‘We can't say we didn't know': Israeli academics demand end to war on Gaza

Al Jazeera

6 days ago

More than 1,200 Israeli academics have issued an open letter calling on the heads of Israeli academic institutions to 'speak out' and act to stop the war on Gaza.
In the letter released on Tuesday, the academics, who identify themselves as the Black Flag Action Group, claim that, since Israel violated the ceasefire in March, almost 3,000 people have been killed in Gaza. The vast majority of them, the writers say, were civilians. In addition to the growing numbers of people killed by Israeli fire, the authors note, are the warnings of acute starvation being forced upon Gaza as a 'result of intentional and openly declared Israeli government policy'.
The academics' letter is the latest in a growing number of open letters protesting the war from within Israel. However, while many other letters have objected to the political reasons for Israel's latest offensive, or claimed that it puts Israel's remaining captives held in Gaza at risk, the academics' letter is unique in that it places Palestinian suffering at the heart of its objections to the war.
'As academics, we recognize our own role in these crimes,' the letter states. 'It is human societies, not governments alone, that commit crimes against humanity. Some do so by means of direct violence. Others do so by sanctioning the crimes and justifying them, before and after the fact, and by keeping quiet and silencing voices in the halls of learning. It is this bond of silence that allows clearly evident crimes to continue unabated without penetrating the barriers of recognition.'
'This is a horrifying litany of war crimes and even crimes against humanity, all of our own doing,' it continues.
'We cannot claim that we did not know,' the letter adds. 'We have been silent for too long. For the sake of the lives of innocents and the safety of all the people of this land … if we do not call to halt the war immediately, history will not forgive us.'
According to the open letter, the signatories want the Association of University Heads in Israel, the Board of Academic Public Colleges, and the protest group Academics for Israeli Democracy to 'act immediately to mobilize the full weight of Israeli academia to stop the Israeli war in Gaza'.
In practical terms, that could mean organising strike action, as previous universities had previously threatened in protest at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ongoing campaign to untether his government from judicial oversight, beginning in the early months of 2023.
'What we're saying is not that this is any more or less important [than the judicial reforms] but why not the war, too?' said Raphael Greenberg, a professor at Tel Aviv University who signed onto the letter, and who has staged daily protests against the war in Gaza since December.
'Academics have to be active,' he told Al Jazeera.
Through its nineteenth months of war on Gaza, Israel has killed more than 54,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 123,000. According to the United Nations, it has destroyed or damaged 92 percent of homes and displaced hundreds of thousands of people, many multiple times. Until now, organised resistance from within Israel has been limited and largely restricted to the return of the captives taken during the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
'For some of us, it's been a cumulative process since October 7,' Ayelet Ben-Yishai, a professor at the University of Haifa, told Al Jazeera. 'For others, I'd say it was the breaking of the ceasefire in March. That was a watershed moment for many, plus witnessing the starvation we've been forcing on Gaza ever since then.'
Criticism within Israel of the country's continued assault on Gaza, despite growing international condemnation, has increased.
In April, roughly 1,000 current and former air force pilots, generally regarded as an elite unit within the military, wrote an open letter criticising a war they said only served 'political interests'. Other open letters from within the military have followed, with many typically objecting to the political reasons behind the war, or claiming that the renewed offensive on Gaza endangers its remaining captives.
The open letter from the academics goes further in objecting to the suffering of Palestinians, a position that has been rejected by many Israelis.
'I understand lots of people object to the war for different reasons,' Ben-Yishai said, 'but right now, I welcome anyone that's opposed to it.'
'It sounds hollow, I know, but we wanted to make Palestinian suffering central. We wanted to say that we stand alongside and in solidarity with Palestinians. This was also about taking responsibility for what we are doing in Gaza and opening people's eyes to it,' she said.
The position of the academics remains a marginal one within Israel.
'There's still an Israeli public taboo over showing any public sympathy for Palestinians,' Israeli political analyst Nimrod Flaschenberg previously told Al Jazeera, explaining the often low priority placed on protecting Palestinian lives among some in the antiwar movement.
A march by nationalist youth led by the country's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir through Jerusalem's old quarter on Sunday openly mocked the dead children of Gaza while physically attacking anyone perceived to be Palestinian.
Perhaps more concerningly, a poll of Israelis published this week by Pennsylvania University showed 82 percent supported the forcible expulsion of Palestinians from both within Gaza and from within Israel's borders. Almost half also backed the mass killing of civilians in enemy cities captured by the Israeli army.