Universities’ funding threatened over student Nakba events

Israel’s Education Minister Yoav Kisch threatened on Tuesday 13 May to revoke funding for Hebrew University and Tel Aviv University over student rallies commemorating the Nakba, or ‘catastrophe’, the Arabic term for the expulsion and exodus of some 700,000 Palestinians during Israel’s 1948 War of Independence, report The Times of Israel and AFP.

“Academia is not a platform for incitement under the guise of freedom of expression,” Kisch wrote in a post on X, adding that he had appealed to Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to revoke funding for the universities. Smotrich later said in a statement that he supported the move and would “instruct the professional authorities to immediately act on revoking the funding”.

The universities rejected Kisch’s threat, saying they supported their students’ freedom of speech. Smotrich would have difficulty revoking the schools’ budgets under the so-called Nakba Law, legislation passed in 2011 that empowers the finance minister to penalise institutions that fund activities marking Independence Day as a “day of mourning”.
Full report on The Times of Israel site