Rising Academic Censorship on Legitimate Protest and Criticism against Israel is against the spirit of Intellectual Independence

Originally written in December 2023

It is important to remember that the existing war in Gaza, and the Israeli ground incursion, is not just about bombs, guns, mortars, and the opportunity of Israel to showcase its military might against defenseless Palestinian citizens in a lethal urban battleground. 

This war is also a battle of perception, controlling the narrative of who is the victim and who is the aggressor. With that in mind, the Israeli government and pro-Israel lobbyist across various institutions is tirelessly trying to project their assaults on Gaza as their very own “War on Terror”.

Equating the encounter on October 7 with the tragedy of 9/11 is baseless and blatantly misleading. And the whole world is not easily fooled. Since the unprecedented attack on Israel by Hamas, and the subsequent brutal “retaliation” by Israel on Gaza, social media has been flooded with solidarity messages for the Palestinians, deeming the atrocities in Gaza as the latest genocide in recent history.

It’s clear that the stakes are high for both sides, and with it comes enormous pressure from every corner to silence the voice of dissent and solidarity for the Palestinians in public space. The universities and academic institutions are not an exception, as they too are dragged deeply into the messiness of this war.

As the rapid and principled expressions of outrage over the situation in Gaza from thousands of professors, doctors, researchers, and PhD students began to emerge, the call for academic censorship began to heighten. University presidents and administrations were pressured to take a stand, calling out their staff and students for their allegedly “anti-semitic” response to the conflict. Some were even threatened with legal repercussions, resulting in termination of employment contracts or suspension. 

Crackdown on academic debates over the issue of the Israel-Palestine conflict is more prevalent in Western academic institutions, namely the United States and Europe. Just a few days after the Oct 7 attack, a professor of Modern Arab Politics and Intellectual History at Columbia University, Joseph Massad, is fiercely greeted with calls for his removal in an online petition that has now surpassed 30,000 signatures for writing positively about the Hamas military strategy. 

A letter from Harvard University student groups blaming Israel for violence in the region has drawn a backlash from prominent alumni and US lawmakers, with some describing the statement as “condoning terrorism, rape, and murder.” The backlash was so severe that Harvard University president, Claudine Gay, had to come out and clarify that the school "condemned the terrorist atrocities perpetrated by Hamas".

US government officials are also involved in exerting more pressure to silence the solidary campaign, with some threatening to defund colleges over student statements blaming Israel for Hamas’s attack and demanding the expulsion of students and termination of faculty who have justified or excused Hamas’s actions. 

This is also in line with the proposal made by Former President Donald Trump, the leading Republican candidate for the 2024 presidential election, to ban those who express “open hatred against Israel and America” from college campuses. 

In the United Kingdom, the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology Michelle Donelan published an open letter on October 28, calling for UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) advisory panel to be shut down over social media posts of some of its members on the Israel-Hamas war. 

Despite being an independent public body that funds and directs academic research in the UK, UKRI has responded to the letter on an apologetic note. Meanwhile, an open letter signed by over 1,300 academics denounced Michelle Donelan’s letter as “the current wave of repression and attempts at censorship led by the government against lawful expressions of solidarity with Palestinians and criticisms of the Israeli military’s heavy bombardment of the Gaza Strip since 7 October.”

Amid these tragic conflicts in Gaza, the world must not lose sight of the value of higher education and academic freedom as a medium to push independent and critical voices that highlight all sorts of injustices around the world. Universities' core mission must be to foster healthy debate and discussion, platform diversity of views, and not worry too much over their brand and incomes, as most corporations do.

Therefore, it bears the responsibility of furnishing graduates not solely with economic advantages but also with the intellectual acumen to autonomously navigate life and make informed decisions about the world they wish to inhabit. In light of the situation in Gaza, universities must instead lead the way in resisting any attempt at silencing the debates concerning the atrocities and brutalities imposed on the Palestinians. It must continue to be the sobering voice of reason, especially when the world today, especially of its political elites, is on the verge of embracing the total madness of war and chaos.