Academic Freedom, for Anti-Semites Alone

Sept. 21 2023

This weekend, the Palestine Writes Literature Festival, whose self-described mission is “celebrating and promoting cultural productions of Palestinian writers and artists,” is taking place at the University of Pennsylvania, co-sponsored by several of the college’s institutions. Following complaints by major Jewish organizations, the university issued a statement acknowledging that “several speakers [at the event] have a documented and troubling history of engaging in anti-Semitism by speaking and acting in ways that denigrate Jewish people,” while making clear that to prevent the event from taking place would be an affront to academic freedom. The organizers, meanwhile, issued a statement defending themselves against accusations of anti-Semitism from “highly funded, connected, and organized Zionist organizations” that “operate in the shadows.”

Jonathan Tobin comments:

In principle, there should be nothing controversial about a conference devoted to a particular group’s literature. But this event seems designed more to provoke outrage than it is to further scholarly sessions or papers about a literary niche.

[T]he fact that “Palestine Writes” will also be featuring international anti-Semites like the Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters (last seen in Berlin cavorting in a Nazi-like uniform at one of his concerts/propaganda sessions) and the [CNN] commentator Marc Lamont Hill (best known for his declaration of support for a Palestine “from the river to the sea” and Israel’s eradication) speaks volumes about its actual purpose. They are not Palestinian writers, academics, or literary experts tasked to explain why exponents of hatred for Israel are “marginalized.”

If one conceives of academic freedom as protecting virtually any form of speech or study undertaken by a scholar, teacher, or student, then [the question of whether to allow the event would be settled]. But . . . could anyone possibly imagine a conference being sponsored at any institution of higher learning in which the subject matter was focused on hate of a specific group like African Americans, Asians, or Hispanics? Or if such an event would feature not just academics who support such prejudice but non-academic celebrities who embrace that agenda? Of course not.

Read more at JNS

More about: Anti-Semitism, Freedom of Speech, Israel on campus

Egypt Is Trapped by the Gaza Dilemma It Helped to Create

Feb. 14 2025

Recent satellite imagery has shown a buildup of Egyptian tanks near the Israeli border, in violation of Egypt-Israel agreements going back to the 1970s. It’s possible Cairo wants to prevent Palestinians from entering the Sinai from Gaza, or perhaps it wants to send a message to the U.S. that it will take all measures necessary to keep that from happening. But there is also a chance, however small, that it could be preparing for something more dangerous. David Wurmser examines President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi’s predicament:

Egypt’s abysmal behavior in allowing its common border with Gaza to be used for the dangerous smuggling of weapons, money, and materiel to Hamas built the problem that exploded on October 7. Hamas could arm only to the level that Egypt enabled it. Once exposed, rather than help Israel fix the problem it enabled, Egypt manufactured tensions with Israel to divert attention from its own culpability.

Now that the Trump administration is threatening to remove the population of Gaza, President Sisi is reaping the consequences of a problem he and his predecessors helped to sow. That, writes Wurmser, leaves him with a dilemma:

On one hand, Egypt fears for its regime’s survival if it accepts Trump’s plan. It would position Cairo as a participant in a second disaster, or nakba. It knows from its own history; King Farouk was overthrown in 1952 in part for his failure to prevent the first nakba in 1948. Any leader who fails to stop a second nakba, let alone participates in it, risks losing legitimacy and being seen as weak. The perception of buckling on the Palestine issue also resulted in the Egyptian president Anwar Sadat’s assassination in 1981. President Sisi risks being seen by his own population as too weak to stand up to Israel or the United States, as not upholding his manliness.

In a worst-case scenario, Wurmser argues, Sisi might decide that he’d rather fight a disastrous war with Israel and blow up his relationship with Washington than display that kind of weakness.

Read more at The Editors

More about: Egypt, Gaza War 2023