There are signs of war weariness in Israel and of a growing realisation of the larger implications of the war waged on Gaza. Israeli academics are among those most vocal in articulating the concerns.
Petition
It began with a petition that was signed by 1,400 faculty members dated 19th May, titled “A Call on the Israeli Government to End the War and Ensure the Return of the Hostages”
The signatories said the Oct. 7 Hamas attack granted Israel “the right of self-defence against such acts within the limits of international law.”
“However, this initial purpose has been exhausted, partly because the government has deliberately avoided setting a strategic or political vision beyond the war, instead aiming for an undefined ‘complete victory,’ which, even according to senior military officials, is not only unachievable but likely to result in the death of the hostages.”
The petition warned that the Israeli war is “causing tremendous harm to civilians in Gaza, starvation, and unprecedented destruction of infrastructure.”
“It leads to many Israeli casualties, mental harm to hundreds of thousands, enormous economic damage, and a severe deterioration of the rule of law in Israel and the occupied territories,” it added.
“It also prevents the stabilization of the situation in the north of the country and the return of displaced populations,” the petition said.
“Additionally, it severely damages Israel’s international standing, leads to international isolation, legal entanglements, cultural and academic boycotts, and long-term damage in many other aspects. Moreover, it gravely undermines Israel’s ability to fulfil its supreme duty of returning the hostages.
”The academics said self-defence “does not grant the right to wage an endless war or one aimed at the political survival of the leadership.”
“Therefore, we call on the government to act for the return of the hostages and to end the war without delay.”
Black Flag
The petition was followed on 28th May by 1,300 academics from universities and colleges across Israel sending a letter to the heads of the academic system in Israel, urging them “to mobilize the full weight of Israeli academia to stop the Israeli war in Gaza.
“The academics, organizing under the name Black Flag, criticized institutions of higher education for playing a central role in opposing the government-led judicial overhaul, yet remaining silent in the face of the current events in Gaza.
“This is a horrifying litany of war crimes and even crimes against humanity, all of our own doing,” the letter reads, adding, “We cannot claim that we did not know. We have been silent for too long.
“Prof. Ido Shahar of the University of Haifa told Haaretz that the initiative began with meetings between students and lecturers, during which “a cry emerged – saying this can’t go on.”
“At a certain point, the realization sinks in that we can’t go on normalizing the current situation and behaving as if a horrifying war of deception isn’t happening – one that leads to mass killing, sacrifices the hostages and whose sole purpose is transfer and settlement,” he added.
Among the letter’s signatories is also Prof. On Barak of Tel Aviv University. According to him, the name Black Flag was chosen as “an attempt to speak to Israeli society in its own terms.”
The term Black Flag is familiar to every Israeli who served in the military. “It carries historical weight, as it was coined by [then Jerusalem Magistrate Court] Judge Benjamin Halevy following the 1956 Kafr Qasim massacre, in which 48 innocent Palestinians were killed by the Israeli Border Police.”
The use of the term, Barak added, “is a reference to a [legal and moral] protocol – one that marks the moment when Israelis from across the political spectrum recognize the need to hit the brakes.
“Barak adds that Israeli academia has a vital role to play in the re-humanization of Gaza’s population. “The widespread indifference [toward Gazans] among many Israelis is the result of an intensive dehumanization campaign that must be actively resisted,” he said.
“Historical research shows that the devastating effects of famine endure for generations. The tragedy unfolding before us now will leave its mark for years to come, even if it were to end today.”
Open letter
An open letter 28th July) was initiated by Tel Aviv University President Prof. Ariel Porat. His colleagues at the Hebrew University, Weizmann Institute, the Technion and the Open University joined him. The heads of Haifa, Ben-Gurion, Bar-Ilan and Ariel universities refused to. The presidents said they were shocked by “the sights coming from the Gaza Strip, including those of babies who succumb to starvation and diseases every day.
“Releasing the Israeli hostages held in Gaza and minimizing harm to IDF soldiers “are paramount goals, but as a people who were victims of the terrible Holocaust in Europe, we also have a special obligation to act with all means at our disposal to prevent and avoid cruel and indiscriminate harm to innocent men, women, and children,” they added.The professors said they were “appalled by statements by ministers and members of Knesset that encourage the deliberate destruction of the Gaza Strip and the displacement of the civilian population from it.
“They called on Netanyahu to condemn the statements, which, “in the opinion of senior jurists, constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity.
“Speaking of the plans to construct a “humanitarian city” on the ruins of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, the presidents said the plan “expresses a loss of restraint and humanity from which we cannot recover and is causing irreparable damage.”
NGOs
Two leading Israeli rights organisations this week have said Israel’s conduct in the war in Gaza constitutes genocide against the Palestinian population.
B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel released separate reports on Monday based on studies of the past 21 months of conflict. The organisations, which have been active in Israel for decades, said in a joint statement that “in these dark times it is especially important to call things by their name”, while “calling on this crime to stop immediately”.
At a news conference in Jerusalem on Monday, B’Tselem’s executive director Yuli Novak said her organisation’s report was “one that we never imagined we would have to write”.
The 88-page document states,: “An examination of Israel’s policy in the Gaza Strip and its horrific outcomes, together with statements by senior Israeli politicians and military commanders about the goals of the attack, leads us to the unequivocal conclusion that Israel is taking co-ordinated action to intentionally destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip.
“In its 65-page report,, Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) said its health-focused legal analysis found that Israel had targeted Gaza’s healthcare infrastructure “in a manner that is both calculated and systematic”.
“The evidence shows a deliberate and systematic dismantling of Gaza’s health and life-sustaining systems – through targeted attacks on hospitals, obstruction of medical aid and evacuations, and the killing and detention of healthcare personnel,” the report said.The organisations found the “horrific and criminal Hamas attack” on Israel on 7 October 2023 was a triggering event that caused fear and collective trauma among Israelis.
However, in its response to the attack, they alleged, Israel’s government had pursued a campaign based on the “promotion of extremist ideologies and the dehumanisation of Palestinians in Gaza”. They said this was a reference to language used from political and military leaders to soldiers fighting on the ground, which labelled all Palestinians in Gaza as being responsible.
PHRI concluded that the acts it identified were “not incidental to war but part of a deliberate policy targeting Palestinians as a group”, and in a manner that fulfilled at least three acts defined in Article II of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, to which Israel is a signatory.
Call for sanctions
This week Thirty-one Israeli signatories went further expressing their shame, rage and agony over the plight of Palestinians and called for action from the international community. They wrote:
“We, Israelis dedicated to a peaceful future for our country and our Palestinian neighbours, write this with grave shame, in rage and in agony. Our country is starving the people of Gaza to death and contemplating the forced removal of millions of Palestinians from the Strip. The international community must impose crippling sanctions on Israel until it ends this brutal campaign and implements a permanent ceasefire.”
