Participation of Palestinian Student Groups in Student Union Elections Prevented at Haifa University
Haifa University campus. Photo Credit: +972 Magazine The yearly election for the University of Haifa Students’ Union witnessed a...
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Israel/Palestine
One of the biggest threats to fundamental human rights and violations of international law in Israel/Palestine is the systematically discriminatory policies of the Israeli government that include routine rights violations against Palestinians and Arab citizens of Israel, collective punishment through blockades, the violent repression of dissent, forceful evictions, and land dispossession. After decades in which these policies have been persistent, international non-governmental organizations like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have categorized the situation in Israel, the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs) and Gaza as a system of apartheid that systematically upholds Jewish Israeli domination over Palestinians.
While the historical process extends much further back, October 7, 2023 was a crucial turning point for the state of human rights in the region. On October 7, Hamas carried out an attack in Israel that resulted in more than 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals being killed with about 250 taken hostage. Afterwards, Israel further restricted the blockade it imposes on Gaza and launched an offensive in the region that have displaced almost all of the Gazan population and resulted in the death of more than 37,000 Palestinians and the injury of more than 86,000 by the time this report was written.[1] Since the invasion of Gaza by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), humanitarian conditions have deteriorated so severely that even the most minimal activities necessary for living are jeopardized while any academic or educational activity in the region has become virtually impossible. On January 26, 2024, in response to the Israeli invasion of Gaza and its apartheid policies in Israel, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to immediately halt its offensive in Gaza. Additionally, on May 20, 2024, the International Criminal Court prosecutor filed for arrest warrants for top Israeli officials including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The ongoing war and its impact on both the Occupied Territories and Israel have led to grave yet different obstacles to academic freedom in both places.
The scale of death and destruction in Gaza is so severe that almost all educational activity has ceased apart from some schools in refugee camps that operate under great dangers. According to Save the Children, up to 21,000 children are currently missing in Gaza, many estimated to be trapped under rubble, buried in mass graves, and forcibly disappeared under detention. Furthermore, all the universities in Gaza have been seriously damaged or fully destroyed with more than 80% of all schools being damaged or destroyed, according to the reports of the Occupied Palestinian Territory Education Cluster. By April 2024, more than 5,000 students, teachers and professors had been killed and more than 8,000 were injured[2] while more than 625,000 students have no access education.[3] The destruction of educational institutions includes the Islamic University in Gaza, which was bombed by the IDF on October 9, 2023 based on the claim that it was being used by Hamas. Another institution, Al-Israa University was demolished by the IDF with explosives after they used it as a military base and detention center for 70 days, Al-Israa University administration announced. Israel has not only targeted higher education institutions, but also schools. On June 6, 2024, Israel bombed a school run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in the Nuseirat refugee camp, killing 37 people.[4]
The scale of the destruction of education in Gaza has sparked reactions from scholars and experts. 100 academics signed the petition by Euro-Med Monitor condemning the systematic destruction of the educational system in the Gaza Strip. A group of United Nations experts have also stated that these attacks constitute “a systematic pattern of violence aimed at dismantling the very foundation of Palestinian society” that could potentially be categorized as “scholasticide”. In fact, Israel did not start directly targeting universities after the October 7 attack by Hamas. As Maya Wind highlights in Towers of Ivory and Steel: How Israeli Universities Deny Palestinian Freedom, Israel has previously targeted universities in its offensives into Gaza in 2008-2009, 2012, 2014 and 2021 where not only buildings were destroyed and had to be rebuilt,but students were killed as well.[5]
While there is no active armed conflict in the West Bank, education, especially in Palestinian Universities and schools,remains under serious threats, which have escalated since Israel launched its currently ongoing offensive in Gaza. For decades, the Israeli military, as well as the Israeli Civil Administration that indirectly governs the OPTs, which is a branch of the Israeli military, has intervened into Palestinian education and infringed upon academic freedom. Since the 2000s, Israel has limited academic cooperation between schools in the West Bank and Gaza, in addition to imposing travel restrictions on students.[6] Furthermore, the Israeli military frequently conducts raids on Palestinian campuses. In 2014, 2016, 2017, 2019 and 2021 the Israeli military raided Birzeit University, Al-Quds University, and Palestine Technical University in Tulkarm, among others, often confiscating and damaging property.[7] As recently as November 8, 2023, the Israeli military raided Birzeit University, “vandalizing” and confiscating property. But attacks on academic freedom go beyond attacks on educational institutions and include attacks on students and faculty. Following the 2023 raid on Birzeit University, on November 15-16 and on November 20, three students and a university professor, Dr. Hudhaifa Nabil Jabari, were arrested by the Israeli military after their houses were raided.[8] Student leaders and those participating in protests usually end up being targets of state violence. In 2015, Israel established a temporary base for the military inside of the Palestine Technical University in Tulkarm, using it to repress student protests, injuring at least 138 students and faculty.[9] On January 15, 2024, the Israeli military arrested 25 students from Al-Najah University in Nablus who were doing a sit-in protest about tuition payments, claiming that they are supporters of Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.[10] Students are regularly arrested by Israel on the claim that they have been recruited by Hamas or are supporting the group in some way.[11] Another example of violations of academic freedom is the case of Ahmad Qatamesh. Ahmad Qatamesh is a university professor who, since the 1970s, has spent more than a total of 10 years in administrative detention awaiting trial and 4 years in prison, charged with being a member of the PFLP.[12] In the West Bank, it is not only higher education that is under threat, however. In July of 2022, the Israeli Ministry of Education suspended the licenses of six Palestinian schools in East Jerusalem.[13] As of June 2023, around 60 schools are under threat of demolition.[14] Palestinian schools in the West Bank are also targeted by Israeli settlers. In March and May of 2022, Israeli settlers attacked primary and secondary schools with stones and live munition, while in November of 2023, settlers set fire to an elementary school in Hebron.[15]
The state of academic freedom inside Israel is significantly different from that in Gaza and the West Bank. Academic institutions in Israel are usually seen by those in the West as some of the “most free” institutions in the Middle East. The Academic Freedom Index of the V-Dem institute supports this view of Israeli academia. Although there was a substantial decrease in its rating in 2023, the academic freedom rating of Israel is still high, at 0.85 out of 1, putting it much above the Middle East and North Africa where the average rating is 0.3.[16] However, these views remain blind to one important aspect of Israeli universities: their complicity in the settler colonialism of the Israeli state and apartheid against Palestinians. Palestinian civil society organizations have been calling for the recognition of this side of Israeli universities since the early 2000s, which are also the basis of the current student movements demanding an academic boycott of Israeli academic institutions.[17] As Maya Wind demonstrates in Towers of Ivory and Steel: How Israeli Universities Deny Palestinian Freedom, many Israeli universities have been very closely connected with the Israeli military-industrial sector and have been a part of policies of “Judaization” of Israel and the West Bank. Institutions like the Hebrew University expanded their campuses into East Jerusalem, forming “besieged-yet-hegemonic fortresses” that are militarized and located on important strategic and symbolic locations.[18] Ariel University is an extreme when it comes to complicity in settler colonial land appropriation as it became the first university that was established on the OPTs to receive accreditation in 2012.[19] The university also helped create the city of Ariel in the OPTs, allowing for more settlements that have been repeatedly found to be in violation of international law.
Israeli universities also maintain close ties with the Israeli military as Israeli universities have occasionally been used for training militias and establishing military outposts since 1948.[20] Even when direct military presence is absent, Israeli universities remain militarized: campuses are surrounded by walls, entrance and exits are limited and heavily monitored, strict ID requirements are in place, and the presence of heavily armed guards is normalized.[21] Israeli soldiers also use universities for educational purposes. For example, Tel Aviv University provides a BA program for active duty soldiers of the Israeli military, who are permitted to be in uniform and carry weapons on campus.[22] Aside from active duty soldiers, army reservists too are allowed to be on campus and receive education while carrying weapons.[23]
Israeli universities also have taken steps to repress Jewish Israeli citizens who are critical of the state as well as Palestinian citizens of Israel. Repression of critical voices in Israeli academia have ramped up since the Tantura Affair in 1998 when a graduate thesis was submitted on a massacre perpetrated by the Israeli army in 1948.[24] Following the filing of a lawsuit against Katz, the author of the thesis, the University of Haifa pressured Katz into signing a settlement, withdrawing the claims he made in his thesis. The dean of the Faculty of Humanities started a campaign calling for the university to take disciplinary action against Katz and Ilan Pappé, who had evaluated and defended Katz’s thesis publicly. Following the pressure he faced internally and externally, Pappé had to leave the University of Haifa to teach at University of Exeter, UK. This event was a turning point for Israeli academia as in the following decades as universities responded to far-right groups like Im Tirtzu gaining support from the state by giving up academic freedom and restricting critical speech.[25] One recent example of limitations on academic freedom can be seen in the case of Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian. On March 12, 2024, Hebrew University suspended Shalhoub-Kevorkian from teaching following her remarks about Zionism and challenge regarding allegations of systematic sexual violence conducted by Hamas during the October 7 attack.[26] While the professor was reinstated two weeks later, she was detained by the police on April 18, accusing her of “inciting terrorism”.[27] Although Shalhoub-Kevorkian was released the next day on bail as the judge rejected the police’s request to extend detention time, she was reportedly subjected to mistreatment that amounts to torture while under detention.[28]
Endangered Scholars Worldwide (ESW) condemns the destruction of education in Gaza, the systematic and severe violations of academic freedom that occur within the West Bank, as well as the increased repression of Palestinian and critical Israeli voices inside Israel. We call on the Israeli government to cease its systematic discrimination against Palestinians, immediately initiate a cease fire and halt its suffocating blockade and military operation in Gaza, which has led to the destruction of all higher education institutions in the Palestinian enclave. Finally, ESW calls upon all Israeli academic institutions to recognize and end their complicity in apartheid and settler colonial practices. We invite all members of the international community dedicated to upholding human rights globally to join our call.
(Last Updated: July 6th, 2024)
Please send appeals to the following:
Ambassador Gilad Erdan
Israel's Permanent Representative to the United Nations
Permanent Mission of Israel to the United Nations
800 Second Avenue,
New York, NY 10017, United States of America
Dr. Varda Ben Shaul
Director-General of the Council for Higher Education of Israel
P.O.B. 4037
91040 Jerusalem, Israel
Sources:
[2]https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/04/un-experts-deeply-concerned-over-scholasticide-gaza
[3] https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/04/1148716
[4] https://www.npr.org/2024/06/06/nx-s1-4995090/israel-gaza-school-strike-us-bomb
[5] Wind, M. (2024). Chapter 6: Academia Against Liberation. In Towers of Ivory and Steel: How Israeli Universities Deny Palestinian Freedom. Verso. Paragraphs 20-21.
[6] Wind, M. (2024). Chapter 6: Academia Against Liberation. In Towers of Ivory and Steel: How Israeli Universities Deny Palestinian Freedom. Verso. Paragraph 18.
[7] Wind, M. (2024). Chapter 6: Academia Against Liberation. In Towers of Ivory and Steel: How Israeli Universities Deny Palestinian Freedom. Verso. Paragraph 19.
[8] https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=2023112210504080
[9] Wind, M. (2024). Chapter 6: Academia Against Liberation. In Towers of Ivory and Steel: How Israeli Universities Deny Palestinian Freedom. Verso. Paragraph 19.
[10] https://www.newarab.com/news/israeli-army-raids-university-wb-detains-25-students
[12] Israel’s Apartheid Against Palestinians: Cruel System of Domination and Crime Against Humanity. (2022). Amnesty International. https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde15/5141/2022/en/. pp. 243-244
[13] Palestine (Country Profiles). (2024). Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack. https://protectingeducation.org/wp-content/uploads/eua_2024_palestine.pdf. p. 2
[14] Ibid.
[15] Palestine (Country Profiles). (2024). Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack. https://protectingeducation.org/wp-content/uploads/eua_2024_palestine.pdf. pp. 3-4
[16] Coppedge et al. (2024). V-Dem [Country-Year/Country-Date] Dataset v14” Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Project. https://doi.org/10.23696/mcwt-fr58.
[17] https://www.democracynow.org/2024/3/15/maya_wind_towers_of_ivory_and
[18] Wind, M. (2024). Chapter 2: Outpost Campus. In Towers of Ivory and Steel: How Israeli Universities Deny Palestinian Freedom. Verso. Paragraph 33.
[19] Wind, M. (2024). Chapter 2: Outpost Campus. In Towers of Ivory and Steel: How Israeli Universities Deny Palestinian Freedom. Verso. Paragraphs 73-84.
[20] Wind, M. (2024). Introduction. In Towers of Ivory and Steel: How Israeli Universities Deny Palestinian Freedom. Verso. Paragraph 41.
[21] Wind, M. (2024). Chapter 5: Students Under Siege. In Towers of Ivory and Steel: How Israeli Universities Deny Palestinian Freedom. Verso. Paragraph 15.
[22] Wind, M. (2024). Introduction. In Towers of Ivory and Steel: How Israeli Universities Deny Palestinian Freedom. Verso. Paragraphs 9-10.
[24] Wind, M. (2024). Chapter 4: Epistemic Occupation. In Towers of Ivory and Steel: How Israeli Universities Deny Palestinian Freedom. Verso. Paragraphs 20-26.
[25] Wind, M. (2024). Chapter 4: Epistemic Occupation. In Towers of Ivory and Steel: How Israeli Universities Deny Palestinian Freedom. Verso. Paragraphs 31-32.
[28] https://www.972mag.com/nadera-shalhoub-kevorkian-israeli-academia/
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