Populist Power against Academic Autonomy: The Right-Wing Assault on Israeli Universities

• In Event: The Politics of Autonomy: Academic Freedom and Governance in Global Higher Education

Abstract

This paper explores how right-wing populism in Israel has reshaped the relationship between the state and universities. Populist actors have weaponized a structural rift between academia and the society. By portraying academic institutions as disloyal and elitist, populist political forces have reinforced the dichotomy between the ‘will of the people’ and the ‘academic elite’ positioned universities as the ‘objective enemy’. Through detailed analysis of recent legislative and policy initiatives and campaigns targeting faculty and students, we argue that academic freedom in Israel is being eroded. Universities, once central to the Zionist project, now find themselves redefined as ideological battlegrounds and as potential hubs of ‘terrorists. Within this context we also show how universities’ leaderships struggle to position themselves.

Author

• Halleli Pinson, Ben Gurion University of the Negev