Members of Israeli Academia, We Must Go on Strike Now: Silence Is Complicity in the Operations in Gaza - Opinion - Haaretz.com
The crisis is already here. The moment when we, as scholars and teachers, can no longer continue as usual arrived long ago. Tens of thousands have lost their lives in Gaza, most of them civilians. Hundreds of thousands live under siege, starvation and displacement. Israeli hostages are expiring in captivity, their lives also at risk due to bombings, starvation and military pressure. Entire civilian infrastructures have been destroyed in the Gaza Strip: neighborhoods, hospitals, water facilities, educational institutions. The entire higher education system in Gaza has ceased to exist. Israel does not deny this destruction; instead, it presents it as a necessity.
Given the photos and the reports coming out of Gaza, we can no longer claim ignorance. The question is not whether we know, but what we do with this knowledge. One thing is clear: Silence is complicity. If we continue to teach, conduct research and attend conferences, we continue to be complicit in the silence that enables the ongoing destruction and killing.
Rafah earlier this week.Credit: Mariam Dagga/AP
We write these words with awareness of the important role Israeli academia has played – and is playing – in the public struggle against the judicial overhaul and the attempt to allow the government unlimited power. Over the past two years, Israeli academia joined and led calls to halt anti-democratic legislation and was active in protesting political firings and safeguarding the independence of the judiciary. Recently, the heads of eight Israeli universities declared that in the case of a constitutional crisis where the government refuses to comply with a Supreme Court ruling, all universities would go on strike. The president of Tel Aviv University, Professor Ariel Porat, even announced he would personally strike in defense of democracy – and indeed did so following the dismissal of the Shin Bet chief in March
The message was clear: There is a point when academia cannot remain silent. This happens not only when a specific law is violated or passed, but when the system of checks and balances itself is in danger. The boundary set by Israeli university heads is not a formal one. It is crossed when the government ceases to be subject to effective oversight, when governmental power is exercised without anyone examining it, halting it or demanding accountability.
This boundary has already been crossed. Not through open defiance of a Supreme Court ruling, but in a way that is just as profound. Israel's executive branch has been operating in Gaza and the West Bank for many months with almost no legal restraint, and the court – which is authorized to supervise it – consistently refrains from intervening. A deep constitutional failure is thus occurring – not a refusal to obey a ruling, but the absence of rulings; not an open rebellion against the court, but a quiet and ongoing neglect of its role.
Regarding Gaza, the Supreme Court behaves as if the judicial overhaul has already been passed. The government acts as if it has no limitations, and as if no one seeks to impose any on its actions. Those who declared they would strike to prevent such a crisis must acknowledge that it is already here. If we agreed to strike when the system was under threat of collapse, why not strike when it is collapsing in practice? If the red line is crossed when a court ruling is defied, how can we continue as usual when effective legal oversight has all but vanished, and the state is engaged in actions that, at a minimum, raise serious suspicions of grave crimes against humanity? If we don't strike now – then when?
Over 1,000 legal scholars have warned of illegal orders being given to soldiers in the ongoing war in Gaza: forced population transfers, starvation, killings. More than 1,300 lecturers have declared that they cannot remain silent in the face of indiscriminate killing and systematic destruction of civilian institutions in Gaza, including educational ones. Last week, black flags were raised on campuses across the country. In other words, there are brave and clear voices in academia calling to stop the war – but they are not enough to change reality.
Faculty and staff taking part in an anti-war protest at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem last week.Credit: Hadas Parush
Our power, as academics, lies not only in the ability to write letters and raise flags, but also in our ability to stop the daily academic routine. We can declare that we will stop teaching or doing research as long the destruction grows, the Israeli hostages are abandoned and the silence continues. We can go on strike for a day, a week, until further notice. The important thing is to stop pretending that nothing is going on.
This is not a question of our public image or personal conscience. It is not about how we will be remembered in history, or what our colleagues abroad will think about us. It is a principled and practical question: What can we do to stop this war, that brings with it not only devastating destruction to Palestinians, and neglectful abandonment of Israeli hostages, but also a deep and lasting breakdown of civic society?
In light of the collapse of the system of checks and balances, we must say: We will not continue as usual. We will strike, to shatter the illusion of normalcy, to stop the complicity, to break the silence.
Inbal Arnon is a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Ido Katri is a lecturer at Tel Aviv University; Zohar Weiman-Kelman is a senior lecturer at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.