1. The Right-Wing Attack on Higher Education

Описание: Opening the “Mapping Anti-Palestinian Discrimination” series, this panel centers Palestine in our ongoing collective effort to understand and respond to the right-wing attack on the higher education sector in the United States. As we have seen since October the 8th, 2023, the greater the oppression in Palestine and beyond, the greater the repression in the United States. Over the last two years, the Israeli state has destroyed every university in Gaza; murdered tens of thousands of men, women, and children there; and imposed starvation conditions on 2.3 million civilians. In tandem, U.S. colleges and universities–often under the auspices of the federal government–have taken unprecedented measures in suppressing academic freedom, freedom of speech, and freedom of assembly in relation to Palestine education and advocacy on campuses. While clearly intended to “dismantle” Palestine solidarity on campuses (as the Heritage Foundation’s “Project Esther” manifesto has it), these measures have further-reaching effects. The shift we are witnessing today represents the culmination of a 50-year bipartisan politics of austerity that has sought to privatize higher education, to denude the humanities and social sciences of their critical functions in society, and to impose ideological conformity. Palestine, this panel shows, is an occasion for achieving these objectives. It is also a crucible of our collective liberation.

Panelists address the Israeli genocide and scholasticide in Palestine historically and in the present; the relationship between spurious accusations of “antisemitism,” university governance, external special interest groups, and US foreign policy at a time of authoritarianism and genocide; Columbia University’s acquiescence to the federal government’s extortive demands; the relationship between Project 2025 and Project Esther, both authored by the Heritage Foundation; the implications of the 2025 Budget Reconciliation Bill for Palestine education and advocacy on campuses; the implications of these developments for academic freedom and the mission of the American university more broadly; and more.

Featuring:

Isaac Kamola (AAUP Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom)
Heather Ferguson (Coalition for Action in Higher Education, AAUP-AFT United Academics Local 6741)
Judith Butler (Jewish Voice for Peace)
Lara Deeb (Middle East Studies Association)
Sherene Seikaly (American Historical Association, National Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine)