On October 25, 2023, David Yellin College of Education administrators suspended Nurit Peled-Elhanan, a philologist and professor of language education, because of a message she had sent in a WhatsApp group for faculty members at the college. The college claimed that Peled-Elhanan’s response had “express[ed] support for Hamas’ terrorist acts” and offered “justification of their criminal [actions].”

Peled-Elhanan specialized in Israeli education discourse and the portrayal of Palestinians in Israeli textbooks, which she has long criticized as being anti-Palestinian.

Peled-Elhanan’s suspension occurred following an attack by Hamas on Israel on October 7, during which over 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals were killed and more than 200 abducted, and the Israeli military’s subsequent bombardment of the Gaza Strip which, as of mid-December, has reportedly killed more than 18,000 Palestinians. Discussing Hamas’s attack in a WhatsApp group, a colleague of Peled-Elhanan likened Hamas to Nazis and advocated for a “Nakba 2” against Palestinians in Gaza. In response, Professor Peled-Elhanan called Hamas’ attacks a massacre but criticized her colleague’s use of the term Nazi. She also sought to offer an analysis of the attacks by citing Jean-Paul Sartre’s discussions of the forms of violence that colonized people may adopt to free themselves from colonialism.

Shortly after her WhatsApp response, the university suspended Professor Peled-Elhanan and summoned her to a hearing the following day, October 26, to determine whether her employment would be terminated. Although the hearing committee decided against her dismissal, college administrators reportedly reprimanded her severely for “expressing identification with Israel’s most bitter enemy.”

On December 23, Professor Peled-Elhanan publicly announced her resignation from the university. She attributed her decision to “political persecution.”

Scholars at Risk is concerned about disciplinary actions against a professor in apparent retaliation for the exercise of her right to freedom of expression and academic freedom, including extramural academic expression on a matter within her area of professional expertise–conduct that is expressly protected by international human rights instruments including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Israel is a party. Higher education authorities have an obligation to ensure proper due process, transparency, and fairness when engaging in disciplinary action. In addition to the harm to the immediate victims, such incidents have a chilling effect on academic freedom and undermine democratic society generally.

Sources:
https://www.brismes.ac.uk/news/letter-to-david-yellin-college-regarding-suspension-of-professor-nurit-peled-elhanan
https://mesana.org/advocacy/committee-on-academic-freedom/2023/11/28/letter-regarding-intensified-targeting-of-palestinian-students-in-israeli-universities
https://x.com/bernstein_ariel/status/1721102939857539486
https://www.haaretz.co.il/news/education/2023-11-05/ty-article/.premium/0000018b-8ee2-d728-a9ab-dff22fbe0000

https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/commentary/2023/11/05/michael-sfard-israel-is-silencing/ (Op ed)