Persecution and Israeli Academia
An eerie silence envelops Kfar Aza, one of the Israeli communities brutally attacked by Hamas on October 7, 2023. Windows remain shattered from the grenades and ammunition used by Hamas terrorists on homes and shelters. Damaged remnants of a flourishing community litter the ground: bedsheets, toys, chairs with bullet holes, and mangled screens. Three months after the Hamas massacres and rapes, Israeli and Arab communities still reel from Hamas’s atrocities.
I was in Israel earlier in January on an academic solidarity mission with other faculty from the University of Pennsylvania. In addition to visiting the affected Israeli communities, we met with academics at Israeli universities and institutions. Because of the horrifying scenes in places like Kfar Aza; because Israelis, both Jews and Arabs, were felled in the October 7 attacks; because of the hostages still in captivity; and because of the fighting raging in Gaza, it was impossible not to discuss this tragedy. At one dinner, I sat next to a cancer researcher. Within five minutes, our conversation turned from telomeres and cellular mutations to the events of October 7. But equally disturbing, conversations that night turned to a burgeoning yet covert academic boycott against colleagues because of Israel’s war with Hamas.
In academia, promotion and advancement hinge on cooperation between researchers all over the world. Graduate students complete postdoc years abroad where they study, teach, or do research at another institution. There, they learn from future colleagues, assimilate new ideas, and build on their Ph.D. work. This allows them to apply for a faculty position with more experience.
Furthermore, promotion in academia requires letters of recommendation from faculty members at other institutions who don’t know the applicant personally but know of his or her work. Thus, success in the academy relies on collaborative research between researchers at different institutions. It necessitates submitting articles for publication and being on editorial boards of academic journals. International cooperation is essential, particularly for a small country like Israel.
