Ben Gurion University

Israeli police officers arrest a Palestinian student ahead of a Nakba Day event at Tel Aviv University, May 15, 2022. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

On Israeli campuses, Palestinian student activists fear for their safety

A spike in harassment and arrests of Palestinian organizers shows that Israeli universities are far from the liberal bastions they profess to be.

By Maiyse Abuleil June 15, 2022

Palestinian students wave flags at the Nakba Day ceremony at Tel Aviv University, May 15, 2022. (Activestills)

What’s behind Israel’s intensifying war on the Palestinian flag?

On both sides of the Green Line, Israel’s escalating attacks against the very sight of Palestinian flags betrays the insecurity of its colonial project.

By Orly Noy May 26, 2022

A Palestinian photographer standing during a minute of silence commemorating the Nakba, as part of a ceremony that was held by Palestinian and Israeli students in the entrance to the Tel Aviv University, May 13, 2013. A right wing demonstration was held against the ceremony, as the protesters were shouting slogans against the participants, under police surveillance. (Photo by: Yotam Ronen/Activestills.org)

Is academia the last bastion of progressive thought in Israel?

Israeli universities have long been viewed as a bulwark against extremism. A new database, compiled by a group of Israeli dissident academics, reveals how the academy works in concert with the state. It’s no secret that the Israeli government’s crackdown on freedom of expression in recent years has extended into the academy. Through far-right student groups such as…

By Edo Konrad January 23, 2018

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Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, June 1, 2011. (Dr. Avishai Teicher/CC 2.5)

Creeping censorship in a southern Israeli town

Verbal attacks by right-wing groups and politicians in Be’er Sheva are threatening both NGOs and the local university. By Daniel Beller Over the past year various entities, including right-wing movements, have been trying to close down a joint Jewish-Arab cultural institution in the southern Israeli town of Be’er Sheva. The Multaqa-Mifgash Center, founded by the…

By +972 Magazine May 31, 2017

Yehuda Shaul of the Israeli activist group Breaking the Silence leads a tour group on Shuhada Street in the West Bank city of Hebron, March 7, 2014. (Photo: Ryan Rodrick Beiler/Activestills.org)

What it means when occupation is the consensus

A major Israeli university revokes a prize intended for Breaking the Silence claiming that its work opposing the occupation ‘isn’t in the national consensus.’ What does that say about Israel as a nation? Breaking the Silence, an organization of former IDF soldiers who oppose Israel’s occupation of the Palestinians, was supposed to receive the Berelson…

By Mairav Zonszein June 28, 2016

Right-wing demonstrators protest in front of a demonstration against the Israeli attack on Gaza, in Rabin Square, Tel Aviv, July 26, 2014. Right-wing activists protested nearby and attacked left-wing activists during and after the protest. One left-wing activists was hospitalized with a head injury. (Yotam Ronen/Activestills.org)

What was different about this war?

Beyond an unprecedented degree of destruction in Gaza, Israel’s latest offensive on the Strip brought with it unrivaled levels of racism and incitement back home. By Elizabeth Tsurkov The war between Israel and Palestinian armed groups in Gaza would appear as the latest round of fighting between Israel and Hamas; however, this war was different from…

By +972 Magazine August 29, 2014

Arab-Jewish partnership (Lisa Goldman)

Israel’s other war: Silencing Palestinian citizens

Despite all my years of coexistence camps with Jewish Israelis, I’m starting to lose sight of peace. How can there be peace when Israel does nothing to stop the violent attacks against its Palestinian citizens? By Shadan Jabareen I had just finished my second year at Tel Aviv University and wanted to remain in the city for…

By +972 Magazine August 22, 2014

Israelis participate in the march of the Flags on May 20, 2012, Jerusalem (Photo: Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

The burden, and wall, of Zionism

Zionism has come to refer not to the many ways of building Israel, but to a litmus test. Any answer other than ‘I am a Zionist,’ is akin to being un-American in the 1950s. I didn’t join a Labor Zionist youth movement at 14 because I thought of myself as a Zionist. Actually I shied…

By Dahlia Scheindlin May 6, 2014

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak in a briefing to to press on Iran (photo: IDF Spokesperson / CC BY-NC 2.0)

Gaza: Time for real men?

Israeli viewers are currently under attack – not only by rockets, but by a legion of serious, gruff, tough, men’s-man manly commentators manning the studios and explaining why the war makes sense to any reasonable… man. A text by Idan Landau. “And once again the screen is awash with men, battalions, battalions of men,…

By Dimi Reider November 17, 2012

How the Israeli right conspired to shut down ‘lefty’ department at BGU

The crackdown on Ben-Gurion University’s Department of Politics and Government may seem unprecedented, but a closer look reveals an ongoing campaign to challenge academic freedom in the university and beyond. By B.N.* While the attacks on the Department of Politics and Government of Ben-Gurion University are being viewed by many as an unprecedented measure, infringements…

By +972 Magazine October 24, 2012

Eroding liberties: The ‘witch-hunt’ against Israeli academia

By Todd Gitlin Why should Americans care about political interference in the universities of a far-off country? Because the far-off country is Israel, one of our closest allies, a nation that features intimately in our own political life; and because Israel’s domestic affairs have a way of morphing into subjects of America’s never-ending culture wars.…

By +972 Magazine October 5, 2012

Ben Gurion University of the Negev (photo: Cccc3333/CC-BY-SA-3.0)

State council seeks to shut down ‘leftist’ department at BGU

In an unprecedented move, the Council for Higher Education will vote on shutting down the Department of Politics and Government at Ben-Gurion University, which has been the target of right-wing propaganda for the last several years. A major political battle is taking place this autumn within Israeli academia: the Israeli Council for Higher Education (CHE),…

By Noam Sheizaf September 24, 2012

Clampdown on campus politics in Israel feeds social apathy

By Issa Edward Boursheh Let me start by making a few essential points: I believe that academic work should not be politically influenced, pressured or manipulated, and any argument that is discussed in class must be supported by methods, terms, tools and criticism that fit the world of research methods. I am against professors promoting…

By +972 Magazine December 25, 2011