darryl li@dcli
9h
Replying to @dcli
part of this issue on 'criminalizing and policing dissent' edited by erin pineda and eraldo souza dos santos
1
3
10
darryl li@dcli
10h
new essay in saq on the open letter genre — its stakes, it dynamics, its occasional silliness — in the shadow of genocide

open access link: read.dukeupress.edu/south-atlantic…
Darryl Li A Theory of Open Letters: Notes on the Politics of a Genre Open letters are a curious genre, especially as an attempt to engage in politics. These epistles are open in two senses: First, they are meant to circulate among and elicit engagement from some kind of public beyond any named addressees. While they may take the form of a bilateral communicative encounter between two interlocutory positions (whether they are composed of single individuals or groups is immaterial), they are intended to be “overheard” by others. ...The realm of appearance (to borrow Arendt’s phrase) or the sphere of the sensible (à la Rancière) both point to a paradox of the open letter that needs to be thought through in relation to material conditions. We are talking about a public, and hence the open letter tends to make its appearance in professions of publicity, an affliction of occupations in which value is derived through reputation produced in public circulation and indexed to individualized notions of achievement, creativity, genius, flair: the arts, academia, science, journalism, sports. Yet this individuality often exists in great tension with the open letter’s collective voice. This can make the process of crafting open letters and debating them quite tedious or even exasperating, as all manner of objections are raised to tone, structure, wording, and the like. ... Accordingly, open letters are often the product of an atypical and perhaps unusually estranged relation to one’s written expression.
As for the open letter genre, what makes Palestine distinctive is not the nature or extent of atrocity to be denounced, but the misfortune of being colonized by a movement that enjoys widespread support and sympathy within the academic milieu of the United States. ... And insofar as this essay was produced largely in response to conditions in that context, it is no coincidence that Palestine is the exemplary case. (In other contexts, agreement about Palestine may be so widespread that it does not strain these fault lines.) To speak of Palestine here is often to invite and incite dispute. To speak of Palestine is to take a stance, to assume risk, to potentially join a cause or ...... even a movement. Under these conditions, the tension between the different values invoked in open letters becomes particularly fraught, and the strains activate all the tendencies of professional deformation. Wielding an open letter in the face of genocide is the height of absurdity, and yet it is precisely this apparent triviality that renders refusals, prevarications, and attacks all the more egregious and all the more revealing. Palestine brings out the worst and the best in the open letter form, just as it brings out the worst and the best in so many of us.
2
39
202
darryl li@dcli
Nov 1
now out in print

academia.edu/179994381/The_…
THE MOST MORAL GENOCIDE IN THE WORLD Darryl Li Atop a hill in the western outskirts of Jerusalem sits Yad Vashem, the official Holocaust memorial and museum of the state of Israel, a pilgrimage destination for visiting dignitaries and children on school trips alike. Barely a kilometer away on an adjoining hilltop is Kfar Shaul, an Israeli community that includes a mental health hospital well-known for first diagnosing the so-called “Jerusalem syndrome,” whereby awestruck tourists temporarily believe themselves to be Biblical figures. Kfar Shaul was built atop the ruins of the Palestinian village of Deir Yassin, site of the most infamous massacre of the 1948 Nakba. Some of the stone houses of Deir Yassin are still standing as part of the Kfar Shaul mental health hospital. ...
darryl li@dcli
24 Dec 2025
Spoke at Collège de France last week about The Most Moral Genocide in the World

youtube.com/watch?v=zNT-5E…
3
223
992
darryl li@dcli
Oct 8
new report from @MESA_1966: three years on, the campus protests were vindicated by public opinion, but the repression against campus workers continues

afi.mesana.org/resource/lesso…
2
39
71
darryl li@dcli
Sep 16
the history of saudi (and gulf) military aviation is actually pretty wild from the beginning
2
31
112
darryl li@dcli
Sep 11
Replying to @dcli
a small down payment for thinking about post-10/7 and post-9/11 together, from something i wrote for the 20th but that didn't come out until quite a bit later
0
1
13
darryl li@dcli
Aug 18
whistleblower letter confirms that trump's 'antisemitism task force' sought to interview and entrap middle east studies faculty -- especially muslim professors -- at brown last year

democrats-judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subs…
4
309
789
darryl li@dcli
Jul 30
Replying to @dcli
But because the bill included other measures that could be used against right-wing militias, the GOP gutted it and turned the bill into an anti-crime/-immigrant law instead.

ADL then mobilized to put the "international" (i.e. anti-Palestinian) terrorism provisions back in
1
2
14
darryl li@dcli
Jul 30
Replying to @dcli
On June 13, 1995, the ADL testified in the Congress in support of this provision. Despite some hangwringing over its more unseemly aspects, the ADL pushed to *expand* the law to include green card holders, too!
1
2
15
darryl li@dcli
Jul 30
Replying to @dcli
In 1995, Sen. Joe Biden introduced a bill to set up the Alien Terrorist Removal Court. The Oklahoma City bombing happened weeks later.

ADL exploited the outrage to push its proposals, which ofc wouldn't have affected the white nationalists who actually carried out the attack.
1
5
21
darryl li@dcli
Jul 30
Replying to @dcli
@ADL In 1994, the ADL put out a "Counterterrorism Action Agenda," a wishlist of authoritarian laws to crack down on Palestine organizing in the US -- including a call to "streamline deportation proceedings for alien terrorists."
1
3
29
darryl li@dcli
Jul 30
Replying to @dcli
@ADL Starting in the 1980s, the US tried to deport 7 Palestinians and 1 Kenyan -- "the LA 8" -- for alleged PFLP ties.

As efforts foundered in court, the govt whined that it should be allowed to use secret evidence in deportations and developed proposals for this.
1
2
17
darryl li@dcli
Jul 14
Acyn
@Acyn
Jul 14
Senator Marhsall calls for the Gulf countries to invade Iran with ground troops.
0
1
9
darryl li@dcli
Jun 27
sigh, tapping the sign once again
1
14
65
darryl li@dcli
Jun 24
Replying to @queersocialism
@queersocialism @MomodouTaal you were warned
0
0
1
darryl li@dcli
Jun 17
0
7
30
darryl li@dcli
May 4
Introducing @MESA_1966's Academic Freedom Initiative website, including data on:
-weaponization of civil rights law/Title VI
-employment retaliation
-event cancellations/censorship
-Congressional harassment campaigns

afi.mesana.org
"The MESA Academic Freedom Initiative tracks and analyzes threats to academic freedom on North American campuses since October 7, 2023. Our databases record experiences of faculty, staff, and students to build a comprehensive understanding of these issues."
1
56
87
darryl li@dcli
Apr 29
new issue of @meriponline

merip.org/issue-318/
0
26
49
darryl li@dcli
Apr 9
uskoro dolazi
0
4
60
darryl li@dcli
Apr 8
Sci-Fi Archives
@SciFiArchives
Apr 6
United States Air Force Academy Cadet Chapel, 1963
1
1
15
darryl li@dcli
Apr 8
i get why this is a flex but it's also hilariously over-optimistic in its assumptions about wartime welfare provision.

this is the lego vid equivalent of the khatami/tocqueville meme
0
2
34
darryl li@dcli
Mar 28
The episode is paywalled but the preview clip is basically me doing my best to dumb down Talal Asad for GWOT debates

youtube.com/watch?v=asdXOY…
Turbulence@Turbulence_pod
Mar 27
BONUS: TRANSNATIONAL JIHAD

In part two of our conversation with @dcli, we discuss his work deconstructing the concept of the “foreign fighter” and how ideology shapes our perception of who is fighting for what on battlefields from Palestine, to Afghanistan, to Syria, and beyond
0
10
38
darryl li@dcli
Mar 27
Next week @CMES_UChicago @uchicago3ct
UChicago panel on “US Empire and the Wars in Iran and Lebanon” 4/2 5pm Kent 107 ft. Alireza Doostdar, Ghenwa Hayek, Aaron Jakes, John Mearsheimer, Mehrnoush Soroush, Lisa Wedeen
1
9
56
darryl li@dcli
Mar 23
Replying to @dcli
some of Negar’s scholarship on DC foreign policy think tanks
0
5
21
darryl li@dcli
Mar 17
appreciated the opportunity to work out some ideas with these guys

youtube.com/watch?v=Sr6fmL…
Turbulence@Turbulence_pod
Mar 17
Episode 17: SETTLER EMPIRE

Darryl Li (@dcli) joins us to assess the post-October 7 conjuncture, the US-Israel relationship, and the new regional order emerging out of the Iran war.
2
22
94
darryl li@dcli
Mar 14
so many questions
0
0
13
darryl li@dcli
Mar 13
some very preliminary thoughts on this war of aggression and the international law aspects
Jadaliyya
@jadaliyya
Mar 13
To achieve its aim of destabilizing and fragmenting Iran Israel has unleashed the total war approach it perfected to devastating effect in Gaza. The Israeli government has long flouted international rules governing the use of force and the conduct of war by ignoring or adopting e laws that have largely emptied them of meaning.

"Roundtable on the War on Iran and International Law" by @4noura, @luigidaniele10, @shahdhm, Ata Hindi, @MsJamshidi, and @dcli

jadaliyya.com/Details/47234
0
42
131
darryl li@dcli
24 Dec 2025
Spoke at Collège de France last week about The Most Moral Genocide in the World

youtube.com/watch?v=zNT-5E…
0
49
190
darryl li@dcli
30 Nov 2025
Replying to @dcli
Alarming and insane. Northwestern will snitch to DHS if any international students get suspended. Pretty sure this goes way beyond legal requirements (Columbia deal also has this provision).
1
7
18
darryl li@dcli
30 Nov 2025
Replying to @dcli
Like other schools, NU will hand over data on antisemitism complaints. It doesn't explicitly say names will be shared but the deal lets govt access full case files.

The other deals feigned balance by covering all 'shared ancestry' allegations, this one is just for antisemitism
1
2
12
darryl li@dcli
30 Nov 2025
Replying to @dcli
Northwestern has to maintain a 'security infrastructure' -- including cooperation with feds -- that can investigate violations of university policy (!). Extremely disturbing mixing of policing and campus discipline. This goes way beyond the other agreements.
1
4
17
darryl li@dcli
30 Nov 2025
Replying to @dcli
The deal includes a whole raft of speech restrictions that run afoul of the First Amendment. It lets Northwestern draw an area the size of a postage stamp, designate it as the only place on campus where flyers can be posted, and call it a day.
1
7
11
darryl li@dcli
30 Nov 2025
Replying to @dcli
The deal in at least two areas goes significantly beyond that anti-discrimination law requires. It recasts the obligation to respond to alleged discrimination into an authoritarian flex and lowers the standard for what counts as discriminatory harassment
1
2
11
darryl li@dcli
8 Nov 2025
The first step in weaponizing antisemitism was counting discrimination against religious groups under civil rights laws that covered only “race, color, and national origin.”

So the architect of this policy, Kenneth Marcus, invoked … anti-Muslim violence after 9/11 🫠
“As we pass the third anniversary of September 11, 2001, we must remain particularly attentive to the claims of students who may be targeted for harassment based on their membership in groups that exhibit both ethnic and religious characteristics, such as Arab Muslims, Jewish Americans and Sikhs. President George W. Bush and Secretary [of Education] Rod Paige have both condemned such acts of bigotry. As President Bush has said, “Those who feel like they can intimidate our fellow citizens to take out their anger don’t represent the best of America, they represent the worst of hu- mankind, and they should be ashamed of their behavior.” OCR has conducted countless outreach initiatives since September 11, 2001, to assure members of affected communities that their civil rights will be protected.”
darryl li@dcli
5 Nov 2025
New report from @AAUP & @MESA_1966 on the weaponization of antisemitism claims shows how Biden used civil rights law as a cudgel against student anti-genocide protesters, and Trump used it as a battering ram for his war against higher ed

theguardian.com/us-news/2025/n…
1
13
29
darryl li@dcli
7 Nov 2025
Here is a list of schools that agreed to hand over names of people accused of antisemitism to the government.

aaup.org/news/new-repor…
darryl li@dcli
5 Nov 2025
New report from @AAUP & @MESA_1966 on the weaponization of antisemitism claims shows how Biden used civil rights law as a cudgel against student anti-genocide protesters, and Trump used it as a battering ram for his war against higher ed

theguardian.com/us-news/2025/n…
58
2,203
5,293
darryl li@dcli
5 Nov 2025
Replying to @dcli
@AAUP @MESA_1966 The unprecedented explosion in campus antisemitism probes under Biden coincided with a sharp drop in investigations for racial harassment (i.e. against government-recognized racial groups like African-Americans).
Graph depicting how campus antisemitism investigations overshadowed racial harassment probes against post-secondary educational institutions under Biden
2
28
108
darryl li@dcli
5 Nov 2025
Replying to @dcli
@AAUP @MESA_1966 This is the first systematic study of antisemitism investigations and lawsuits.

It tracks the explosion in campus antisemitism investigations -- more opened in the last two months of 2023 than all previous years combined, largely driven by off-campus Zionist advocacy groups.
Graph tracking explosion of campus antisemitism investigations after 10/7/2023. There were more investigations in the final two months of 2023 than all previous years combined. Investigations broke record numbers in 2024 and are on track to do so again in 2025.Only 36.5% of campus antisemitism investigations were prompted by complaints filed by people affiliated with the schools in question. At least 23.8% originated with complaints filed by outside actors.
1
26
111
darryl li@dcli
10 Sep 2025
Back in Jerusalem, as the attacks were becoming public, the U.S. Embassy was hosting a belated July 4 celebration that had been canceled during Israel’s war with Iran. Songs like “We Are the Champions” and “We Will Rock You” blasted over the loudspeakers, as American service members and Israeli generals hobnobbed over hot dogs and hamburgers.At the end of the night, Netanyahu addressed the crowd and joked, to loud applause, that he’d hoped to speak earlier in the evening but was “otherwise engaged.”
1
1
27
darryl li@dcli
6 Sep 2025
my old neighborhood on google maps
386
3,349
27,578
darryl li@dcli
26 Jul 2025
the “concessions” will likely just normalize the genocidal dismantling of unrwa.

wrote this back in 2008
“Even if it was possible to implement and was done with the best of intentions, the logic of “essential humanitarianism” (it is unclear what would constitute the “inessentially” humanitarian) promises nothing more than turning Gazans one and all into beggars — or rather, into well-fed animals — dependent on international money and Israeli fiat. It allows Israel to keep Palestinians and the international community in perpetual fear of an entirely manufactured “humanitarian crisis” that Israel can induce at the flip of a switch ... And it distracts from, and even legitimizes, the destruction of Gaza’s own economy, institutions and infrastructure, to say nothing of ongoing colonization elsewhere in Israel-Palestine. The notion of “essential humanitarianism” reduces the needs, aspirations and rights of 1.4 million human beings to an exercise in counting calories, megawatts and other abstract, one-dimensional units measuring distance from death.”
0
8
23
darryl li@dcli
25 Jul 2025
@LalehKhalili
0
1
8
darryl li@dcli
25 Jul 2025
al-'awda magazine cover (1980s), by sliman mansour
0
29
81
darryl li@dcli
10 Jun 2025
.@MESA_1966 has filed an amicus brief in the Harvard litigation showing how the university's March crackdown on Middle East scholarship was likely driven by a 30-day deadline from Trump's antisemitism task force mesana.org/news/2025/06/1…
0
27
53
darryl li@dcli
30 Jan 2025
this provision is the heart of trump's executive order cracking down on palestine activism.

it sets up a framework to encourage--but not require--schools to surveil non-citizen students and staff and report them to the government

whitehouse.gov/presidential-a…
"In addition to identifying relevant authorities to curb or combat anti-Semitism generally required by this section, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Education, and the Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with each other, shall include in their **reports recommendations for familiarizing institutions of higher education with the grounds for inadmissibility under 8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(3) so that such institutions may monitor for and report activities by alien students and staff** relevant to those grounds and for ensuring that such reports about aliens lead, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, to investigations and, if warranted, actions to remove such aliens."
14
138
262
darryl li@dcli
29 Jan 2025
looking forward to reading this latest from @meriponline

merip.org/magazine/313/
0
4
14
darryl li@dcli
10 Dec 2024
the consent factory is desperately looking for spare parts
95
1,045
12,331
darryl li@dcli
13 Nov 2024
Update: the bill failed because they were using a parliamentary procedure that required a 2/3 majority. It will certainly come back when the GOP trifecta is in place.

In the meantime, here are the 52 Dems who voted to give the next Trump admin an authoritarian housewarming gift.
darryl li@dcli
11 Nov 2024
If you are looking for a list of Dems who need to be primaried, a good place to start is House reps voting tomorrow for this bill that will give Trump expanded "terrorism" authorities to defund nonprofits ⬇️
6
244
656
darryl li@dcli
12 Nov 2024
first cut of some data i'll be presenting tomorrow
0
5
35
darryl li@dcli
6 Nov 2024
truly, a missed opportunity for pigeons and for everyone else
1
6
20
darryl li@dcli
28 Oct 2024
The good folks at @LPEblog asked for 400 words on international law and 🍉 liberation for a forum with greats @4noura @AlaaHajyahia @dialash @RabeaEghbariah @MahaAbdallah and Aslı Bâli -- so here is my immodest proposal to abolish the UN partition plan lpeproject.org/blog/seven-per…
"If pressed to name one concrete idea in this spirit of anticolonial lawyering, I would suggest organizing toward a UN General Assembly repeal of the infamous Resolution 181, which in 1947 endorsed the partition of Palestine between its indigenous Arab majority and a gerrymandered “Jewish state,” nearly half of whose population would consist of non-Jews forced to choose between permanent subjugation or exile. The Zionist movement cited Resolution 181 as a source of legitimacy for establishing the state of Israel and treated it as a territorial baseline for ethnic cleansing in the early stages of the 1948 Nakba, while casting aside its inconvenient aspects such as recognition of a compromised Palestinian statehood. This pattern of invoking (but never implementing) partition persists in the present, as the “two-state solution” has become the “thoughts and prayers” of international politics: an empty, cynical alibi for a murderous status quo.""Resolution 181 was the UN’s original sin toward the Palestinian people and its repeal, however unlikely in the short term, would help demystify Zionism’s core commitment to a racial ideology that privileges any person in the world it deems Jewish over the country’s own non-Jewish inhabitants. Advocating for such a goal would also help broaden the discussion of the ICJ advisory opinion beyond its narrow focus on discriminatory rule in the 1967 territories, making clear the need to recognize and dismantle colonialism across the whole territory between the Jordan river and the Mediterranean sea."
2
40
89
Load more