On October 7, 2023, 50 years after the Yom Kippur War, the terrorist organization Hamas, the Palestinian offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, carried out a barbaric attack on southern Israel and the civilians living there. Not since World War II and the Shoah have so many Jews been murdered in one day. Hamas and its allied terrorist organizations have once again shown that they translate their annihilatory anti-Semitism into action. People in the country are already talking about a pogrom. The undersigned employees of the Institute of Political Science (IPW) at the University of Vienna strongly condemn this unjustifiable barbarity against civilians, and expresses their solidarity with all those affected.
In particular, we think of our former and current Israeli and Jewish students and scholars who have families and friends in the country, as well as our Palestinian students and scholars and their families and friends who are also suffering under the terror of Hamas. We also think of the entire civilian population of the region, who now have to bear the consequences of Hamas' barbaric acts. We know that the Israeli military now has the enormous task of freeing the hostages captured by jihadist groups, preventing such events from happening again, and minimizing the suffering of innocent civilians. This is a task we do not wish on anyone. Respect for the International Law of War and the International Humanitarian Law must also be ensured in this situation. But as political scientists, we are fully on the side of democracy and the rule of law throughout the region.
Signed:
Elias Weiss, BA MA – Universitätsassistent, CeSCoS
Univ.-Prof. Dr. Barbara Prainsack – Professur für vergleichende Politikfeldanalyse, CeSCoS
Ass.-Prof. Dr. Katharina Paul - Institut für Politikwissenschaft
Dr. Matthias Flatscher - Institut für Politikwissenschaft
PD Dr. Karin Liebhart - Institut für Politikwissenschaft
Ivan Josipovic, BA, MA, MSc - Institut für Politikwissenschaft
Fabio Wolkenstein – Institut für Politikwissenschaft
Univ.-Prof. Dr. Oliver Marchart - Professur für Politische Theorie
Nora Hansl, BA MA - Institut für Politikwissenschaft
Ass.-Prof.Mag.Dr. Josef Melchior - Institut für Politikwissenschaft
Dr. Eszter Kováts - Institut für Politikwissenschaft
Madlyn Sauer, Dipl - Doktorandin, PREDEF
Dr. Sergej Seitz - Institut für Politikwissenschaft, PREDEF
Dr. Anna Pichelstorfer - Institut für Politikwissenschaft
Univ.-Prof. Dr. Dorothee Bohle - Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft / Ost&Südosteuropa
Dr. PD Gertrude Saxinger - Institut für Politikwissenschaft, CeSCoS
Rebekka Pflug - Univ.-Ass. Institut für Politikwissenschaft
Natalia Varabyeu Kancelova, BA MA - Institut für Politikwissenschaft
Caitlin Harjes, BA - Institut für Politikwissenschaft, CeSCoS
Dr. Katharina Kieslich - Institut für Politikwissenschaft, CeSCoS
Dr. Dmitrii M. Zhikharevich - Institut für Politikwissenschaft
Dominika Cyganik - Institut für Politikwissenschaft
Dr. Mag. Magdalena Eitenberger, BA MA
Philipp Pflegerl - Doctoral Candidate, Dozent
Sara Gebh, PhD - Institut für Politikwissenschaft, PREDEF
Mag. Dr. Stephanie Graf, MA - Lehrbeauftragte am IPW
Maximilian Martin, BA, Institut für Politikwissenschaft
