Genocide in Palestine: 4 Tricks Universities Use to Avoid Accountability
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In his new longread, Gert van Hecken delivers a satirical critique of how universities in the US, Canada, and Europe have responded to the ongoing genocide in Palestine and their complicity in Israeli apartheid. Van Hecken outlines four main strategies used by universities to obstruct justice: weaponizing neutrality, administrative repression, the misuse of "constructive dialogue," and legal acrobatics. Universities have censored and disciplined students and staff, blocked events, and delayed action by creating endless, toothless debates, all while continuing business as usual behind closed doors. Despite legal obligations under international law, these institutions twist agreements like the EU’s Horizon program to justify their inaction. Van Hecken argues this isn’t just about academia—these tactics are mirrored in the arts, culture, and corporate sectors—but universities are especially culpable, given their self-proclaimed role as moral beacons. Their response, he concludes, is a betrayal of the very values they claim to embody.
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