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2025-05-15 Israel-Palestine-Jordan
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Ministers threaten to revoke funding for Israeli universities where students hold ‘Nakba’ memorials
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If the Trump administration can withhold funding for unacceptable academic behaviour, so can the Bibi government. [IsraelTimes] Education Minister Yoav Kisch threatens to revoke funding for universities holding events to commemorate the Palestinian “Nakba,” or catastrophe, after student groups begin their annual demonstrations.
“Academia is not a platform for incitement under the guise of freedom of expression,” Kisch writes in a post on X.
He says he has appealed to Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to revoke funding for the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv University following events that took place on their campuses with their support.
Smotrich later says in a statement that he supports the move and will “instruct the professional authorities to immediately act on revoking the funding.”
Tension around marking the Nakba, which refers to the flight or displacement of an estimated 700,000 Palestinians around when Israel was created in 1948, are nothing new. Many Israelis view the commemorations as a veiled attempt to undermine the state’s existence.
Arab student groups at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem said yesterday that commemorating Nakba Day, traditionally marked on May 15, is even more essential this year “as the genocide against our people in Gaza continues.”
“Let us raise our voices against this genocide and displacement,” a statement from the groups said, adding that they would pass the day reading letters and poems from people in the war-torn territory.
Both Tel Aviv University and the Hebrew University say in statements that they support their students’ rights to mark the day and call the minister’s threats illegal.
“Tel Aviv University categorically rejects the education minister’s appalling threats to take illegal action and withhold funding from the university,” Tel Aviv University says in a statement, adding that under Israeli law, “demonstrations initiated by students on Nakba Day, which is held at most Israeli universities, are protected by the freedom of expression and protest.”
The Hebrew University responds similarly, saying that Kisch’s “directive is without any legal foundation or statutory support.”
“The Hebrew University is committed to fostering coexistence across all sectors of Israeli society,” the statement says. “As part of its dedication to freedom of expression, the university ensures that diverse voices can be heard — embracing complexity in dialogue and encouraging mutual respect.”
Kisch responds on X that embracing such events “prevents academic freedom,” and that “any students who think that Nakba Day is a national day of mourning are invited to study at Birzeit University and not at the university of the first Zionist city in Israel.” Birzeit is a university in the West Bank.
Kisch says that under the law, institutions supporting Nakba Day activities should expect to have their budgets denied. 
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Posted by trailing wife 2025-05-15 00:00||
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Posted by Grom the Affective 2025-05-15 00:18||
2025-05-15 00:18||
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