As police crackdowns in the US target pro-Palestinian student protests on campus, university administrators are cutting ties with pro-Palestinian faculty members.
Since the beginning of the Israeli invasion of Gaza, academics in politics, sociology, Japanese literature, public health, Latin American and Caribbean studies, Middle Eastern and African studies, mathematics, education and many other fields have been fired or suspended for their pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli rhetoric.
According to The Intercept, there is no official data on the number of academics who have lost their jobs or been suspended for supporting Palestine, largely because higher education in the country is fragmented, often privatised and based on short-term contracts.
In general, professors who have lost their jobs and been suspended over Palestine have brought these allegations to public attention by making them themselves. A large number of academics across the country are likely to be investigated, and many will see their contracts quietly expire without renewal.
The Intercept spoke to more than ten professors, both adjunct and tenured, whose jobs have been threatened because of their pro-Palestinian views. All of the professors the publication spoke to have been investigated at some point since 7 October, and some of the investigations have been closed with no evidence of wrongdoing.
Several have received varying degrees of suspension, and four of the professors have lost their jobs or face losing them next week when the semester ends without renewal of their contracts.
“A large number of our investigations, even lawsuits, involve due process violations related to non-reappointment, dismissal, tenure, and the like,” said Anita Levy, senior programme officer for the American Association of University Professors.
Levy said the non-profit organisation, which advocates for faculty rights and academic freedom, has filed five cases in recent months related to pro-Palestinian speech.
“It is unusual to file five or six cases in a two-month period when social media posts about a current event, such as the war in Gaza, are suspended,” Levy said. None of the cases we filed were related to pro-Israel rhetoric. They were all in support of the Palestinian cause,” he said.
Levy said the US was at the beginning of a “new McCarthyism”, noting that what had happened “could be the tip of the iceberg”.
