Södertörn University invited an Israeli expert to give a guest lecture – but the protests were not long in coming and the seminar was cancelled.
Published (in Swedish) in Svenska Dagbladet: https://www.svd.se/a/4BdP7V/israelisk-gastforelasning-stalls-in-pa-sodertorn-efter-protester?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR2NPN1w4RxJ0Z6Rc2o67T_sYkdhNEBGH4BrnNG16a4UwkGzT7QUJPw1TLU_aem_AePVke0bxo-MgS-MpHrvJhrMQN9Ic8ymGyqMO9K7WIgOk-RmGOS_sgaObmRi9TFxthCcnTB9lCHkb0ev5o5UD-r6
For Emmanuel Levinas, ethics and responsibility towards "the other" were more important than the search for a metaphysical truth. Levinas, a Lithuania born, Frech Jew, saw human interaction and its resulting revelation of alterity as the heart of everything. In this aspect, he belongs to a line of Jewish philosophers like Martin Buber and Franz Rosenzweig who are still studied in European universities. One of them is Södertörn University which has a research group called "The Life and Afterlife of Jewish Intellectual Culture in the 20th Century Baltic Region".
The project, which receives a state grant (via Östersjöstiftelsen), studies traditional Jewish thought and its connection to western enlightenment and it's only natural that Levinas would come up in this context. Indeed, when the faculty wanted a seminar about his work, it contacted a Levinas expert and asked her to come to Södertörn as a guest lecturer. There was, however, one problem. The expert happened to be Israeli.
The seminar was supposed to take place in April and as expected, it didn't take long before protests started. An Israeli lecturer is more than some activists can digest. It made no difference that she doesn't represent the Israeli government or that the subject was not political. In fact, anyone looking for criticism of Israel's government and its policies, would do well to start in Israeli universities' humanities departments. But this isn't about dialogue or political debate. Not adhering to Levinas' teachings, according to their slogans these activists are more interested in wiping all Israelis of the map in a global intifada from the river to the sea. And so, the email campaign begun.
A few days later "the resistance gave results", as one activist put it. Bragging on Facebook, he wrote that: "we shall have no cooperation with a genocidal regime like Israel". A short film shows how the achievement was celebrated in a nearby square with "cross Zionism" songs and "solidarity hugs for Gaza".
Could this be true? Did a serious Swedish university give in to political bullying rather than maintain its academic independence and freedom. And even more worrying, is this the kind of judgement exercised with tax payer's money? If the invitation was important enough academically, surely the university wouldn't change its mind because of angry emails and calls for boycotts.
When I asked Södertörn, a spokesperson replied that "the Israeli lecturer requested that her lecture would be cancelled. This was not the university's decision". She added that the lecturer made the decision because of "comments posted on social media". According to this, the activists didn’t influence the university, they just intimidated the lecturer. But is that really what happened? And if it is, isn't it even worse?
As it turns out, the story is more complicated – after the protest begun, rather than making arrangements to make sure that the seminar will be held despite boycotts and fear of riots, the university's research group considered another solution – moving the seminar off campus. That just created another problem. Having an event with an Israeli speaker in Stockholm these days involves special security arrangements, and there wasn't time for all that. And so, the Israeli lecturer was faced with an awkward situation – Södertörn invited her, but couldn't guarantee a calm and safe academic learning environment. Despite the research group's good intentions, it failed to stand up to the angry mob.
Since Images are very important in Sweden, sometimes more important than reality, no one decided to cancel the seminar. That would be admitting Södertörn lost its academic freedom. Instead, other solutions were considered – a Zoom seminar or an invitation to a safer location next year. But this just gave a shining victory to those who made a clear demand – no Israeli teacher will set foot at Södertörn!
The description of these events as "the lecturer requested that her lecture would be cancelled" is therefore extremally misleading. When I asked if Södertörn looked for an alternative venue for the seminar and if this was the background for the cancelation, its spokesperson answered that part of planning seminars, including this one, is the security aspect. She added in a secret service tone that "the details are not something we discuss publicly". And so, Södertörn claims that academic freedom is important and that it doesn't boycott scholars, but meantime in the real world, the Israeli lecturer was cancelled and Södertörn has no cooperation with any Israeli university. It's anyone's guess if this is policy or a coincidence.
This story is important for two reasons. First, it shows that threats often succeed even when those being threatened have good intentions. The only way to fight a bully is to stand strong and be willing to pay a price. The other reason is a look into the future. Unlike Södertörn, most major Swedish universities have fruitful cooperations with Israeli universities. So far, their leaderships effectively dismissed demands to end these cooperations. It's not even a serious dilemma – Israeli universities did nothing wrong, they're free and independent, they're a crucial part of Israeli democracy and are absolutely necessary for any potential peaceful future in the Middle-East. They also contribute to worldwide academic research in numerous fields and Sweden gains a lot from cooperating with them. Until now, only Israelis and sadly Jewish students suffered from the endless stream of demonstrations, petitions, walk-outs and protests led by activists, who at times go as far as supporting terror organizations and violence against civilians.
But Jews are always first and never last. Stay quiet when they're victimized, and the bullies will quickly find others. Calls for boycotts are now heard everywhere from Lund to Uppsala, from Konstfack to KTH. Södertörn is just the beginning. If academic freedom is important to Swedish universities, they'd do well to stand firm and stop the bullies now.
דיויד סטברו 