European supporters of Israel's genocide threaten academic freedom

Western universities, once seen as paragons of free speech and academic freedom, are today accused of compromising democratic principles by attempting to silence academics and students for expressing their views on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

A report by Anadolu, titled “Israel’s silent genocide supporters in Europe”, explores the systematic pressures on students and academics in European universities protesting against the crisis situation in Gaza. The response of prominent Western institutions, dismissing academics and launching disciplinary action against students, suggests that democratic values are at significant risk.

The termination of Jewish Professor Maura Finkelstein’s position at Muhlenberg University over an anti-Zionist social media post, along with numerous other dismissals of academics for similar reasons, has sparked concern over the decline of academic freedom at Western universities. A Cambridge University academic’s contract was not renewed due to their criticism of Israel’s Gaza policies, for example, while an instructor at Heidelberg University faced dismissal for expressing similar sentiments.

The art community has also been impacted, as American artist Laurie Anderson withdrew from a guest professorship at Folkwang University in Germany in response to her support for Palestinian artists’ “Anti-Apartheid Letter”.

Protests that erupted at Belgian universities demanding an end to collaboration with Israel under the Horizon Europe programme have now spread to other European institutions. Violent police responses to peaceful protests, the arrest of hundreds of students at universities such as Amsterdam and Utrecht, along with threats of eviction at Bristol University in the UK illustrate the limited space for pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campuses across the continent.

The arrest and deportation of the rector of the University of Glasgow, Ghassan Abu-Sittah, in Berlin where he was due to speak, further highlighted the intolerance of discussions about the Palestinian crisis at Western universities. Human rights advocates emphasise the need for international public pressure to influence the stance of universities. Academic freedom groups have been urging institutions to foster open dialogue about Palestine and respect a diversity of viewpoints.

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Ghada Sasa, an academic at McMaster University in Canada, spoke to Anadolu and stressed that the repression of Palestinian voices represents both genocide and “epistemicide”, the destruction of knowledge. Pointing out the hypocrisy of Western universities, she said: “It’s just so hypocritical the way that Western universities have offered support financially and symbolically to Ukrainians and outrightly condemned the Russian occupation. But when it comes to Palestine, it’s at most ‘both-siding’ the genocide, and we’re just not being offered that support.”

She also noted that academic repression has become systematic: “Young Palestinian scholars… were actually getting paid offers of leave. They don’t want our voices in the university. They don’t want us to be teaching. We are considered a toxic liability for them.”

Sasa asserted that Western academic institutions are complicit in colonialism by systematically silencing critical voices. She recounted her experience of undergoing a year-long investigation following a complaint from a Zionist student: “They hired a private law firm, only to rule that I had the right to condemn his ideology. But that year gave me so much anxiety.”

She also described the challenges of publishing works critical of Israel. “I faced all kinds of backlash… trying to get me not to critique Zionism or focus more on Palestinian environmentalism as opposed to green Israeli colonial violence.”

Sasa mentioned other cases, including the 2014 firing of Steven Salaita from the University of Illinois and the challenges faced by Sabreena Ghaffar-Siddiqui, a diversity, equity and inclusion specialist at Canada’s Sheridan College, due to their outspoken anti-Zionist views.

In her own case, said Sasa, she was being pressured to resign from the McMaster University Senate. “Unfortunately, more prestigious schools like Harvard and McMaster are more regressive. McMaster never even divested from South Africa, which says a lot about the school sticking to its own white supremacist agenda.”

Despite the obstacles, though, she remains hopeful. “The world right now is very scary and dark. But we’re also seeing people resisting everywhere, from armed resistance on the ground in Palestine and Lebanon to cultural resistance. Many people, including many Jewish individuals, are recognising that Zionism is a death cult.”

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