https://arab.news/mt4g9
- Two-thirds of the student union’s university chapters supported the campaign
LONDON: Israel’s education minister and national student union have endorsed a law to curb academic speech in the country, The Guardian reported on Sunday.
Leading universities have attacked the bill as “McCarthyite” and fundamentally undemocratic.
The legislation, currently being debated in the Knesset, would give a government-appointed committee the power to order the firing of academic staff that it decides have expressed “support for terror.” If the universities refused, their funding would be cut.
Critics argue that the legislation undermines Israeli academia by restricting free speech and allowing politicians to weaponize accusations that should be handled by the legal system.
Uri Sivan, president of the esteemed Technion — Israel Institute of Technology, condemned the law as “a very violent form of McCarthyism,” intended to stifle free expression. Despite these concerns, two-thirds of the student union’s university chapters supported the campaign.
The student union invested over $136,000 in a nationwide billboard campaign promoting the law. This prompted Haaretz newspaper to warn in an editorial that the country’s “illiberal students need a lesson in democracy.”
In Israel, criticism of the Gaza war is already heavily restricted, even for Jewish citizens.
A teacher charged with treason and held in solitary confinement for four days after voicing concerns about civilian deaths in Gaza described the current atmosphere as “a time of witch-hunts.”
Israel’s Education Minister Yoav Kisch said he backed the law, although it is not a government initiative.
“It is important that academic institutions have great independence, but there are places that cross a line that must not be crossed,” his office said in a statement.
Ofir Katz, a member of the governing Likud party and chair of the ruling coalition, presented the draft as a private bill, with other backers including a legislator from the party of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s rival, Benny Gantz. It has now passed the first of four Knesset votes.
Sivan expressed concerns about the law’s broad restrictions, noting that existing laws against incitement to terror already apply to all residents. “Why is academia singled out (with this law)?” he asked, suggesting the move aims to intimidate independent thinkers. He warned of a severe violation of democratic principles, asserting, “In a democratic country, everyone is equal before the law.”
The Association of University Heads, Israel, known as Vera, in a public letter criticized the student union billboards as a divisive “campaign of persecution and incitement” that could lead to violence. Vera cautioned that the draft law could provoke international sanctions against Israeli universities by undermining their academic independence.
There has already been outrage following the use of anti-terrorism laws to detain Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, a prominent legal scholar, over her criticism of the Gaza war.
Anat Matar from Tel Aviv University’s philosophy department expressed alarm over student involvement in promoting the law, describing it as particularly disturbing.
“Whether or not it passes, significant damage has already been done,” she told The Guardian. “The mere fact that it is supported by the national student union and by many local student unions, and that there is hardly any protest among students against, it manifests another step down the ladder towards full-blown fascism.”
Opposition leader Yair Lapid warned that the law would erode democracy, arguing that it allows politicians, rather than legal authorities, to determine what constitutes speaking against the state of Israel.
“You’re allowing governing politicians to decide what is in favor of Israel and what is against it, what is permissible to say and what is forbidden,” Lapid told the Knesset.