At Plenary on Sunday, the Bi-College chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) introduced Resolution #9 asking that Bryn Mawr cut ties with its two study abroad partner institutions in Israel, the University of Haifa and Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The resolution was created in collaboration with Bryn Mawr’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter and residents of Batten House, and its proposal at Plenary was the culmination of a several-month-long campaign by JVP and others to inform the student body of what JVP members have repeatedly described as “extreme injustices” committed by these partner institutions.
JVP began the campaign for this resolution in January, which has included distributing posters and pamphlets, tabling, and hosting a teach-in on February 12 in Carpenter Library. The teach-in offered a more in-depth explanation of members’ reasoning for ending partnerships with the universities.
One member, who spoke to the Bi-Co on the condition of anonymity due to fear of student retribution (as did all JVP members), explained at the teach-in that JVP’s main issue with the program is not simply that students are going to Israel, but rather that “Bryn Mawr pays tuition for the cost of each student attending.” This financial relationship is distressing to members because they feel, as the same anonymous member said, “that Israeli universities are hand in glove with Israel’s oppression in Palestine.”
The teach-in offered a series of criticisms of Hebrew University and the University of Haifa, as well as the higher education system in Israel in general.
They first claimed that the free speech of many Palestinian professors are limited and attacked by Israeli universities, including Hebrew University. They cited Hebrew University’s suspension of Palestinian feminist professor and prominent academic Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian and what JVP members described as a refusal by the university’s administration to protect her. Shalhoub-Kevorkian was suspended and asked to resign by leaders at Hebrew University in March 2024 after she signed a letter with other international academics describing Israel’s war in Gaza as a genocide, as well as her statements calling to “abolish zionism” and accusing Israeli politicians of politicizing rape to generate outrage over the October 7 attacks.
One JVP member commented that “as a result, there was a far-right smear campaign in which her administration [at Hebrew University] refused to protect her from violent attacks.” Several Israeli politicians expressed outrage and demanded more severe punishment of Shalhoub-Kevorkian, after which she was arrested for “incitement to terrorism.”
A student leading the teach-in claimed that this was just one example of academic suppression of those challenging the Israeli government’s treatment of Palestinians. They also noted the controversy of Theodore Katz’s 1998 thesis at the University of Haifa on the Alexandroni Brigade and the Tantura Massacre. Katz was a student at the university studying Middle Eastern history who wrote his thesis about interviews he’d conducted with residents of the Palestinian village of Tantura. Through these interviews, Katz concluded that members of the Israeli Defense Force’s Alexandroni Brigade committed a massacre at Tantura in May of 1948 during the Arab-Israeli War. Subsequently, Katz was sued for libel by veterans of the Alexandroni Brigade.
One JVP member commented, “As a student who is working on their thesis right now, I’m like, ‘Oh my god, this is really bad.'”
Several JVP members noted they were most concerned with the connection between the Israeli Defense Force and Bryn Mawr’s partner universities. University of Haifa is home to the Israel National Defense College. The program “prepares senior IDF staff as well as defense and government officials for senior command and management positions,” according to their website. The program is 10 months long and graduates receive a masters in political science from the University of Haifa.
JVP members described it as “egregious” and “disturbing” that the University of Haifa would be “complicit” in training IDF members because of what they view as serious wrongdoings by the Israeli military. The IDF has been accused of committing war crimes in violation of the Geneva Conventions by the United Nations. Several JVP members echoed the opinions of Amnesty International and other international justice organizations, who have called the war in Gaza a “genocide.”
One anonymous JVP member described that the goal of hosting the teach-in was to educate their fellow students on the actions of Bryn Mawr’s partner institutions in Israel and to gain support for Resolution #9. They also felt that Bryn Mawr’s connection to University of Haifa and Hebrew University were hypocritical, adding, “Bryn Mawr College maintains relationships with these universities… while claiming they care about social justice and quaker values.”
At Bryn Mawr’s Plenary, JVP members clarified that the purpose of the resolution is not to prevent students from studying abroad in Israel, but specifically to cut Bryn Mawr’s financial support of the University of Haifa and Hebrew University. They added that neither program has been used since 2018, with only 17 students in total since 1983, so the biggest impact is ending the partnership rather than limiting a persistent stream of students who would like to visit. One Bryn Mawr student, however, has stated publicly that she plans to attend University of Haifa in the fall for her study abroad semester.
Resolution #9 was met with mixed feedback at Plenary. Many students issued statements and cheers of support, however several students had criticisms. Some of those who spoke against the resolution were members of the Bryn Mawr chapter of Atidna, an organization founded at the University of Austin which focuses on fostering dialogue between Jewish and Arab people, and “seeks to solidify Arabs and Jews as cousins, one unified family.”
One student leader of Atidna who spoke against Resolution #9 said, “Cutting these ties is inherently anti-intellectual and anti-academic.”
Another Atidna leader, Lori Ackerman, shared, “I think that this would be a loss for Palestine-Israel activism.” Ackerman, who plans to study abroad at the University of Haifa, advocated for an approach of those with concerns about Israel’s treatment of Palestinians “protesting from the inside” of Israeli universities. In response, a JVP member stated that the Bryn Mawr website notes that students may not participate in illegal activity while abroad, and due to increasingly strict laws around protest in Israel, activism may violate Bryn Mawr’s rules.
Another student, who identified themself as a “zionist”, said that the resolution failed to consider how Israelis and Jews in general had been affected by October 7 and Hamas violence.
Voting on Resolution #9 and all other proposed Plenary resolutions is open until Friday, March 29.
Correction: A previous version of this article stated that Ackerman plans to study at the University of Haifa in the fall, when in fact she plans to study there in the spring. It also stated that Atidna is an Israeli organization, when in fact it is an American organization founded at the University of Texas Austin. The Bi-College News apologizes for these errors.
