A leading Jewish American philosopher has been disinvited from taking up a prestigious professorship at the University of Cologne after signing a letter expressing solidarity with Palestinians and condemning the killings in Gaza carried out by Israeli forces.
They said the letter, titled Philosophy for Palestine, which was signed by Fraser and several hundred other academics, was separate from Fraser’s work as a scholar and that her guest professorship had nothing to do with the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Cologne University said in a statement its decision to cancel the invitation had been made “with great regret”. It said the reason was that in the letter signed by Fraser, “Israel’s right to exist as an ‘ethno-supremacist state’ since its foundation in 1948 is called into question. The terror attacks by Hamas on Israel of 7 October 2023 is [sic] elevated to an act of legitimate resistance.”
To me it feels like they’re trying their hardest to not anger anyone from Israel. Thats not a good stance for a supposedly academic institution.
But that is clearly also based on limited understanding of the conflict. I find it hard to justify picking a side like seemingly everyone did. And if someone tries to voice concerns over Israeli actions you could quickly be labeled as pro terrorist (literally happened to me). I think both sides to horrible stuff, but civilians deserve support in this situation, and the ones in Gaza don’t get enough from what I’m hearing (especially because Israel has control over the infrastructure)