More than 1,200 Israeli academics have published an open letter calling for the heads of Israeli university institutions to “express themselves” and to act to arrest war against Gaza.
In the letter published Tuesday, academics, who identify themselves as the Black Flag Action Group, claim that, since Israel violated the ceasefire in March, nearly 3,000 people were killed in Gaza. The vast majority of them say the writers were civilians. In addition to the growing number of people killed by Israeli fire, note the authors, warnings of acute famine are forced to Gaza as “the result of intentional and openly declared Israeli government policy”.
The letter of the academics is the last of an increasing number of open letters protesting against the war within Israel. However, while many other letters have opposed the political reasons for the last offensive of Israel, or said that it endangers the remaining captives of Israel detained in Gaza, the letter of the academics is unique in that it places Palestinian suffering at the heart of its objections to war.
“As a university, we recognize our own role in these crimes,” said the letter. “It is human societies, not governments alone, which commit crimes against humanity.
“It is a horrible litany of war crimes and even crimes against humanity, all our own,” he continues.
“We cannot claim that we did not know,” adds the letter. “We have been silent for too long. For the life of the innocent and the security of all the people of this land … If we do not immediately call war, history will not forgive us. “
According to the open letter, the signatories wish to the association of university chiefs in Israel, the board of directors of academic public colleges and the academics of the protest group for Israeli democracy to “act immediately to mobilize the total weight of the Israeli university world to stop the Israeli war in Gaza”.
In practical terms, this could mean the organization of strike action, because the previous universities had previously threatened to protest against the current campaign of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to destroy his government from judicial surveillance, from the first months of 2023.
“What we are saying is how could this war be less important (than judicial reforms)?” said Raphael Greenberg, professor at the University of Tel Aviv who signed the letter and who organized daily demonstrations against the war in Gaza since December.
“Academics must make their voices heard,” he told Tel Aviv Tribune.
Devastation in Gaza
During his nineteen months of war against Gaza, Israel killed more than 54,000 Palestinians and injured more than 123,000. According to the United Nations, he destroyed or damaged 92% of the houses and moved hundreds of thousands of people, several times. Until now, the resistance organized inside Israel has been limited and largely limited to the return of the captives taken during the attack led by Hamas against southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
“For some of us, this has been a cumulative process since October 7,” Ayelet Ben-Yishai, professor at the University of Haifa, told Al Jazelet. “For others, I would say it was the breakdown of the ceasefire in March.
Critics in Israel of the country’s continuous assault against Gaza, despite an increasing international conviction, have increased.
In April, approximately 1,000 current and former Air Force pilots, generally considered as an elite unity within the army, wrote an open letter criticizing a war which, according to them, only served “political interests”. Other open letters from the interior of the army followed, many generally opposing the political reasons of the war, or claiming that the renewed offensive of Gaza endorses its remaining captives.
The open letter from academics goes further by opposing the suffering of the Palestinians, a position which has been rejected by many Israelis.
“I understand that many people oppose the war for various reasons,” said Ben-Yishai, “but right now, I salute anyone who has opposed it.”
“It seems hollow, I know, but we wanted to do central Palestinian suffering. We wanted to say that we are next to it and in solidarity with the Palestinians. It was also a question of taking responsibility for what we are doing in Gaza and opening the eyes of people, “she said.
Sympathy for the Palestinians?
The position of academics remains marginal in Israel.
“There is always an Israeli public taboo on how public sympathy for Palestinians, previously said Israeli political analyst Nimrod Flaschenberg in Tel Aviv Tribune, explaining the often weak priority granted to the protection of Palestinian lives among some in the anti-war movement.
One march by young nationalists led by the Minister of National Security of the country, Itamar Ben-Gvir, in the old district of Jerusalem, openly laughed at children who died of Gaza while physically attacking anyone who is perceived as Palestinian.
Perhaps more worrying, an Israelis survey published this week by the University of Pennsylvania showed that 82% had supported the forced expulsion of Gaza Palestinians and inside the borders of Israel. Almost half also supported the mass murder of civilians in enemy cities captured by the Israeli army.
