https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeIg-BpaAvD09c5SV789vg5b-EBoAH_T6AIpwupZ44M1LQTYw/viewformISRAELI ACADEMICS: US GOVERNMENT ATTACK ON UNIVERSITIES DOES NOT PROTECT US
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We, Israeli professors, educators, researchers, graduate students, and members of academia, hailing from diverse disciplines and backgrounds, possessing diverse political views, living in and outside Israel, are deeply concerned about the recent actions undertaken by the US Administration against Columbia University and other US universities. In particular, we are alarmed by the persecution of Palestinian and pro-Palestinian students and faculty, including the illegal arrests and threats to deport activists without any specific charges or due process, at times in clear violation of court orders, especially under the pretext of combating antisemitism.
As Israeli citizens and academics who have devoted our careers to teaching and research in the spirit of free inquiry and free exchange of diverse ideas, we consider these steps to be profoundly unjust, dangerous, and in violation of civil rights and principles of academic freedom. Such draconian moves do not protect us!
We strongly denounce the cynical use of 'combating antisemitism' as a pretext for these measures. While antisemitism is a dangerous phenomenon that should be combated, it should be addressed alongside other types of ethnic and racial hatred such as white supremacy, Islamophobia, and anti-Palestinian sentiments. The current acts of the Administration do not keep Jewish people (or anyone) more protected or safe. Quite the opposite: by singling out Jews as a homogeneous group to be protected at the expense of other marginalized groups and minorities, the Administration is in fact fostering anti-Jewish sentiments, easily lending itself to chauvinistic, exclusivist, and racist tropes.
The movement activists supporting Palestinian rights in US universities and beyond them act as human rights defenders, providing much needed moral clarity and courageous leadership in condemning and demanding an end to the unprecedented and ongoing atrocities against the Palestinian people in Gaza. Many Jewish students and faculty members are part of this movement. Peaceful protests are and should be protected as political speech. While the safety and inclusion of Jewish students and faculty is vital, so is the safety and inclusion of all communities, including Muslim and Palestinian students, who are actively targeted by the Administration. We condemn the weaponization of Jewish students’ safety as grounds to silence, harass, suspend, punish, or deport pro-Palestinian members of US academia.
Furthermore, we reject the manipulation of the US Civil Rights Act to justify deep university funding cuts that will devastate many important research programs, which support thousands of researchers and benefit society in myriad ways.
As Israelis who also witness similar oppression in Israeli universities, we know that silencing campus protests, free research, and exchange of ideas, does not make us safer. On the contrary, it threatens key academic values like freedom of speech and free association, which are the basis for Jewish and other minorities’ rights.
We stand in solidarity with our US-based colleagues—whether they are US citizens, permanent residents, or academic visa holders. We consider the US Administration’s invocations of antisemitism to be disingenuous, thinly veiled attacks against Muslims, Palestinians, pro-Palestinian, and international students, serving as a pretext for the violent suppression of protected speech and the abolition of the university as a space for free inquiry. We also recognize that the same rhetoric can quickly turn on us or other groups if and when it serves the Administration’s interests. We stand alongside our colleagues firmly against this dangerous assault on academia.
List of signatories:
Dorit Naaman, Queen’s University
Tamar Berger, Bezalel Academy of Art
Arie M. Dubnov, The George Washington University
Menachem Klein, Bar Ilan University
Preston Werner, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Raphael Greenberg, Tel Aviv University
Anat Matar, Tel Aviv University
Ayelet Ben-Yishai, University of Haifa
Mical Raz, University of Rochester
Yael Berda, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Hilla Dayan, Amsterdam University College
Outi Bat-El Foux, Tel Aviv University
Naftali Kaminski, Yale University
Akiva Leibowitz, Harvard Medical School
Ofra Rechter, Tel Aviv University
Isaac Nevo, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Orly Benjamin, Bar Ilan University
Louise Bethlehem, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Erella Grassiani, University of Amsterdam
Orian Zakai, George Washington University
Noga Rotem, University of Washington
Itamar Shachar, Hasselt University
Matan Kaminer, Queen Mary University London
Karin Loevy, New York University
Maya Herman, New School for Social Research
Itamar Haritan, Cornell University
Amit Shilo, University of California, Santa Barbara
Ruti lavi, Kindergarten worker
Oren Yiftachel, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Moshe Behar, University of Manchester
Nufar Shimony, Open University
Tom Pessah
Itamar Haritan, Cornell University
Avner Ben-Amos, Tel Aviv University
Roni Tzoreff
Norma Musih
Zeev Matalon
Sara Carmeli
Lin Chalozin Dovrat, Tel Aviv University
David Katzin, Wageningen University and Research
Nomi Shir, Ben Gurion University of the Negev
Assaf Oron, University of Washington
Naveh Frumer, Tel Aviv University
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