Israel’s education minister, Gideon Sa’ar, has reignited a debate about academic freedom in Israel by announcing the imminent publication of a “document of guiding principles” for faculty at Israeli institutions of higher education.
He said the Council for Higher Education, a body comprising government and academic officials that he chairs, was conducting “a wide-ranging, serious, and responsible discussion” in preparation for drafting the document.
Critics of the minister fear he is trying to suppress dissent in Israeli universities in an attempt to re-enforce Zionist ideology. Mr. Sa’ar recently banned a high-school history textbook that was deemed too sympathetic in its portrayal of the Palestinians.
Addressing the Education, Culture, and Sports Committee of Israel’s Knesset, or parliament, on Tuesday, Mr. Sa’ar said that employment of faculty should continue to be dependent on “academic excellence” but insisted that “pluralism in study material used in different disciplines” was also essential.
“Calling for a boycott of Israel or a boycott of Israeli academia is unacceptable because it undermines academic freedom itself,” said the minister, referring to an international campaign that has gained some traction abroad but is publicly supported by only a handful of Israeli academics.
The Knesset-committee discussion followed the publication of two reports by right-leaning think-tanks that accuse Israeli faculty of fostering “post-Zionist” ideology among students that undermines traditional Israeli historical narratives about the conflict with the Palestinians. The reports also said some professors were intimidating students who did not accept that interpretation of events.
Politicized History
The teaching of politics and history is highly politicized in a country that has yet to determine its final borders or its relations with its neighbors more than 60 years after gaining independence.
Earlier this year, Mr. Sa’ar was widely criticized after he suggested he might consider legislation to regulate the political activities of university professors.
Bashaar, an unofficial body representing more than 700 faculty members across the country, denounced what it called “politically-driven intervention into the academic affairs of Israel’s universities.” Bashaar described the involvement of professors in the anti-Israel boycott campaign as “a negligible and marginal phenomenon that in no way justifies the frontal, sometimes wild, attacks on Israeli universities.”
The Haaretz newspaper said that “from the spirit of the debate” in Tuesday’s committee meeting, “it appears that the code of ethics is meant to force academic institutions to teach ‘Zionist’ viewpoints ... and restrain the freedom of researchers and lecturers to criticize government policy. Sa’ar’s proposal will probably be enforced under the threat of withholding government funding from departments that don’t toe the line.”
But Menahem Ben-Sasson, president of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who was present during Tuesday’s committee meeting, told The Chronicle that Mr. Sa’ar had not threatened the imposition of any code.
“The Council of Higher Education can recommend things from time to time, and they are welcome,” said Mr. Ben-Sasson. “The council has been very, very careful throughout almost half a century not to interfere in academic decisions, and this has continued under the present minister of education.”
Rivka Carmi, president of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, in Beersheba, and the current chairwoman of the Council of University Presidents, said she welcomed the discussion.
“I think Gideon Sa’ar is doing the right thing,” Ms. Carmi told The Chronicle. “He wants to bring the discourse to the Council for Higher Education, and to me this is the most appropriate place to discuss this kind of thing because this is the highest regulatory authority in Israel.”
She said that every university should have an ethical code guaranteeing freedom of expression, pluralism, balanced teaching, and fair treatment for students. But she added that the outcome of the debate initiated by the minister could well be that it would be inappropriate to create a national document.
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