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Duke students protest invite for Israeli war crimes suspect Tzipi Livni

Nora Barrows-Friedman 22 October 2019
Hundreds of students are calling on Duke University to cancel an event with an Israeli war crimes suspect.

Tzipi Livni, the former foreign minister who helped orchestrate the 2008-2009 massacre of Palestinians in Gaza, is expected to speak at the prestigious university on Wednesday.
The event is sponsored by the Duke Israel Public Affairs Committee, an advocacy group on campus, as well as Duke’s departments of political science and public policy.
It is also supported by the Middle Eastern Studies Center and Duke’s American Grand Strategy program, which primes students for national security policymaking.
Students for Justice in Palestine at Duke has been assembling a coalition of individuals working to cancel the event.
Livni has so far evaded war crimes probes and has been the subject of investigations brought by the UK in 2009, and Switzerland and Belgium in 2017.
She is the subject of a complaint by Palestinian victims filed in Brussels in 2010 for war crimes during the 2008-2009 assault which killed more than 1,400 Palestinians.
Livni evaded investigation and possible arrest for war crimes when she canceled a trip to Brussels in January 2017.
“If her crimes disqualify her from entering Belgium without threat of arrest, they should disqualify her from speaking at Duke without first having to answer for her crimes before a court of law,” wrote Lama Hantash of Duke SJP over the weekend.
In June 2016, Livni was summoned to voluntarily appear at Scotland Yard’s War Crimes Unit, but the UK government intervened and granted her diplomatic immunity.
In an open letter and petition to the university administration, students warn that Livni’s appearance contravenes Duke’s purported “high ethical standards.”
The letter also holds the departments of political science and public policy responsible for choosing to “valorize a known war criminal” and for the disservice that does “to future generations and past victims.”
In sponsoring Livni’s event, the letter adds, the Middle Eastern Studies center directly violates its educational mission.
“We will not be silent as Livni glorifies crimes against humanity, evades justice and accountability, and minimizes the lives and deaths of her victims,” the students say.