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Israel Studies Under Attack at US Universities, New Report Finds
Pro-Hamas demonstrators at Columbia University in New York City, US, April 29, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Caitlin Ochs
Israel Studies as an interdisciplinary field is in danger of being crowded out of American higher education by infectious ideologies which are having success in confecting a consensus that it normalizes the existence of a country which undermines progressive values, according to a new report published by The Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI).
The report — written by University of Haifa professor Sara Yael Hirschhorn and titled, “Israel Studies at American Studies at American Universities: Is There a Path Forward?” — argues Israel Studies in the American academy is in decline, a downward trend that is being accelerated by a cultural milieu fostered by a consortium of interest groups that are hostile to the existence of Israel as a Jewish nation-state and wish to see their antipathy reflected in college curricula.
“Despite the fact that the field is well-funded, has attracted the interest of both the scholarly and lay community, and could be a constructive intervention in campus debates at this moment of crisis, it is currently epistemologically and pedagogically incompatible with a campus climate since 10/7 [Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel] that is increasingly anti-Zionist, pro-BDS [boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement against Israel] and even cheers Hamas,” Hirschhorn writes.
“The prevalence of Ethnic Studies and its associated paradigms, the impact of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI])frameworks that all but exclude Jews and Zionists, the influence of lavish Middle Eastern funding on university programs and politics, and the deterioration of campus culture in the age of ‘cancel culture’ have profoundly constrained the ability of Israel Studies to flourish in the Western academy,” she adds.
Hirschhorn goes on to argue that in addition to being surrounded by enemies, Israel Studies is working through a crisis of identity caused by competing visions of its scope and mission. As an interdisciplinary field serving as a “big tent” for other disciplines relevant to the study of Israel, she says it winds up being open to “almost everyone who wants to affiliate” even as they undertake courses of study that are “haphazardly cobbled together into what has been called a discipline, with its attendant academic conferences, publications, employment, grants, and community that often lack coherence.” Israel studies scholars, she adds, betrayed the field’s nebulous characters themselves during a 2024 conference held at Charles University in Prague where virtually no one delivered a presentation which came remotely near to addressing the conference theme, which was Israel Studies from a “European and international perspective.”
The conference did not present a coherent vision, “nor did there seem to be any hierarchy of priorities between, say national security of Israel or queer histories of mandate Palestine,” she continues. “The awarding of prizes and grants at the conference were decided by closed-door committees based only on a vague set of published qualifications, leaving much of the process opaque. The balance of Israeli scholars compared to other nationalities was all quite evident and may signal a decline in the field in the West. Furthermore, attendance seemed self-selecting — many notable figures who hold chairs in the field of Israel Studies were absent.”
In its weakened state, Israel Studies is vulnerable to attacks by DEI, Hirschhorn later said, connecting the seams of her thesis.
“On its face, one might think that DEI would be beneficial for Jews as a small religious and ethnic minority in the United States, but in practice it has excluded their concerns from its remit and has even been rebuked for both ignoring and fomenting antisemitism on university campuses,” she explains. “The pro-Palestinian agenda was implicitly adopted as a correct manifestation of DEI priorities, which extended support to tent encampments and other student protests. In some cases, DEI administrators themselves were revealed to have engaged in anti-Zionist and antisemitic activity on social media … and in training materials.”
All signs, she concluds, portend Israel Studies’ becoming “administratively homeless” as BDS advocates amass power in campus bureaucracies and the field itself “takes no concrete steps toward self-definition or embraces an opportunity to ring-fence it activities with the support of increased donor funding.” In a worst-case scenario, “it might simply be absorbed into the growing field of Palestine Studies or completely abolished by university administrators.”
JPPI president Yedidia Stern implored the Jewish academic community to take Hirschhorn’s report seriously.
“This is more than a crisis of curriculum — it’s a crisis of intellectual freedom,” he said in a statement accompanying the release of the report. “Israel is being silenced in spaces that once welcomed open academic exploration. We cannot allow this erasure to continue unchecked.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Israel Studies Under Attack at US Universities, New Report Finds first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Former Columbia University President Appointed as UK Economic Adviser
Columbia University administrators and faculty, led by President Minouche Shafik, testified before the US House Committee on Education and the Workforce on April 17, 2024. Photo: Jack Gruber/Reuters Connect
i24 News – British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has named Minouche Shafik, former president of Columbia University, as his chief economic adviser at Downing Street, a move aimed at stabilizing the country’s fragile economy and averting a potential budget crisis.
Shafik, an economist of Egyptian origin with dual British and American nationality, has held senior roles at the Bank of England, the IMF, and the World Bank.
She later led the London School of Economics and was elevated to the House of Lords in 2020.
Her tenure in the United States was more turbulent. Shafik stepped down as president of Columbia University in 2024 after just a year in office, amid fierce criticism over her handling of pro-Palestinian protests following the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023, and the subsequent war in Gaza.
US officials accused her of failing to confront antisemitism on campus, while students and faculty condemned her decision to call in police to dismantle protest encampments.
Since returning to Britain, Shafik has played an active role in policy and cultural institutions. She advised Foreign Secretary David Lammy on international aid reform, has chaired the Victoria & Albert Museum since January, and led the “Economy 2030” inquiry for the Resolution Foundation, where she argued for reforms to the UK’s system of wealth taxation.
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Israel Mulls West Bank Annexation in Response to Moves to Recognize Palestine
The Jordan Valley. Photo: Юкатан via Wikimedia Commons.
Israel is considering annexation in the West Bank as a possible response to France and other countries recognizing a Palestinian state, according to three Israeli officials and the idea will be discussed further on Sunday, another official said.
Extension of Israeli sovereignty to the West Bank – de facto annexation of land captured in the 1967 Middle East war – was on the agenda for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet meeting late on Sunday that is expected to focus on the Gaza war, a member of the small circle of ministers said.
It is unclear where precisely any such measure would be applied and when, whether only in Israeli settlements or some of them, or in specific areas of the West Bank like the Jordan Valley and whether any concrete steps, which would likely entail a lengthy legislative process, would follow discussions.
Any step toward annexation in the West Bank would likely draw widespread condemnation from the Palestinians, who seek the territory for a future state, as well as Arab and Western countries. It is unclear where US President Donald Trump stands on the matter. The White House and State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A spokesperson for Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar did not respond to a request for comment on whether Saar had discussed the move with his US counterpart Marco Rubio during his visit to Washington last week.
Netanyahu’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether the prime minister supports annexation and if so, where.
A past pledge by Netanyahu to annex Jewish settlements and the Jordan Valley was scrapped in 2020 in favor of normalizing ties with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in the Abraham Accords brokered by Trump in his first term in office.
The office of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The United States said on Friday it would not allow Abbas to travel to New York for the United Nations gathering of world leaders, where several US allies are set to recognize Palestine as a state.
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Israel Pounds Gaza City Suburbs, Netanyahu to Convene Security Cabinet
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to the press on Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, July 8, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
Israeli forces pounded the suburbs of Gaza City overnight from the air and ground, destroying homes and driving more families out of the area as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet was set on Sunday to discuss a plan to seize the city.
Residents of Sheikh Radwan, one of the largest neighborhoods of Gaza City, said the territory had been under Israeli tank shelling and airstrikes throughout Saturday and on Sunday, forcing families to seek shelter in the western parts of the city.
The Israeli military has gradually escalated its operations around Gaza City over the past three weeks, and on Friday it ended temporary pauses in the area that had allowed for aid deliveries, designating it a “dangerous combat zone.”
“They are crawling into the heart of the city where hundreds of thousands are sheltering, from the east, north, and south, while bombing those areas from the air and ground to scare people to leave,” said Rezik Salah, a father of two, from Sheikh Radwan.
An Israeli official said Netanyahu’s security cabinet will convene on Sunday evening to discuss the next stages of the planned offensive to seize Gaza City, which he has described as Hamas’ last bastion.
A full-scale offensive is not expected to start for weeks. Israel says it wants to evacuate the civilian population before moving more ground forces in.
HAMAS SPOKESPERSON TARGETED
Netanyahu confirmed on Sunday that Israeli forces had targeted Abu Ubaida, the spokesperson of Hamas’ armed wing. Defense Minister Israel Katz said that Abu Ubaida was killed. Two Hamas officials contacted by Reuters did not respond to requests for comment.
Gaza health authorities said 15 people, including five children, were killed in the attack on a residential building in the heart of Gaza City.
Abu Ubaida, also known as Hozayfa Al-Khalout, is a well-known figure to Palestinians and Israelis alike, close to Hamas’ top military leaders and in charge of delivering the group’s messages, often via video, for around two decades, delivering statements while wearing a red keffiyeh that concealed his face.
The US targeted him with sanctions in April 2024, accusing him of leading the “cyber influence department” of al-Qassam Brigades.
In his last statement on Friday, he warned that the planned Israeli offensive on Gaza City would endanger the hostages.
On Saturday, Red Cross head Mirjana Spoljaric said an evacuation from the city would provoke a massive population displacement that no other area in the enclave is equipped to absorb, with shortages of food, shelter and medical supplies.
“People who have relatives in the south left to stay with them. Others, including myself, didn’t find a space as Deir Al-Balah and Mawasi are overcrowded,” said Ghada, a mother of five from the city’s Sabra neighborhood.
Around half of the enclave’s more than 2 million people are presently in Gaza City. Several thousand were estimated to have left the city for central and southern areas of the enclave.
Israel’s military has warned its political leaders that the offensive is endangering hostages still being held by Hamas in Gaza. Protests in Israel calling for an end to the war and the release of the hostages have intensified in the past few weeks.