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German University Cancels Lecture by Israeli Historian Benny Morris Due to Student Protests, ‘Security Concerns’
Israeli historian Benny Morris in 2024. Photo: Screenshot
The University of Leipzig in Germany has canceled a lecture by Israeli historian Benny Morris following student protests described by the school as “understandable, but frightening in nature.”
Morris, one of Israel’s leading public intellectuals, was scheduled to deliver a lecture about extremism and the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, in which the Jewish state secured its independence, at the university on Thursday as part of a lecture series on antisemitism.
However, the school released a statement this past Friday announcing that it had canceled the planned event, citing protests over the lecture and what it described as security concerns.
“Our invitation to Prof. Morris was motivated by the desire to talk about his earlier work, which has had a profound impact on historical research,” the university said in its statement. “Unfortunately, Prof. Morris has recently expressed views in interviews and discussions that can be read as offensive and even racist. This has led to understandable, but frightening in nature, protests from individual student groups.”
The University of Leipzig did not elaborate on any specific comments by Morris, whose works include the seminal study The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, first published in 1988, and made a point of noting it did not endorse the historian’s views.
“In principle, inviting speakers to the university does not necessarily mean that we agree with their views, and we firmly distance ourselves from Prof. Morris’ controversial statements,” the school said. “The purpose of the event with him was to engage critically, not to endorse his theses or later statements. In our opinion, science thrives through the exchange of diverse ideas, including those that are challenging or uncomfortable. We trust that our students are able to engage constructively and critically with the guest speaker.”
Various groups including Students for Palestine Leipzig had called for the lecture to be canceled, arguing Morris — who has expressed political opinions associated with both the left and the right — held “deeply racist” views against Palestinians.
“Together with security concerns, the above points mean that Prof. Benny Morris’ lecture will not take place,” the university stated.
Morris, 75, told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that the decision to cancel the lecture was “disgraceful, especially since it resulted from fear of potential violence by students. It is sheer cowardice and appeasement.”
The groups protesting Morris pointed to comments he made in a 2004 interview in which he said that “in certain conditions, expulsion is not a war crime … When the choice is between destroying or being destroyed, it’s better to destroy … when the choice is between ethnic cleansing and genocide — the annihilation of your people — I prefer ethnic cleansing.”
Morris, a former professor at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, also said that “something like a cage has to be built for” the Palestinians.
“I know that sounds terrible,” he continued. “It is really cruel. But there’s no choice. There is a wild animal there that has to be locked up in one way or another.”
The historian explained to Haaretz that those comments were made 20 years ago during the second intifada, or violent Palestinian uprising, “when terrorists were bombing buses and restaurants in Israel almost daily.”
“The word ‘cage’ that I used was indeed inappropriate, but my intention was correct — the need to place the Arab population in the West Bank and Gaza behind fences so they could not enter and explode in Israeli cities,” he said. “Israel eventually did so, and it ended the phenomenon of mass killings by suicide bombers. Perhaps today, the word ‘cage’ might very well be fitting for the Hamas murderers and their enthusiastic supporters.”
In an interview with The Algemeiner earlier this year, Morris argued that, while he “disliked” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he agreed with the premier’s policy of waging war against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Gaza.
“He’s right that the war should continue until Hamas is crushed, if only because around the region, we will be seen as losers if we don’t complete the job,” Morris said.
Despite canceling Morris’ lecture, the University of Leipzig expressed concern about the increased efforts to boycott and marginalize Israeli scholars because they are from the world’s lone Jewish state.
“Regardless of this case, we want to express our concern that a double standard is being established that is being applied to Israeli scholars, who are increasingly marginalized and excluded from events under the pretext of political differences of opinion, while other voices are given unhindered access to the university,” the university said. “This applies, for example, in Leipzig to events by colleagues who are close to the BDS movement, which is classified as a suspected extremist case in Germany. We are far from establishing a culture of cancellations, but the possibility should remain open to be able to discuss difficult and critical voices from both sides in a tough manner.”
The Algemeiner has reported extensively on wide-ranging efforts across academia to exclude Israeli scholars and institutions in accordance with the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to isolate Israel from the international community as a step toward its eventual elimination.
The post German University Cancels Lecture by Israeli Historian Benny Morris Due to Student Protests, ‘Security Concerns’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Anti-Israel Detroit Event with Keynote Address from Tlaib Draws Condemnation for Extremist Rhetoric
US Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) speaking at a press conference at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, March 11, 2025. Photo: Michael Brochstein/ZUMA Press Wire via Reuters Connect
i24 News – A pro-Palestinian conference held in Detroit this week featuring popular influencers and Democratic lawmaker Rashida Tlaib was condemned for the extremist, antisemitic and anti-American rhetoric of its participants.
“We all know who they are, whether they are in Israel, Tel Aviv, in Washington, in Germany, in Europe. They need to be locked up. They need to be taken out. They need to be neutralized to save children, to save humanity,” said Nidal Jboor, an MD.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) hit out at “genocide enablers,” launching broadsides in all directions, including against the United States, which she said was built on on “slavery, genocide, rape and oppression,” and AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
Lawyer Huwaida Arraf said “we will continue to globalize the intifada.”
Of the Congress, where she is serving, Tlaib said that “Outside of the decaying halls of the empire in Washington, D.C., we are winning. They are scared.”
Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga. subsequently accused Tlaib of “vilifying her colleagues, endangering the lives of Jewish people, and celebrating terrorism.”
Yet another speaker declared that the word “peace” should not be part of the pro-Palestinian movement’s lexicon as “it is a white word,” in contrast to the “liberation.”
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Israeli Military Warns Gaza City Residents to Leave, Bombs High-Rise Tower
Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli air strike from earlier today that destroyed a residential building, in Gaza City, September 6, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
The Israeli military warned Palestinians in Gaza City to leave for the south on Saturday before bombing a high-rise tower as its forces advance deeper into the enclave’s largest urban area.
Israeli forces have been carrying out an offensive on the suburbs of the northern city for weeks after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military to capture it.
Netanyahu says Gaza City is a Hamas stronghold and capturing it is necessary to defeat the Palestinian Islamist militants, whose October 2023 attack on Israel sparked the war.
The assault threatens to displace hundreds of thousands of Palestinians sheltering there from nearly two years of fighting. Before the war, around a million people, nearly half of Gaza’s population, lived in the city.
Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee wrote on X that residents should leave the city for a designated coastal area of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, assuring those fleeing that they would be able to receive food, medical care and shelter there.
The designated area was a “humanitarian zone,” Adraee said.
The military also issued so-called “evacuation warnings” to civilians in certain areas of the city, warning it was about to carry out attacks.
Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz shared a video on X of what appeared to be the multi-story building collapsing after the strike, sending a cloud of dust and debris into the air.
It was not immediately clear if there were any casualties.
The Israeli military said Hamas used the building to gather intelligence and that explosive devices had been planted nearby. Hamas denied using the building for military purposes, and Palestinians said it had been used to shelter the displaced.
“These towers are strictly monitored, entry is permitted exclusively for civilians,” Hamas said in a statement, adding the Israeli allegations constitute “a systematic forced displacement” plan.
HEAVY STRIKES
The Israeli military bombed another high-rise tower on Friday that it had also said was being used by Hamas.
On Thursday, the military said it had control over almost half of Gaza City. It says it controls about 75% of all of Gaza.
Many of those in Gaza City were displaced earlier in the war only to later return. Some residents have said that they refuse to be displaced again.
The military has been carrying out heavy strikes on the city for weeks, advancing through outer suburbs, and this week forces were within a few kilometers of the city center.
ALL-OR-NOTHING DEAL
Palestinian terrorists took 251 hostages into the enclave after a Hamas-led cross-border attack on southern Israeli communities on October 7, 2023 that killed about 1,200 people.
There are also growing calls within Israel, led by families of hostages and their supporters, to end the war in a diplomatic deal that would secure the release of the remaining 48 captives.
Israeli officials believe 20 of the hostages are alive.
Netanyahu is pushing for an all-or-nothing deal that would see all of the hostages released at once and Hamas surrendering.
A video released by Hamas on Friday showed two captives, one of whom said they were being held in Gaza City and that they feared being killed in Israel’s assault on the urban center.
Israeli military officials say they have killed many of Hamas’ key leaders and thousands of its fighters.
Hamas has offered to release some hostages for a temporary ceasefire, similar to terms that were discussed in July before negotiations mediated by the US and Arab states collapsed.
US President Donald Trump said on Friday that Washington was in “very deep” negotiations with the Palestinian militants.
Hamas, which has ruled Gaza for nearly two decades but today controls only parts of the enclave, has long said it would release all hostages if Israel agreed to end the war and to withdraw all its forces from Gaza.
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Antisemites Target Synagogues in Spain, France Amid Surge in Jew Hatred Across Europe
The exterior wall of a synagogue in Girona, Spain, vandalized with antisemitic graffiti. Photo: Screenshot
Pro-Palestinian activists have vandalized synagogues in Spain and France in recent days, sparking public outrage and calls for authorities to step up protections.
These are only the latest incidents in a troubling wave of anti-Jewish hate crimes targeting Jewish communities across Europe which continues unabated.
On Thursday, the Jewish community of Girona, a city in Spain’s northeastern Catalonia region, filed a police complaint and urged authorities to take action after the outer wall of the city’s synagogue was defaced with an antisemitic slogan.
Unknown perpetrators defaced the synagogue’s walls with antisemitic graffiti, scrawling messages such as “Israel is a genocidal state, silence = complicity.”
The city’s Jewish community strongly condemned the incident, urging authorities to conduct a swift investigation, impose exemplary sanctions, and ensure robust security measures.
“Disguised as political activism, [this attack] seeks to stigmatize citizens for their faith — something intolerable in a democratic society,” the statement reads. “Tolerance and respect are values we must defend together.”
The European Jewish Association (EJA) also condemned the incident as a hate crime, urging the Spanish government to ensure the safety and protection of its Jewish citizens.
“This is yet another antisemitic attack, part of a wave we’ve seen daily for nearly two years,” the EJA wrote in a post on X.
This is what members of the Jewish community in Girona found this morning when they arrived at their synagogue to pray.
Antisemitic vandals had defaced the synagogue’s outer wall with the words:
“ISRAEL ESTAT GENOCIDA, SILENCI = CÒMPLICE”
Translation: “Israel is a genocidal… pic.twitter.com/ERj4z1hKOP— EJA – EIPA (@EJAssociation) September 4, 2025
In a separate incident, three pro-Palestinian activists were arrested on Thursday after trying to force their way into a synagogue in Nice, southeastern France, during an informational meeting on aliyah, the process of Jews immigrating to Israel.
According to local reports, several individuals attempted to forcibly enter the place of worship, sparking violent clashes and insults that left a pregnant woman injured.
Shortly after the incident, law enforcement arrested two women in their forties and a man in his sixties, taking them into custody as part of an investigation into aggravated violence.
The charges involve attacks on a vulnerable person, actions carried out by a group, religious motivation, and public religious insults.
Local authorities strongly condemned the act and announced that police officers would remain stationed outside the synagogue for as long as necessary.
Since the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, antisemitic incidents have surged to alarming levels across Europe.
Jewish individuals have been facing a surge in hostility and targeted attacks, including vandalism of murals and businesses, as well as physical assaults.