The global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement represents a significant challenge to Israel and the Jewish people. However, it's crucial to recognize that antisemitism extends beyond academic, economic, and cultural boycotts. An equally concerning threat emerges when academic, educational, and student activities provide a platform for supporting terrorism, denying Israel's right to exist, and drawing Nazi comparisons – particularly when such activities occur within Israel itself. While Israeli universities have made efforts to combat antisemitism on campuses abroad, they appear to have overlooked or even turned a blind eye to manifestations of antisemitism within their own institutions, even if not to the same degree of severity.
In early 2025, Israel Hayom reported that over 180 complaints were filed with disciplinary committees across various universities on suspicion of incitement and support for terrorism by students since the start of the war. However, most of these cases were shut. It's important to note that these same Israeli universities where such incidents occurred had already reached out twice to their global counterparts in early November 2023, expressing "concern about the discourse taking place on campuses following Hamas' violent attack." In their letter, the heads of the Committee of University Presidents wrote that "various campuses around the world have become fertile ground for antisemitic and anti-Israel discourse." They appealed to their colleagues, urging them to immediately condemn any support for Hamas on campus grounds. The letter added: "We find ourselves at war on two fronts: one against Hamas and its heinous acts, and the other in the arena of international public opinion. In this arena, Israel is portrayed as an oppressive force despite its right to self-defense. Consequently, a false symmetry has been created between the actions of a murderous terrorist organization and those of a sovereign state committed to protecting its citizens. The creation of this false symmetry betrays every intellectual and moral value and is unjustifiable."
In April 2024, the Committee of University Presidents issued another letter of concern in response to pro-Palestinian demonstrations and protest encampments established at Columbia University, calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, an end to US military aid to Israel, and the termination of the university's collaboration with Israel-related companies. In their letter, they stated, "Freedom of expression and freedom of demonstration are the lifeblood of democracy in general, and of academic life in particular, and we continue to recognize their importance, especially in these difficult times. However, freedom of expression and demonstration does not permit violent actions or threats against communities and does not include the freedom of incitement or calls for the destruction of the State of Israel."
However, just a month before this letter, professors from these same academic institutions used their titles to draft a letter to President Joe Biden calling for an arms and money embargo on Israel, claiming that genocide was taking place in Gaza. They urged Americans "to prevent this heinous crime."
While we observe conflicting messages emerging from university faculty, it's important to examine how the rhetoric has evolved in some academic institutions as time passes from the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. The narrative has shifted from statements of zero tolerance for expressions of support for terrorism and the destruction of Hamas to a more cautious stance regarding freedom of expression and academic freedom in controversial statements made by students and faculty, as well as the organization of events that point an accusing finger at Israel in the war. Here are a few examples:
As early as May 2022, Professor Daniel Chamovitz, who serves as the president of the Committee of University Presidents and president of Ben-Gurion University, said in an interview, "The university shows zero tolerance for incitement against the State of Israel." However, in August 2024, when a student at the university shared a video eulogy in memory of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, and despite complaints from students, the university's rector responded: "It was done inadvertently; I hope he has learned from his mistake." In an interview with Ynet about a year after the October 7 tragedy, when asked whether students could raise Palestinian flags on campus, Professor Chamovitz emphasized, "There is freedom of expression, but there is another freedom, and that is freedom from fear. And if your freedom of expression causes me to fear – we must find an agreement." However, no significant action appears to have been taken against statements that offend the vast majority of students and faculty at the university who identify themselves as Zionists. This is particularly noteworthy given that Ben-Gurion University made the important decision to become the first academic institution in Israel to adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism.
On October 22, a letter from the rector of Tel Aviv University, Professor Mark Shtaif, stated, "The university's policy clearly and unequivocally rejects expressions of support for terrorist actions in general, and particularly in these difficult days, and deals with them with the utmost severity possible under the law and according to university regulations." However, when Dr. Anat Matar eulogized the terrorist Walid Daqqa and called him a "source of inspiration," the university's response, apart from condemnation, was, "According to Israeli law, freedom of expression also protects outrageous, painful, and insensitive statements, whether you like it or not." This was despite the angry response from students on campus who called for her dismissal. Less than a week after the October 7 massacre, I personally approached the rector of Tel Aviv University after several female students in the dormitories told me with concern about a student, Amit Cohen, who expressed support for Hamas in the October 7 massacre. The rector's response was: "Thank you for passing on the material. We are passing the information for verification and will then act with great determination within the framework of university regulations and the law. There is no room for tolerance towards statements that encourage the terrorist actions we have experienced." Apart from a clarifying conversation with student Amit Cohen, she was not suspended at all.
At Tel Aviv University, at a meeting marking 30 days since the horrific massacre by Hamas terrorists in the southern communities and Gaza border communities, Tel Aviv University President Professor Ariel Porat spoke and mentioned two verses from the Torah: The first, "Remember what Amalek did to you when you came out of Egypt." The second, "Blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; do not forget." He linked these verses to the present: "This is how Hamas should be treated, and I am convinced that this is what the State of Israel will do. The comparison of Hamas to Amalek is flattering to Hamas. Amalek did not do terrible things like the Hamas murderers did." And what has changed since then? In January 2025, the university president sent an invitation to the faculty for a conference titled "What's Happening in Gaza?" Apart from expressing concern for the soldiers and hostages, which is indeed important, he continued to write, "As time passes, it's clear we cannot ignore it. The widespread harm to uninvolved residents in Gaza, including the many children who are killed, injured, and living in unbearable conditions. This is accompanied by the concern surfacing mainly in recent months that proper rules of conduct for the fighting forces are not always maintained, rules that should characterize a moral army conducting a war in defense of Israel." With all the concern for Gaza residents, it's important to set a few things straight. From October 7 until the IDF's ground entry into Gaza on October 26, the IDF asked Gaza residents to evacuate their homes through flyers, phone calls, and opened humanitarian passages, which Hamas later blocked and harmed Gazans who tried to pass through them. Additionally, according to data published by the UN last May, it appears that a third of those killed in Gaza were women and children. According to a statistical study by an expert from the University of Pennsylvania, the claim that the majority of those killed were women and children is incorrect, and it appears that the ratio between a killed armed person and a killed civilian is around 1:1. According to British General Richard Kemp, the ratio accepted by the UN as appropriate is a key of 1:3 – three civilian deaths for every combatant. According to UN estimates, the actual situation in urban combat zones around the world is a ratio of 1:9, meaning nine civilian deaths for every combatant killed. In other words, the IDF and the State of Israel are trying their utmost to maintain the purity of arms and prevent harm to uninvolved civilians. I am sure it would be possible to find professors of history at Tel Aviv University who will show that there is no other example in history of a country providing humanitarian aid and medical services on the scale that Israel is transferring to Gaza.
The president of the Hebrew University, Professor Asher Cohen, and Tamir Sheafer, the university's rector, sent a letter on November 12, 2023, to all students and university staff, in which they demanded to define the boundaries of freedom of expression for faculty members and students at the institution: "Expressing sympathy for the terrible act of massacre destroys the foundations on which human society is based. It expresses contempt for human life and severely harms the dignity of each and every member of the university community. It also goes beyond what is permitted by law." However, about 5 months after that letter, in March 2024, Professor Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian from the Hebrew University was interviewed on a podcast and called the citizens of the State of Israel criminals, denied the right of self-determination of the State of Israel by saying "It's time to abolish Zionism," and denied the events of rape and slaughter of infants on October 7 by Hamas. As punishment, Professor Kevorkian received only four days of suspension. In May 2024, a "protest strike against the extermination and massacre in Gaza" by students at the Hebrew University took place, which, on the one hand, called for an end to the war in Gaza, but in the same breath, also heard mass calls of "With spirit and blood we will redeem Al-Aqsa." These are calls that are actually incitement to violence as they call for a forceful takeover of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is under Israeli sovereignty.
While the University of Haifa purported to be a pioneer and decided to suspend 6 students until further notice four days after the massacre due to posts they published on social media – including support for Hamas' terrorist attack on Israel, already on January 7, 2024, it retracted its decision to suspend those students, so, in fact, they were not suspended at all due to the postponement of the fall semester in the shadow of the war. It is not surprising that in June 2024, Professor Assad Ghanem from the Department of Political Science at the University of Haifa participated in a virtual panel with Dr. Basem Naim, a senior Hamas official from Gaza, on behalf of an academic organization called the "Palestine Forum". Dr. Naim represents Hamas in his many appearances in the global media and has served in key roles in the organization's leadership. If that wasn't enough, to mark the new year, antisemitic graffiti was displayed throughout the University of Haifa, including "Zionism = Nazism" and "Faculty of Genocide Studies." Grafitti was also in the university's bathroom stalls where messages like "Gaza will win" were written.
University leaders cannot afford to act with double standards, where they act against antisemitism outside Israel's borders but tolerate or ignore it in their own institutions. Such behavior must be fought directly, as it influences the next generation of leaders and endangers Israel's educational and social future. It is important that universities continue to be places that not only transmit values of freedom of expression but also mobilize all forces to fight against hatred and antisemitic injuries from any source. Academic institutions in Israel should adopt the universal definition of antisemitism by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), which has already been adopted by dozens of academic institutions in North America and Europe, and also act accordingly when antisemitism raises its head in their territory.
Tom Yohay is the manager of CAMERA on Campus Israel.
