Ilan Pappé: ‘Israeli universities are complicit’
The academic boycott of Israel is part of the Boycott, Divest and Sanction campaign that started in 2005. It does not target Israeli individuals, just institutions. Under the boycott, for example, Israeli scholars can participate in academic conferences. However, one is not permitted to attend events hosted by Israeli universities. The boycott is supported by an increasing number of academic communities, which is a trend that has accelerated in the wake of the brutal Israeli war against Gaza.
Academics and scholarly associations, which were reluctant in the past to join the campaign, are now fully behind it. Today the boycott affects every academic discipline in Israel: joint research proposals and projects are declined. While in the past, some of those initiating the boycott did not always fully share their reasons, now they openly explain why they are taking such actions; namely that Israeli academia is complicit directly or indirectly in the crimes of the state.
For the first time, Israeli universities are expressing alarm at the effect that this boycott will have on their capacity to conduct research at a high level (whereas in the past they dismissed the possible impact of the boycott).
The boycott has also been boosted by the student protest movement that began in the US and is now spreading all over the western world. The students have galvanized academics to join them in demanding that universities divest from Israeli universities and companies, who have already succeeded in some cases in persuading the universities to accept wholly or partly their demands.
Several developments within Israeli academia only fuelled the academic boycott of Israel. For example, since 7 October, Israeli universities persecuted and prosecuted, in tandem with the police, Arab students who opposed the war and showed solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza. Some were suspended, others expelled and few of them were arrested.
A senior Arab lecturer at the Hebrew University, Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian was suspended for similar reasons and with the help of her “colleagues”, the police brought her to a long interrogation, cuffed her hands and feet and kept her in a cold cell for the night.
Finally, journalists have exposed Tel Aviv University’s investment in Xtend, the manufacturer of the drones that in the testimony of the rector of Glasgow university, Ghassan Abu-Sittah, who was a surgeon in Gaza, caused the most terrible wounds in his patients. This and similar academic complicity in the Israeli arm’s industry, will further isolate the Israeli academia as well as their state.
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Ilan Pappé is an Israeli historian, political scientist and former politician. He is a professor with the College of Social Sciences and International Studies at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom, director of the university’s European Centre for Palestine Studies, and co-director of the Exeter Centre for Ethno-Political Studies
Flora Cassen: ‘Boycotts reinforce ideological bubbles’
The war between Israel and Gaza needs to end. Scholars and academic institutions have a role to play in this, but boycotting Israeli universities and scholars will not achieve this goal. On the contrary, boycotts undermine the core mission of academia: to foster intellectual spaces where knowledge is produced and transmitted through research, teaching and the free exchange of ideas and perspectives.
Universities are not international criminal courts where judgments are rendered or the corridors of power where peace treaties are hammered out. They are establishments of higher learning where we study past and current wars, analyze their effects on people and politics and explore whether these conflicts ended or persisted and why. Our classes challenge students to think more deeply and creatively and apply past lessons to the present. Some of our students will be tomorrow’s leaders, diplomats or negotiators. As academic institutions, we serve them and society well by exposing them to the world’s complexity and the wide range of ideas and opinions they will encounter.
Since 7 October and the war against Gaza, campuses have been gripped by tensions and polarization. While this has contributed to protests, lost friendships and feelings of unsafety, it also represents an opportunity for academia to impact one of the most challenging debates of our time. To do so, we must uphold academic freedom and diversity of thought, as these are the foundations of our work and societal impact. Instead of boycotting Israeli institutions, universities should invite Palestinian and Israeli scholars in all fields to their campuses. Doing so could transform our universities from places of anger and contestation to spaces where the future is envisioned by scholars meeting across divides to learn and produce knowledge together.
Some of our students witnessing this may have their minds opened to ideas we cannot yet imagine and lay the foundation for a peaceful resolution. But even if that does not happen, joint learning spaces promote creativity and hope while boycotts and exclusions reinforce ideological bubbles where learning is stifled.
In this time of war, the pressure to boycott Israeli universities is overwhelming. However, we must resist this pressure and redirect our efforts toward supporting and protecting the university’s mission. We should aim to teach complexity and nuance while nurturing an intellectual atmosphere where all scholars are welcome regardless of nationality, and all perspectives, ideas and lived experiences can be shared, heard and examined.
