JERUSALEM—Until recently, Elena Itskovich, an Israeli stem cell biologist who earned a Ph.D. from Stanford University 2 years ago, was planning a return to her home nation. But Itskovich says she’s now “on the fence.” She is uneasy about the policies of the Israeli government elected nearly 8 months ago and largely led by conservative nationalists and ultra-Orthodox parties.
She is not alone in her concerns. Israeli researchers have become increasingly vocal in opposing policies they say threaten academic freedom at the nation’s universities and Israel’s standing as a leader in science and technology. The governing coalition’s “destructive” plans, which include downplaying science education and eliminating support for some Arab students, could do “irreversible” harm to Israel’s science and high-tech sectors, the heads of Israel’s public research universities and members of a top government science advisory panel warned in a letter earlier this month.
Many Israeli researchers “have feelings of apprehension and danger regarding their future,” declared the 1 August letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his science and education ministers. The government’s policies have already prompted some donors and investors to pause funding for R&D projects in Israel, and some foreign collaborators have issued “explicit threats” to cancel joint projects with Israeli institutions, members of the Council of University Heads and the National Council for Civilian Research and Development noted. There is also “a significant decrease in the willingness of leading Israeli scientists who are abroad to accept academic positions in Israel,” they wrote, along with signs that top researchers in Israel are eyeing moves abroad. “Many [Israeli scientists] are losing confidence and prefer to abandon ship,” the authors wrote.
Historically, academic scientists in Israel have been reluctant to air their political views in a highly polarized society, says Uri Sivan, president of the Technion Israel Institute of Technology. “It is indeed unusual for us to step in and speak up.”
But the country has been in turmoil since January, when hundreds of thousands of Israelis began taking to the streets to protest what they call “undemocratic” efforts by Netanyahu’s government to limit the power of Israel’s Supreme Court. Now, many scientists are attending—even leading—street protests around the country. “The motivation is the fact that the future of Israel’s academic institutions is being jeopardized,” Sivan says.
In May, for example, the government decided to increase funding to ultra-Orthodox boys’ schools that offer little or no instruction in science. This month, it announced a plan to reallocate tens of millions of dollars long used to enable Arab high school students from East Jerusalem to gain admission to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The money would instead be used for job training, said Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who has claimed that “Islamic radical cells” have organized on Israeli campuses under the guise of academic freedom.
Hebrew University said Smotrich’s decision to cancel funding for its program, which has served thousands of Arab students, would damage Israeli society and its economy for decades to come.
Concern that the government could erode academic freedoms “isn’t theoretical,” says Rivka Carmi, a geneticist and former president of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. “There has already been political interference.”
Carmi and other members of the research community fear ultraconservative members of the governing coalition will try to replace the scientists, physicians, and educators who have traditionally filled some key posts with less-qualified political appointees. They note that right-wing groups have already compiled blacklists of academics they consider politically unacceptable.
Tech sector executives are also worried about the toll the conflict is taking on what some Israeli analysts proudly call “the startup nation.” Private investment in new Israeli tech firms has dropped 29% since Netanyahu’s government took office in late December 2022, compared with the previous 6 months, according to a report issued this month by Start-Up Nation Central, a nonprofit that promotes innovation. Initial public offerings of stock in new companies, as well as company mergers and acquisitions, have dropped to the lowest rates in years, the organization said.
The drop-off will likely have repercussions for academic researchers, Sivan says. “We are very tightly connected to the high-tech industry. We are an ecosystem. You cannot have cutting-edge engineering schools when the high-tech sector is in trouble.”
Still, Sivan is optimistic universities will ride out the current storm. “Israeli academia is very strong,” he says. “The roots are deep.” Asya Rolls, a psychoneuroimmunologist at Technion , says the willingness of her fellow academics to protest the government’s actions leaves her feeling “hopeful, almost optimistic.”
In the meantime, Itskovich and her husband are watching and waiting. “We still want to return and hope things will turn around in Israel,” she says. “But we have three children and don’t want them raised in a country that’s so broken apart.”