances on Palestine. In March 2025, Ranjani Srinivasan, a graduate student at Columbia University, was one of the first forced to leave the United States after the federal government revoked her student visa, preventing Srinivasan from presenting her research at the AAG meeting in Detroit. In account of these events, Srinivasan does not call for quietism but instead that “we must exert maximum pressure on Columbia and other universities to protect international students from these arbitrary state actions.” While these actions are of the most egregious kind, they also continue a pattern. Palestinian-Canadian geographer Ghazi-Walid Falah was arrested by Israeli police while conducting fieldwork in Northern Galilee in 2006. Falah wrote that he was arrested “because I was Ghazi-Walid Falah, the Palestinian geographer known to Shabak, a scholar who has consistently refused to adhere to writing the geography of Israel/Palestine as defined by the Israeli geography guild. I was arrested for my scholarship, seized in the very topography of what I study.” An international campaign to support Falah was organized online – demonstrating the need for more robust forms of protection of academic freedom to this day.
September 22, 2025 at 6:29 PM
geogboycott.bsky.social
it is clear that Israel has committed scholasticide in Gaza at universities with geography departments, while restrictions of all kinds have continued and escalated at universities in the West Bank
The Israeli assault on Gaza has completely demolished normal university life, to the point that UN experts have described a “pattern of attacks on schools, universities, teachers, and students in the Gaza Strip” constitutes “scholasticide”: “the systemic obliteration of education through the arrest, detention or killing of teachers, students and staff, and the destruction of educational infrastructure.” Israel has destroyed Gaza’s twelve universities, several of which had geography programs, including Alaqsa University, Al Azhar University, and the Islamic University of Gaza. Students in the West Bank face worsening learning environments. At Birzeit University in Ramallah, over 140 students were arrested or detained between October 2023 and May 2024. Our geography colleagues at Birzeit University tell us that it is rare to be able to hold a full week of classes. This continues a pattern of decades of increasing infringement upon everyday life in the West Bank. Nonetheless, as McGahern notes, such university spaces in the West Bank still serve as “spaces of hope” worth protecting for many students, academics, and community members.
September 22, 2025 at 6:26 PM
geogboycott.bsky.social
How have geographers, geography departments, and geographic thought been affected by Israel?
September 22, 2025 at 6:23 PM
geogboycott.bsky.social
please join us next week for an online event with colleagues in other disciplines who have worked to bring BDS resolutions to votes within their academic associations!
A "Save the Date" flyer inviting you to a conversation on boycotts, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) across the academy, featuring speakers from the American Association of Geographers, the American Sociological Association, and the American Historical Association. the event is September 9 at 12pm eastern time. you can register for the webinar at linktr.ee/geog4pal
September 3, 2025 at 4:39 PM
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in advance of the upcoming "special meeting," we've updated our website with three extensive "FAQ" pages concerning the academic boycott of Israel, the grounds for BDS in AAG, and addressing potential concerns. we've learned a lot on, for instance, the history of member-driven change in AAG.
A website tab describing "What is the history of member-driven change within the AAG? What can we learn from these processes?" Our archival research has shown that member-driven political activity was quite common in the AAG’s history. In the 1970s and 1980s, it was fairly common for AAG members to circulate resolutions, and members cast votes on these resolutions by mail-in ballot. These included resolutions on support for the Equal Rights Amendment (1978) and against nuclear war (1986). Interestingly for our campaign, the AAG briefly ratified the position that it would affirmatively boycott any state which had not passed the ERA, a move that council understood as participation in “economic sanctions” (AAG newsletter 1978 issue 10). Even earlier, in 1969 the AAG convention was moved from Chicago to Ann Arbor in protest of the actions that took place during the 1968 Democratic Party convention.
August 22, 2025 at 1:59 PM
geogboycott.bsky.social
Who are Geographers for Justice in Palestine?
Above text of a Palestinian flag mural and the words "resist to exist," the text concludes: "As scholars, and as members of professional geography associations such as the AAG, the RGS and the ICGG, we bear a unique responsibility to confront academic complicity and to expose and repudiate our discipline’s historical relation to empire, militarism and colonialism. It is in this spirit that we stand firm in our belief that ethical principles must guide our professional collaborations and academic endeavors to craft abolitionist geographies for justice and liberation."
February 12, 2025 at 7:41 PM
geogboycott.bsky.social
Who are Geographers for Justice in Palestine?
text continues: "We are appalled with Israel’s killing and detention of Palestinian colleagues and the systematic and willful destruction of education and knowledge systems, including universities, schools, libraries and archives. We strive to support the Palestinian call for the academic boycott of Israel and to join the growing international campaign led by scholars, intellectuals, trade unions and other civil society organizations until Israel is held accountable for its violations and abides by international law. We work in support of justice and human rights in Palestine/Israel and for the right to education, free speech and academic freedom for all members of campus communities."
February 12, 2025 at 7:40 PM
geogboycott.bsky.social
Who are Geographers for Justice in Palestine?
on a green background above images of protest, the slide explains: "We are geographers, faculty, students and people of conscience organizing in response to institutional silence and complicity with the Israeli state’s colonial, discriminatory and oppressive policies towards Palestinians. We come together in the midst of a genocidal war against Palestinians and in the aftermath of massive protests and repression on university campuses across the globe."
February 12, 2025 at 7:38 PM
geogboycott.bsky.social
join fellow geographers in pledging support for BDS within our discipline! geog4pal.org/pledge/ #geosky
January 31, 2025 at 7:21 PM
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For further info about how you can attend, please visit the registration link via the Linktree below. There will be more information linked in that Google Form, and further information on our organization and pre-conference forthcoming later this week!
A graphic links to the following https://linktr.ee/geog4pal and includes a brief description of the preconference timing and location on Saturday, March 23, 2025, cost (free), and modality (currently in-person registration is open; more info on virtual options forthcoming!)"
January 21, 2025 at 9:45 PM
geogboycott.bsky.social
Who is the audience for the pre-conference? This workshop is centered around workers in geography (and related academic disciplines) who are attending the AAG in Detroit -- newcomers and longtime organizers alike!
A graphic describes the audience for the Geographers for Justice in Palestine pre-conference in Detroit: "If you identify with one or more of the following profiles: You are invited to the pre-conference, there will be workshops that are a good fit for you, and we’d love to organize with you! 1- You are a geography faculty or graduate student in solidarity with Palestinian liberation who is looking to get involved or more involved in Palestine solidarity work in Geography, to support an AAG BDS push, and/or to build up skills you can apply to local/campus Palestine solidarity work (which could relate to the research, teaching, or labor aspects of your job). 2- You are a geography (or geography-adjacent-AAG-attending) faculty or student who has been deeply involved in Palestine solidarity organizing in the academy/your campus and you are looking for a space to make political assessments and think collectively about what’s next, share or sharpen skills, plug people into something you’re involved in, make connections to related Palestine solidarity organizing work happening in Geography, and/or help lead up an AAG BDS push. 3- You are not currently employed by an academic institution, or not in a geography department, or do not have a geography training, but you consider geography (broadly conceived) as at least one of your professional/intellectual homes and are invested in or willing to become invested in disciplinary level organizing in solidarity with Palestine."
January 21, 2025 at 9:42 PM
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What will the pre-conference look like? Workshop sessions, plenary, and ifter meal on how to leverage geographic research, teaching, and labor in solidarity with Palestine!
An inviting graphic describes "What will the pre-conference look like?": "It will include workshops, an evening plenary discussion, and an iftar meal. Workshops will pivot around the themes of research, teaching, and labor, which we understand to be three central areas of academic life where Palestine solidarity work can and needs to be incorporated: Research, Teaching, and Labor"
January 21, 2025 at 9:34 PM
geogboycott.bsky.social
Why are we hosting this preconference?
A green, red, and black social media graphic describes why we are hosting this pre-AAG workshop: "The institutions we work for and participate in materially support Israeli war, genocide, settler colonialism, and apartheid, we seek to make a space before the 2025 AAG annual conference to gather and organize within our sector towards an end to these entanglements. The workshop has three central goals: 1. To enhance and share organizing skills and strategies for Palestine solidarity work and connect with geographers involved in similar Palestine solidarity efforts. 2. To strengthen Palestine solidarity organizing capacity in Geography by connecting people to existing efforts, inviting new participants to GJP, and building relationships and political trust. 3. To expand geographers' understanding of how to leverage academic labor for Palestine solidarity across classrooms, campuses, unions, departments, associations, collaborative research, and conferences (as political/labor organizing spaces)."
January 21, 2025 at 9:19 PM
geogboycott.bsky.social
Join us at the AAG preconference hosted by Geographers for Justice in Palestine in Detroit!
An inviting red, black, and green graphic announcing the Geographers for Justice in Palestine - pre-AAG workshop on Sunday March 23, 2025 in Detroit, Michigan. A QR code links to the following https://linktr.ee/geog4pal?utm_source=qr_code
January 21, 2025 at 9:11 PM