Israeli university presidents' letter to Netanyahu shatters victimhood narrative

The heads of five Israeli universities sent a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, demanding that humanitarian aid be allowed into the Gaza Strip. The letter, signed by the president of the Weizmann Institute, Prof. Alon Hen; the president of the Hebrew University, Prof. Asher Cohen; the president of the Technion, Prof. Uri Sivan; the president of Tel Aviv University, Prof. Ariel Porat; and the president of the Open University, Prof. Leo Cory, stated: "We appeal to you to allow the army and other security forces to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, regardless of any connection to the issue of prisoners and hostages, in order to solve the problem of severe hunger in Gaza, which particularly affects women, most of whom are mothers, as well as children and infants." The heads of other universities, including Reichman University, Bar-Ilan University, Ben-Gurion University, the University of Haifa, and a university illegally established in the settlement of Ariel in the Salfit Governorate in the West Bank, refused to sign the letter. The fact that these individuals refrained from signing the letter does not diminish its value. On the contrary, their failure to sign confirms that Israeli society, including the academic community, is divided between those who fear the consequences of Israeli policy and those who support this policy, which has placed Israel in the dock in an unprecedented manner and shattered the narrative of the victim.

The letter added: "Along with infants and older children, we, the citizens of the state, are watching the catastrophe unfold on our screens, as we see images from Gaza, mostly of infants suffering from hunger and dying from starvation and disease. The release of the hostages is of paramount importance, and their lives are at risk, but a people who were victims of the Holocaust in Europe have a special and unique responsibility to act with all means at our disposal to prevent a severe humanitarian catastrophe for innocent men, women, and children."

The heads of these universities concluded their letter by saying: "We join the statements of Knesset members from various factions regarding the Gaza catastrophe, which contradict clear Jewish values and humanitarian principles, and, on the one hand, the democratic values of the State of Israel. We are talking about a humanitarian catastrophe resulting from actions that could be construed as war crimes and crimes against humanity. The humanitarian catastrophe described in official reports by the United Nations and other international organizations demonstrates that we cannot stand idly by in the face of a humanitarian catastrophe of this kind, the damage of which may be difficult to repair later."

If we start from the content of the letter and the clear acknowledgment it contains that the occupying Israeli state is practicing, in its brutal war on the Gaza Strip, a policy that not only remotely resembles a policy of genocide, but also brings to mind the crimes of the Nazi monster against the Jews, Gypsies, and Slavic peoples in World War II, and the resulting international agreements and treaties that criminalize wars of extermination, then the talk of a “humanitarian catastrophe resulting from actions that may be interpreted as war crimes and crimes against humanity,” and of a “Gaza catastrophe, which contradicts clear Jewish values and humanitarian principles,” on the tongues of an elite group of academics, takes us to the necessity and importance of lifting the cover from the policy of fascists, neo-Nazis, and Kahanists in Israel, and those who provide them with support and cover up their criminal actions. This is not only by providing heavy-caliber death munitions that target civilians, especially children, infants, and women, even in so-called “humanitarian aid centers,” but also by providing them with protection in the United Nations and various international bodies. It goes further by persecuting universities in his country simply for respecting freedom of expression and academic freedom, as is happening in the United States of America, at the hands of the administration of Identifies with fascism and priesthood in the Israeli occupation state.

It remains here to mention the largely absent Palestinian role throughout these events. We ask why our universities, first and foremost, and universities in Arab countries, are absent from the scene. Is there no role for the Council for Higher Education and the universities within the Palestinian Ministry of Education? Is there no role for the Federation of Trade Unions of Palestinian University Workers? The letter from the presidents of a number of Israeli universities has paved the way. Will the presidents of our universities, the Council for Higher Education, and the Federation of Trade Unions of our University Workers present a message to the international community that reinforces the existing state of solidarity with the Palestinian people and condemns and denounces Israeli war crimes? Will they, in turn, offer a strong contribution, stating that the occupying state of Israel is, in reality, a functional state that practices genocide, settler policies, the seizure of Palestinian land and water resources, displacement, and ethnic cleansing? And that the time has come to destroy the idol of worship, whose title is anti-Semitism and whose essence is the monopolization of suffering and the narrative of victimhood?!