Israeli academics

Former Otzma Yehudit MK Almog Cohen and right-wing activists stage a counter demonstration while Palestinian students and activists protest against the Israeli army operation in Jenin, at Tel Aviv University, January 30, 2023. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

On Israeli campuses, the state marks another enemy within

As the occupation's mechanisms of control seep into the civilian sphere, Jewish dissidents are next in line — and academic freedom offers no protection.

By Yael Berda November 21, 2025

Israeli and U.S. flags seen on MIT's campus during the university protests, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, May 4, 2024. (Peaceearth/Wikimedia Commons)

After crushing dissent, U.S. universities are deepening ties with Israeli academia

Israeli universities regularly collaborate with the military, which has destroyed all academic life in Gaza. That's done nothing to slow U.S.-Israeli partnerships.

By Dikla Taylor-Sheinman and Georgia Gee August 11, 2025

Rafi Greenberg, Tel Aviv, June 2024. (Oren Ziv)

‘It comes with the territory’: How Israel’s archaeologists legitimize annexation

Weaponizing antiquities is part of Israel's colonial legacy, says Rafi Greenberg, whose colleagues have largely remained silent about Gaza's destruction.

By Dikla Taylor-Sheinman July 1, 2025

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Activists protest the judicial overhaul and and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his visit in Manhattan, New York City, September 19, 2023. (Luke Tress/Flash90)

In its fight against fascism, Israeli academia remains blind to a basic truth

The government’s assault on democratic norms can't be separated from its oppression of Palestinians: they are two lobes of the same right-wing brain.

By Anat Matar February 26, 2025

University of Haifa (Wikimedia Commons)

How Haifa University’s Students’ Union conspired against Palestinians

Palestinian students arrived at the union’s office to submit their candidacy for elections. The administration slammed the door in their faces.

By Baker Zoubi September 13, 2024

Professor Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian during her court proceeding in Jerusalem, April 19, 2024. (Oren Ziv)

The orchestrated persecution of Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian

A vicious campaign by Israeli academia, police, and media to silence the professor shows Palestinians they have no safe place in Zionist institutions.

By Shahrazad Odeh April 30, 2024

Students seen at the "Mount Scopus" campus at Hebrew University on the first day of the opening of the university year, October 23, 2022. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

Hebrew University’s Faculty of Repressive Science

The suspension of Palestinian professor Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian empties all meaning from the university’s proclaimed values of pluralism and equality.

By Orly Noy March 23, 2024

Illustrative photo of doctors in Israel during surgery. (Nati Shohat/Flash90)

Tel Aviv University faculty condemn deal with settlement medical school

The deal will allow students from Ariel University to do clinical work in TAU's affiliated hospitals. 'We're being forced to support the occupation.'

By Meron Rapoport January 21, 2021

Israeli academics protest outside an Istanbul courthouse alongside 'Academics for Equality,' whose members are on trial for signing a petition calling for peace between Turkey and its Kurdish citizens.

Persecuted Turkish academics get a rare solidarity visit from Israel

Turkey has put dozens of academics on trial for terrorism charges — for signing a petition supporting peace with Kurdish citizens. A group of dissident Israeli academics traveled to Istanbul to attend their trials. It’s not uncommon to run into a political protest in Istanbul. What you probably won’t find every day is a group…

By Edo Konrad February 11, 2018

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

Israeli soldiers arrest a Palestinian man in the West Bank city of Hebron, on June 19, 2017. (Wisam Hashlamoun/Flash90)

Human rights groups tell the truth. It is we who refuse to listen

We refuse to listen to what human rights groups say about the West Bank and Gaza Strip because we do not want to admit we are ultimately responsible. By Assaf David How does Israel, its institutions, its academy, and its mainstream media, understand the goings on the Palestinian side? Through the crosshairs, of course. This is not…

By Haokets November 13, 2017

Poet and activist Dareen Tatour spent six months under arrest for incitement. The main piece of evidence against her was a poem she published on Facebook.

200 Israeli cultural icons call to release Palestinian poet under house arrest

Palestinian poet Dareen Tatour has been in Israeli custody for over a year — all for publishing a poem against the occupation. On October 11, 2015, Palestinian poet Dareen Tatour was arrested by Israeli police during a night raid on her home in the village Al-Reineh, near Nazareth. On November 2, 2015, an Israeli court…

By Haokets October 22, 2016