Gaza war drives new wave of academic emigration

The ongoing war in Gaza is likely to result in a wave of new academic emigration from Israel and the occupied West Bank, according to non-profit organisations and scholars working closely with communities there.

Leaving Gaza is near impossible, with the strip under heavy bombardment and the Israeli military encircling Gaza City – not to mention financial and visa hurdles, researchers said. But they said they believed the politically charged climate in Israel and increased restrictions and violence in the West Bank would cause Palestinian and Israeli scholars to seek employment elsewhere.

Adam Shapiro, director of advocacy for Israel and Palestine for the non-profit organisation Democracy for the Arab World Now (Dawn), said things had got worse in the West Bank since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war on 7 October, with attacks against institutions there already on the rise over the last year.

“Palestinians in the West Bank, or especially in Jerusalem, who are able to work in Israel, may find those prospects are now gone,” or would be incredibly difficult to achieve because of “security procedures, intimidation, harassment and discrimination”, he said.

Meanwhile, Palestinian citizens of Israel were facing “inter-communal violence” and persecution, with shrinking opportunities for jobs domestically, Mr Shapiro noted.

The crisis has also motivated a third group of potential émigrés: Israelis who are not comfortable with the nation’s “increasing move to the right” – something Mr Shapiro said was already happening under the Netanyahu government, and “which will only accelerate after this conflict”.

Although it is difficult to predict how many academics will leave because of the conflict, anecdotal evidence seems to indicate that a wave of emigration triggered by the recent war has already begun.

“I know two mathematics faculty from the Hebrew University [of Jerusalem] who packed suitcases and left Israel this month,” said Haynes Miller, professor emeritus of mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “I’m sure there are many others.”

The West Bank has attracted many scholars to return in recent years, he noted. But that trend might turn around.

“One can only suppose that [the current conflict] will accelerate brain drain and increase Palestine’s reliance on the diaspora,” said Nate Haken, vice-president for research and innovation at the US-based non-profit organisation The Fund for Peace.

Like others, he emphasised that, despite high unemployment, Palestine’s population was highly educated, reflecting an understanding that “human capital is vital to their survival in a country that otherwise lacks resources and has so many externally imposed economic constraints”.

Going forward, Palestinians who leave might find it increasingly difficult to go to the West, with Europe, the US and Canada “likely to put in place political tests for potential visa applicants”, predicted Mr Shapiro.

“For those institutions in the US that receive funding from sources that are aligned with Israel, there may be demands for scrutiny of any potential hires and political litmus tests…that enter into the recruitment and vetting process,” he added.

pola.lem@timeshighereducation.com