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Towers of Ivory and Steel: How Israeli Universities Deny Palestinian Freedom
How Israeli universities collaborate in Israeli state violence against Palestinians
Israeli universities have long enjoyed a reputation as liberal bastions of freedom and democracy. Drawing on extensive research and making Hebrew sources accessible to the international community, Maya Wind shatters this myth and documents how Israeli universities are directly complicit in the violation of Palestinian rights.
As this book shows, Israeli universities serve as pillars of Israel's system of oppression against
Palestinians. Academic disciplines, degree programs, campus infrastructure, and research laboratories all service Israeli occupation and apartheid, while universities violate the rights of Palestinians to education, stifle critical scholarship, and violently repress student dissent. Towers of Ivory and Steel is a powerful expose of Israeli academia’s ongoing and active complicity in Israel’s settler-colonial project.
Israeli universities have long enjoyed a reputation as liberal bastions of freedom and democracy. Drawing on extensive research and making Hebrew sources accessible to the international community, Maya Wind shatters this myth and documents how Israeli universities are directly complicit in the violation of Palestinian rights.
As this book shows, Israeli universities serve as pillars of Israel's system of oppression against
Palestinians. Academic disciplines, degree programs, campus infrastructure, and research laboratories all service Israeli occupation and apartheid, while universities violate the rights of Palestinians to education, stifle critical scholarship, and violently repress student dissent. Towers of Ivory and Steel is a powerful expose of Israeli academia’s ongoing and active complicity in Israel’s settler-colonial project.
278 pages, Paperback
Published February 13, 2024
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1979 people want to read
About the author
Maya Wind
2 books14 followersMaya Wind is a University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Black Study. She received her PhD in American Studies from New York University, and was previously a Killam Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia.
Her scholarship investigates how settler societies and global systems of militarism and policing are sustained, with a particular focus on the reproduction and export of Israeli security expertise. Her first book, Towers of Ivory and Steel: How Israeli Universities Deny Palestinian Freedom (Verso 2024) argues that Israeli universities are enlisted in Israel’s settler-colonial project.
Her current book project, which draws on her ethnographic fieldwork and doctoral dissertation, argues that scientific and social experimentation with Israeli citizens is foundational to global technologies and models of security. She has received support for this project from the National Science Foundation, Social Science Research Council, and the Killam Laureates Trust.
Maya researches, writes, and teaches in collaboration with local and transnational coalitions organizing for abolition, demilitarization, and decolonization.
Her scholarship investigates how settler societies and global systems of militarism and policing are sustained, with a particular focus on the reproduction and export of Israeli security expertise. Her first book, Towers of Ivory and Steel: How Israeli Universities Deny Palestinian Freedom (Verso 2024) argues that Israeli universities are enlisted in Israel’s settler-colonial project.
Her current book project, which draws on her ethnographic fieldwork and doctoral dissertation, argues that scientific and social experimentation with Israeli citizens is foundational to global technologies and models of security. She has received support for this project from the National Science Foundation, Social Science Research Council, and the Killam Laureates Trust.
Maya researches, writes, and teaches in collaboration with local and transnational coalitions organizing for abolition, demilitarization, and decolonization.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 60 reviews
May 30, 2024
At the time of this review (May 30th, 2024) the digital version of this book is available for free through the publisher's website (Verso Books).
This book is very well structured and researched. While I would say it's better suited to people who have at least basic knowledge of the plight of Palestinian people It's still a very accessible read (no needlessly academic language or obscure historical references that are assumed to be understood...). It's really a must read if you're looking to further your understanding of the many ways in which academic institutions act as a part of the colonial apparatus and why they cannot be taken outside of their context and must be dealt with accordingly.
Also, these footnotes, I'm in love.
This book is very well structured and researched. While I would say it's better suited to people who have at least basic knowledge of the plight of Palestinian people It's still a very accessible read (no needlessly academic language or obscure historical references that are assumed to be understood...). It's really a must read if you're looking to further your understanding of the many ways in which academic institutions act as a part of the colonial apparatus and why they cannot be taken outside of their context and must be dealt with accordingly.
Also, these footnotes, I'm in love.
February 22, 2024
This is such a critical resource for people in the BDS movement, but also anyone who wants to understand the machinations of the Zionist state. Anyone who has ever encountered resistance to the academic boycott of Israel, arguing that it somehow is limiting free speech of "progressive" Israeli faculty should read this book. The only thing I can say that is possible fault of the book is that it doesn't really do the kind of forensic research that I was hoping it would do, at least not according to the endnotes of the book. Nevertheless it's a smart, terrific read.
July 23, 2024
There can be little debate or doubt that universities are integral to the production and maintenance of systems of power. Our work and practice is heavily interwoven with the interests of state and class elites, all the more so as public funding systems prioritise specific forms of research and teaching programmes, and as we become increasingly dependent on the private sector for research funding. Yet the institutions hold fast to their status as a place of critique, for the expression of dissent, and a willingness to engage with new or critical ideas – which explains their attachment to academic freedom. For many of us in the sector and beyond, therefore, there is shock or dismay when universities act to maintain systems of oppression, while the attachment to academic freedom and a liberal image of education and university practice means we also often fail to see that abandonment of critique. It is this attachment and this blindness that makes Maya Wind’s excellent unpacking of the Israeli university system so powerful and so unsettling.
Wind starts for a clear and disruptive premise: that Israel is a settler colonial state, and that the Palestinian campaign for the political, economic and cultural isolation of Israel as seen in the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions campaign is a legitimate demand. She explicitly notes the call for the isolation of Israeli universities and develops the argument in its light. Her case is built on two principal strands. The first is the place of the Israeli university system in day to day circumstances of Palestinian life. Here she considers the ways particular aspects of scholarly activity sustain their subjugation – focusing on archaeology, legal studies (principally criminology), and Middle Eastern studies as narrowly constructed and constrained by state ideology and policy. This line of analysis also explores the Israeli university system as the physical manifestation of the state, including explorations of campus design and location. This is then extended through her consideration of the way the state and the university sector are so comprehensively interwoven, such as the role of state security forces in the provision, management, and leadership of academic programmes. Here Wind demonstrates convincingly that not only is the state and its universities closely interwoven (that is not uncommon) but that the state ideology and its security and military services shape and determine what takes place in the sector; that there is no place for that critique we celebrate as essential to academic life and practice, calling into question claims to academic freedom.
The second strand is more subtle but just, if not more, powerful. Here Wind continues to explore academic freedom but shifts focus from the interweaving of the state and university sector to look at the active role the universities play in Palestinian subjugation. This aspect of her case considers the ways that the adherence to the ideology of the state limits the kinds of approaches to scholarship that are seen and legitimate as well as the kinds of issues and questions that may be explored – so here she looks at cases and systemic evidence that points to the undermining of the integrity and legitimacy of scholarship that addresses the adverse effects of military occupation on Palestinian life. This discussion also looks at the ways the state has sought to limit Palestinian access to higher education, at the denial of educational opportunities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (written before the 2023-4 war in Gaza where every Palestinian university has been destroyed, this is disturbingly prescient), and the active complicity of the university sector in the Israeli far right’s attacks on Palestinians – both those in the Occupied Territories and Israeli citizens.
Wind approaches this project from a distinct position – as a Jewish-Israeli scholar (she is an anthropologist now based in Canada). This position gave her access to people and sources that it would be difficult if not impossible for many Palestinian researchers, partly because the ideology of the state and university sector means she is presumed to be less of a threat (as a Jewish-Israeli), but also because she is embedded in different networks with assumptions about access to and use of knowledge. Even so, she makes clear that there are many people she has interviewed who cannot be named – in most cases we get first names or the use of a nom de plume – both these approaches are common and legitimate in scholarly practice of this kind. Even so, the openness of the interweaving of the sectors and place of the university sector in denying Palestinian freedom (to evoke the title) means that many leaders in the sector are quite open in their public statements, making much of what she explores akin to what the US anthropologist Michael Taussig calls the ‘public secret’. As a Jewish-Israeli scholar Wind has constructed a text as a remarkable example of ally-ship.
That this is a ‘public secret’ reinforces the power of the analysis. My scholarly work for the last 30 or so years has included a significant strand that explores international campaigns focused on cultural and social boycotts and other sanctions, alongside many years work exploring the dynamics of settler colonialism. There is little in that time I have read that is as clear and convincing, and that relies on the words and explicit public actions of state authorities to make it case as Wind’s argument here – at least, that is, since the fall of South African apartheid in the 1990s. Wind’s evidence and case is compelling – meaning that although in some places this presents hard to deal with evidence, it is an essential piece in making sense of one of the most significant and demanding political questions of our current era.
Wind starts for a clear and disruptive premise: that Israel is a settler colonial state, and that the Palestinian campaign for the political, economic and cultural isolation of Israel as seen in the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions campaign is a legitimate demand. She explicitly notes the call for the isolation of Israeli universities and develops the argument in its light. Her case is built on two principal strands. The first is the place of the Israeli university system in day to day circumstances of Palestinian life. Here she considers the ways particular aspects of scholarly activity sustain their subjugation – focusing on archaeology, legal studies (principally criminology), and Middle Eastern studies as narrowly constructed and constrained by state ideology and policy. This line of analysis also explores the Israeli university system as the physical manifestation of the state, including explorations of campus design and location. This is then extended through her consideration of the way the state and the university sector are so comprehensively interwoven, such as the role of state security forces in the provision, management, and leadership of academic programmes. Here Wind demonstrates convincingly that not only is the state and its universities closely interwoven (that is not uncommon) but that the state ideology and its security and military services shape and determine what takes place in the sector; that there is no place for that critique we celebrate as essential to academic life and practice, calling into question claims to academic freedom.
The second strand is more subtle but just, if not more, powerful. Here Wind continues to explore academic freedom but shifts focus from the interweaving of the state and university sector to look at the active role the universities play in Palestinian subjugation. This aspect of her case considers the ways that the adherence to the ideology of the state limits the kinds of approaches to scholarship that are seen and legitimate as well as the kinds of issues and questions that may be explored – so here she looks at cases and systemic evidence that points to the undermining of the integrity and legitimacy of scholarship that addresses the adverse effects of military occupation on Palestinian life. This discussion also looks at the ways the state has sought to limit Palestinian access to higher education, at the denial of educational opportunities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (written before the 2023-4 war in Gaza where every Palestinian university has been destroyed, this is disturbingly prescient), and the active complicity of the university sector in the Israeli far right’s attacks on Palestinians – both those in the Occupied Territories and Israeli citizens.
Wind approaches this project from a distinct position – as a Jewish-Israeli scholar (she is an anthropologist now based in Canada). This position gave her access to people and sources that it would be difficult if not impossible for many Palestinian researchers, partly because the ideology of the state and university sector means she is presumed to be less of a threat (as a Jewish-Israeli), but also because she is embedded in different networks with assumptions about access to and use of knowledge. Even so, she makes clear that there are many people she has interviewed who cannot be named – in most cases we get first names or the use of a nom de plume – both these approaches are common and legitimate in scholarly practice of this kind. Even so, the openness of the interweaving of the sectors and place of the university sector in denying Palestinian freedom (to evoke the title) means that many leaders in the sector are quite open in their public statements, making much of what she explores akin to what the US anthropologist Michael Taussig calls the ‘public secret’. As a Jewish-Israeli scholar Wind has constructed a text as a remarkable example of ally-ship.
That this is a ‘public secret’ reinforces the power of the analysis. My scholarly work for the last 30 or so years has included a significant strand that explores international campaigns focused on cultural and social boycotts and other sanctions, alongside many years work exploring the dynamics of settler colonialism. There is little in that time I have read that is as clear and convincing, and that relies on the words and explicit public actions of state authorities to make it case as Wind’s argument here – at least, that is, since the fall of South African apartheid in the 1990s. Wind’s evidence and case is compelling – meaning that although in some places this presents hard to deal with evidence, it is an essential piece in making sense of one of the most significant and demanding political questions of our current era.
September 16, 2025
Leest het bestuur van de UvA nooit een boek?!
December 27, 2025
This is a must read for everyone who still doubts, or is curious about, Israeli universities' complicity in apartheid and genocide. Incredibly well researched piece of scholarship, by Israeli scholar Maya Wind.
November 24, 2024
Having read this, I can never unsee the irony of justifying Israeli attacks on Gaza by claiming that there are military bases in schools and beneath hospitals, while literally all of Israel is one giant military base. As they say: every accusation is a confession.
June 6, 2024
Have now finished reading this well-organised book, whose arguments and facts are compelling, even hair-raising. I'm in agreement with other reviewers; this is a thorough piece of research that university governors and other 'partners' of Israeli universities can no longer ignore.
It remains free to download from the website of its publisher, Verso Books.
It remains free to download from the website of its publisher, Verso Books.
September 15, 2024
Raad dit boek iedereen aan. Het is een heldere uiteenzetting van de geschiedenis van Israëlische universiteiten en hun rol en medeplichtigheid in de decennialange onderdrukking van de Palestijnen. Door onderzoek te doen naar wapentechnologie, militairen op te leiden en hechte banden te hebben met het Israëlische leger, maar ook door actief de Palestijnse geschiedenis te onderdrukken door archieven te slopen en Palestijnse academici het woord te ontnemen, wordt pijnlijk duidelijk dat er niet zo iets is als ‘academische vrijheid’ in Israël. Een helder betoog vóór het boycotten van Israëlische universiteiten.
October 1, 2024
Jongens dit boek is crazy, het is NOG ZO VEEL ERGER DAN IK ME HAD KUNNEN VOORSTELLEN!!
Een kleine greep:
-Hoe Israëlische archeologie departments een ancient site inpikken van Palestijnen, vervolgens al het bewijs van eeuwenoude islamitische en christelijke bewoning verwoesten en zo de geweldloze stichtingsmythe in stand houden. Vervolgens trekken ze steeds meer bezoekers en bewoners naar de site en functioneert deze als een nieuwe settlement in Palestijns gebied.
-Hoe rechtendepartments keer op keer manieren zoeken om de mensenrechten anders te interpreteren om ze zo te kunnen overschrijden. Denk bijvoorbeeld aan het feit dat ze hun grondoorlogen "counterterror campaigns" noemen, en zo kunnen claimen dat het oorlogsrecht hier geen toepassing op heeft, want het is geen oorlog (en natuurlijk heeft Amerika exact dezelfde strategie overgenomen).
Of denk aan het feit dat ze het verschil tussen militairen en burgers in oorlogsrecht niet erkennen: in plaats daarvan hebben ze het concept "third population" bedacht, waarmee ze iedereen bedoelen die misschien nu nog geen terrorist is, maar het wel kan worden. AKA ALLE BURGERS DUS. Nee UN, ik heb geen burgers vermoord. Dat zijn namelijk helemaal geen burgers .
-Hoe de universiteitsgebouwen zelf dienen als militaire outposts. Nieuw campusgebouw? Zullen we die anders ff neersmijten bovenop en Palestijns dorp met hoge muren en een snipertoren? En vervolgens iedereen wegjagen en zo veel mogelijk nieuwe studenten lokken om de area helemaal voor ons te settelen? Topidee.
-Hoe er door de complete verstrengeling tussen het leger, de staat, rechtse organisaties en de universiteit nul ruimte is voor enige vorm van kritiek op zionisme. Alle bronnen over de Nakba of andere negatieve punten in de geschiedenis liggen achter slot en grendel (sws zijn minder dan 3% van documenten in staatsarchieven en 0.5% van militaire archieven openbaar in Israel). Mocht je toch iets kritisch zeggen of publiceren, dan wordt je gefilmd door een rechtse studentenorganisatie en met je kop in de krant gezet zonder enige vorm van steun van jouw universiteit. Sterker nog, ze zullen alles doen om jouw thesis weg te moffelen of te denouncen.
-Hoe Israel alles doet om hoger onderwijs voor Palestijnen onmogelijk te maken, including belachelijke toegangscriteria, alleen dorms geven aan ex idf soldaten, opzettelijk geen openbaar vervoer regelen voor Palestijnse studenten, en natuurlijk het keer op keer opzettelijk kapotbombarderen van alle universiteiten in Gaza.
-Hoe innig de verstrengeling van het leger en de Israëlische universiteiten is. Universiteiten leiden soldaten zelf op en worden ingezet om nieuwe wapens voor de IDF uit te vinden. Kritiek op het leger is hierdoor onmogelijk. Vervolgens worden die nieuwe technologieen dan getest op Palestijnen, en worden ze doodleuk wereldwijd verkocht als 'battle-tested' :D
Ik kan nog wel twintig dingen opnoemen maar jongens echt LEES DIT BOEK. Nu begrijp ik pas in detail waarom die academische boycott zo belangrijk is.
Een kleine greep:
-Hoe Israëlische archeologie departments een ancient site inpikken van Palestijnen, vervolgens al het bewijs van eeuwenoude islamitische en christelijke bewoning verwoesten en zo de geweldloze stichtingsmythe in stand houden. Vervolgens trekken ze steeds meer bezoekers en bewoners naar de site en functioneert deze als een nieuwe settlement in Palestijns gebied.
-Hoe rechtendepartments keer op keer manieren zoeken om de mensenrechten anders te interpreteren om ze zo te kunnen overschrijden. Denk bijvoorbeeld aan het feit dat ze hun grondoorlogen "counterterror campaigns" noemen, en zo kunnen claimen dat het oorlogsrecht hier geen toepassing op heeft, want het is geen oorlog (en natuurlijk heeft Amerika exact dezelfde strategie overgenomen).
Of denk aan het feit dat ze het verschil tussen militairen en burgers in oorlogsrecht niet erkennen: in plaats daarvan hebben ze het concept "third population" bedacht, waarmee ze iedereen bedoelen die misschien nu nog geen terrorist is, maar het wel kan worden. AKA ALLE BURGERS DUS. Nee UN, ik heb geen burgers vermoord. Dat zijn namelijk helemaal geen burgers .
-Hoe de universiteitsgebouwen zelf dienen als militaire outposts. Nieuw campusgebouw? Zullen we die anders ff neersmijten bovenop en Palestijns dorp met hoge muren en een snipertoren? En vervolgens iedereen wegjagen en zo veel mogelijk nieuwe studenten lokken om de area helemaal voor ons te settelen? Topidee.
-Hoe er door de complete verstrengeling tussen het leger, de staat, rechtse organisaties en de universiteit nul ruimte is voor enige vorm van kritiek op zionisme. Alle bronnen over de Nakba of andere negatieve punten in de geschiedenis liggen achter slot en grendel (sws zijn minder dan 3% van documenten in staatsarchieven en 0.5% van militaire archieven openbaar in Israel). Mocht je toch iets kritisch zeggen of publiceren, dan wordt je gefilmd door een rechtse studentenorganisatie en met je kop in de krant gezet zonder enige vorm van steun van jouw universiteit. Sterker nog, ze zullen alles doen om jouw thesis weg te moffelen of te denouncen.
-Hoe Israel alles doet om hoger onderwijs voor Palestijnen onmogelijk te maken, including belachelijke toegangscriteria, alleen dorms geven aan ex idf soldaten, opzettelijk geen openbaar vervoer regelen voor Palestijnse studenten, en natuurlijk het keer op keer opzettelijk kapotbombarderen van alle universiteiten in Gaza.
-Hoe innig de verstrengeling van het leger en de Israëlische universiteiten is. Universiteiten leiden soldaten zelf op en worden ingezet om nieuwe wapens voor de IDF uit te vinden. Kritiek op het leger is hierdoor onmogelijk. Vervolgens worden die nieuwe technologieen dan getest op Palestijnen, en worden ze doodleuk wereldwijd verkocht als 'battle-tested' :D
Ik kan nog wel twintig dingen opnoemen maar jongens echt LEES DIT BOEK. Nu begrijp ik pas in detail waarom die academische boycott zo belangrijk is.
February 10, 2025
Fantastic and necessary book. I’ve read a lot on the subject, and even I was stunned by what I read.
Israeli universities have long been hailed by Israelis as neutral sites of academic freedom, but Jewish-Israeli author Maya Wind disagrees. She wrote this book to articulate the many ways that Israeli universities are complicit in state repression of Palestinian nonviolent, civil resistance.
I started taking notes in a word document because I thought this stuff was so shocking that it needed to be shared, but after 20 or 30 pages it was literally too dense and information-packed to keep it up. All I can do is ask conscientious world citizens, and especially US taxpayers, to read it.
Although it’s tangential to the book, the author argued that the data she presents should be sufficient reason to boycott Israeli universities (note: FWIW, this refers specifically to the universities as opposed to any associated individuals). I don’t know whether I agree with the morality or strategic effectiveness of that boycott. I respect those that uphold the boycott, especially given that there are VERY few avenues available for civil nonviolent resistance (which is in large part due to the silencing of political critique within Israeli universities, which, as usual, is widely agreed upon to violate international law). I also sympathize with those that oppose the boycott. Either way, the boycott is completely tangential to this book, which simply organizes and articulates the ways that universities are complicit in repression and ideological and physical violence.
Rating: 4.75 out of 5.
Israeli universities have long been hailed by Israelis as neutral sites of academic freedom, but Jewish-Israeli author Maya Wind disagrees. She wrote this book to articulate the many ways that Israeli universities are complicit in state repression of Palestinian nonviolent, civil resistance.
I started taking notes in a word document because I thought this stuff was so shocking that it needed to be shared, but after 20 or 30 pages it was literally too dense and information-packed to keep it up. All I can do is ask conscientious world citizens, and especially US taxpayers, to read it.
Although it’s tangential to the book, the author argued that the data she presents should be sufficient reason to boycott Israeli universities (note: FWIW, this refers specifically to the universities as opposed to any associated individuals). I don’t know whether I agree with the morality or strategic effectiveness of that boycott. I respect those that uphold the boycott, especially given that there are VERY few avenues available for civil nonviolent resistance (which is in large part due to the silencing of political critique within Israeli universities, which, as usual, is widely agreed upon to violate international law). I also sympathize with those that oppose the boycott. Either way, the boycott is completely tangential to this book, which simply organizes and articulates the ways that universities are complicit in repression and ideological and physical violence.
Rating: 4.75 out of 5.
October 3, 2024
If you want to understand how Israeli university and academic institutions are key to the current apartheid regime, then you MUST read this book. This is not a pleasant read, the book is not made to entertain, but to inform. Maya Wind did a tremendous work of fact checking, resource collections and so much more to give a complete understanding of the horrible situation lived by Palestinian students and Arab Jewish students in Israel. This book should be read by every single university faculty member in Europe, to make them see why it is extremely urgent to cut funding and projects with Israeli universities. If I could give this book a 10, I would.
June 2, 2024
Must-read! Het leest niet super vlot, maar dat is ook niet het doel van dit werk. Aan de hand van voorbeelden, mechanismen en wetgeving, wordt duidelijk uitgelegd hoe Israëlische universiteiten bijdragen aan de onderdrukking van Palestijnen en de bezetting van Palestina.
July 10, 2024
4.5 ★
Good for anyone who wants to learn more about how Israeli universities further the Zionist project in historic Palestine. The book covers a wide of topics and Wind details her arguments well, but does not give a detailed analysis of each point making it a rather fast read. There are ample footnotes to direct you to additional literature, should you wish to investigate anything further.
Towers of Ivory and Steel explains how Israeli universities are centers of power for the state of Israel and are active participants of its oppression of Palestinians and seizure of Palestinian land. Anything Palestinian is a threat to their goals and anything seen as support for Palestine or Palestinians (eg scholarship, student organizations, speaking Arabic) is shut down or attacked. This invades Palestinian universities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) and even Palestinians who wish to travel outside of the OPT or Israel for higher education. It provides support for the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI)—part of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement and an excess of material for the reader to reflect on, particularly how policies in one’s own country are a part of this settler-university tradition locally and in Israel and the OPT.
Published before 7-October 2023.
The book’s separated into two sections, each with 3 chapters,
Complicity
- Expertise of Subjugation, “how Israeli academic disciplines have developed in service of the Israeli government and security state”;
- Outpost Campus, how “Israeli universities were designed as regionally strategic outposts for the Israeli state’s territorial and demographic project”; and
- The Scholarly Security State, “how Israeli universities support and advance the work of the Israeli military, security state, and weapons corporations”
Repression
- Epistemic Occupation, “how Israeli universities systematically disallow critical academic research, teaching, and discussion of Israeli settler colonialism, military occupation, and apartheid”;
- Students Under Siege, how “the restrictions imposed on the rights of Palestinian students to study, speak, and protest across Israeli universities”; and
- Academia Against Liberation, how “the Israeli state targets Palestinian universities, scholars, and students to suppress the Palestinian movement for liberation, and the Israeli system of higher education is complicit”
At the time of writing this, every university in Gaza has been destroyed by Israel (“How Israel Has Destroyed Gaza’s Schools and Universities.” Al Jazeera, June 10, 2024.).
Good for anyone who wants to learn more about how Israeli universities further the Zionist project in historic Palestine. The book covers a wide of topics and Wind details her arguments well, but does not give a detailed analysis of each point making it a rather fast read. There are ample footnotes to direct you to additional literature, should you wish to investigate anything further.
Towers of Ivory and Steel explains how Israeli universities are centers of power for the state of Israel and are active participants of its oppression of Palestinians and seizure of Palestinian land. Anything Palestinian is a threat to their goals and anything seen as support for Palestine or Palestinians (eg scholarship, student organizations, speaking Arabic) is shut down or attacked. This invades Palestinian universities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) and even Palestinians who wish to travel outside of the OPT or Israel for higher education. It provides support for the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI)—part of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement and an excess of material for the reader to reflect on, particularly how policies in one’s own country are a part of this settler-university tradition locally and in Israel and the OPT.
Published before 7-October 2023.
The book’s separated into two sections, each with 3 chapters,
Complicity
- Expertise of Subjugation, “how Israeli academic disciplines have developed in service of the Israeli government and security state”;
- Outpost Campus, how “Israeli universities were designed as regionally strategic outposts for the Israeli state’s territorial and demographic project”; and
- The Scholarly Security State, “how Israeli universities support and advance the work of the Israeli military, security state, and weapons corporations”
Repression
- Epistemic Occupation, “how Israeli universities systematically disallow critical academic research, teaching, and discussion of Israeli settler colonialism, military occupation, and apartheid”;
- Students Under Siege, how “the restrictions imposed on the rights of Palestinian students to study, speak, and protest across Israeli universities”; and
- Academia Against Liberation, how “the Israeli state targets Palestinian universities, scholars, and students to suppress the Palestinian movement for liberation, and the Israeli system of higher education is complicit”
At the time of writing this, every university in Gaza has been destroyed by Israel (“How Israel Has Destroyed Gaza’s Schools and Universities.” Al Jazeera, June 10, 2024.).
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 9, 2024
Devastating assessment of the essential function of Israeli universities in the perpetuation of the apartheid state. These places: Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Ben-Gurion University in Beersheba, etc. are malignant institutions that maintain an immoral status quo.
February 18, 2024
This is a valuable study of Israeli universities’ active role in colonial dispossession and imperial violence, a methodical and comprehensive account of the historical and ongoing role played by administrators, faculty, students, and the institutions that claim them in racialized violence and systematic dispossession. Completed prior to the current genocidal project in Gaza, this text is all the more important in light of the bombing of every single Palestinian higher education institution there.
Read
January 29, 2024Drawing on Hebrew sources, Maya Wind shatters the myth of liberal expression in Israeli universities, revealing instead how they prop up apartheid.
June 9, 2024
Moet je moet je moet je lezen ‼️
July 30, 2024
Maya Wind has painstakingly demonstrated how since its very founding Israeli academia has been inextricably linked to and largely controlled by Israel’s government and security apparatus. This control ranges from explicit discrimination and repression of Palestinian students to the falsification of history to legitimize Israeli settler colonialism to supporting Israel’s military-industrial complex. As Wind argues based on meticulous research, Israeli universities have systematically suppressed any form of critique of Israel - and have increased this in recent years, as far right influences reach ever deeper and policing too. Moreover, Israeli universities are literally advancing Israeli ethnic cleansing and ethnic engineering in occupied Palestinian lands. Reading this as an academic working at a Dutch university, I am ashamed Dutch academia continues to cooperate with Israeli universities which are so fundamentally complicit in ethnic cleansing and structural human rights violations. Anyone who argues against an academic boycott of Israel arguing that Israeli universities are beacons of liberalism is either a liar or consciously ignorant, as Wind’s study is but one of many that clearly lays bare how. Israeli academia is anything but independent and in fact supports breaks a plethora of scientific principles, ranging from falsification to censorship and genocide denial.
Tl;dr - boycott Israeli universities if you are in favor of human rights and human dignity, universally
Tl;dr - boycott Israeli universities if you are in favor of human rights and human dignity, universally
May 20, 2024
Wow. So important, provides all the argument I need to continue pushing for academic boycotts of Israel. One of those books where the people who absolutely need to read it won’t, so I wish I could just snap my fingers and have all the information inside this book be present in everybody’s minds. I couldn’t help thinking about the excuse Israel uses for destroying anything in the Gaza Strip (they were using that playground as a military base!) when literally all of the Israeli universities serve as a military base. Also, when they described how the campuses have lots of checkpoints and aren’t really open to the public, I couldn’t help but be reminded of what Columbia has looked like the past few weeks. Once again, to everybody that supports Israel- do you not know about how terrible it is, or do you not care? Because if it’s the former, I’ve got so many books for you to read
August 2, 2024
Hoger onderwijs- en kennisinstellingen in Israël spelen sinds hun oprichting (en tot op de dag van vandaag) een actieve rol in de onderdrukking van Palestijnen, zowel in Israël als in de bezette gebieden. Instellingen buiten Israël die samenwerken met Israëlische universiteiten hebben na dit boek de morele plicht om na te denken over de vraag of zij willen samenwerken met instellingen en mensen die expliciet racisme, onderdrukking en een bezetting in stand houden.
Dit boek onderschrijft nog eens dat eigenlijk alleen Israëli's met Europese roots (dus bijvoorbeeld Mizrahi niet) over de volledige rechten en privileges beschikken die voortvloeien uit het Israëlische staatsburgerschap. Het is om woest van te worden. Ik schaam me er als Europeaan voor dat ons belangrijkste exportproduct racisme is tegen iedereen die niet op ons lijkt.
Dit boek onderschrijft nog eens dat eigenlijk alleen Israëli's met Europese roots (dus bijvoorbeeld Mizrahi niet) over de volledige rechten en privileges beschikken die voortvloeien uit het Israëlische staatsburgerschap. Het is om woest van te worden. Ik schaam me er als Europeaan voor dat ons belangrijkste exportproduct racisme is tegen iedereen die niet op ons lijkt.
December 23, 2025
A really clear and necessary piece of scholarship. A pressing account of the complicity of academia — so often deemed a site of ‘freedom’ — in the dispossession, occupation, and curtailing of Palestinian life. A must-read for all working in the university and/or organizing for Palestinian liberation.
June 27, 2024
lang leve de studenten intifada 🇵🇸
October 1, 2024
Thank you Maya Wind and Free Palestine 🇵🇸
November 23, 2024
Nobody is free until everybody is free.
December 13, 2024
Every student who supports the Palestinian cause should read this.
August 7, 2025
Well researched, to the point, absolutely terrifying
September 28, 2025
Verplichte kost voor elke student end academicus.
De steun aan genocide is beangstigend duidelijk.
Hoe kan het dat er zo weinig gebeurd?
De steun aan genocide is beangstigend duidelijk.
Hoe kan het dat er zo weinig gebeurd?
March 18, 2025
I started reading this book sometime after the October 7th Hamas-led attack on Israel began. After some months, many students in the Western world started resenting Israel for the excessive response against Gaza and demanded to boycott Israeli universities. Those protests also shook the city where I study. For this reason, I decided to read it in order to gain a clearer understanding of what was at stake.
Despite being rather short (278 pages, of which almost a quarter are footnotes), the book is packed with facts. As other fellow reviewers pointed out, the narrative was not very smooth (and this is the main reason I gave this book four stars instead of five). It seems like a book written to provide arguments for debates with supporters of Israel; whatever page you pick up, you’ll find something to throw against your opponent. However, the amount of documentation is still very much laudable.
The book is divided into roughly two sections, each of which is further divided into three chapters: the first section focuses on the ties between Israeli universities and the policy of expansion into Palestinian territory. In particular, the faculties of Archaeology and Law are examined, in order to provide a perspective on the relationship between knowledge and power.
The second section focuses on the ties between Israeli universities and the state security apparatus, with particular attention to the censorship of pro-Palestinian scholars within universities and the repression of pro-Palestinian students (often Palestinian themselves).
I don’t consider myself to be very informed on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; before picking it up, I thought that Israeli universities were a bastion of freedom against the growing authoritarian tendencies of the Netanyahu cabinet. I also thought that the problems with Palestinians surfaced after the Six-Day War, and that before then Palestinians could live almost in peace. This book made me reconsider those opinions.
I recommend it to anyone wishing to gain more knowledge about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the ties between the state security apparatus and Israeli universities.
Despite being rather short (278 pages, of which almost a quarter are footnotes), the book is packed with facts. As other fellow reviewers pointed out, the narrative was not very smooth (and this is the main reason I gave this book four stars instead of five). It seems like a book written to provide arguments for debates with supporters of Israel; whatever page you pick up, you’ll find something to throw against your opponent. However, the amount of documentation is still very much laudable.
The book is divided into roughly two sections, each of which is further divided into three chapters: the first section focuses on the ties between Israeli universities and the policy of expansion into Palestinian territory. In particular, the faculties of Archaeology and Law are examined, in order to provide a perspective on the relationship between knowledge and power.
The second section focuses on the ties between Israeli universities and the state security apparatus, with particular attention to the censorship of pro-Palestinian scholars within universities and the repression of pro-Palestinian students (often Palestinian themselves).
I don’t consider myself to be very informed on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; before picking it up, I thought that Israeli universities were a bastion of freedom against the growing authoritarian tendencies of the Netanyahu cabinet. I also thought that the problems with Palestinians surfaced after the Six-Day War, and that before then Palestinians could live almost in peace. This book made me reconsider those opinions.
I recommend it to anyone wishing to gain more knowledge about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the ties between the state security apparatus and Israeli universities.
June 23, 2025
Should be mandatory reading to all those still in denial about Israel and claiming it is a democracy.
Want to read
February 27, 2024This looks important. We are living in times which , although cruel and dangerous, are also very expository. From day to day, a fourth Reich is aggregating, led by the mighty senility of the United States. A crucial cog, one might even say the unmasked face of this hideous project, is Israel, a candidly fascist and bestial ethno-state, one of the most obscene apparitions in all of human history. As we resist this tide of filth of which Israel is so representative, we need to observe, in real time all its machinations and gearings, which is beyond the capacity of one scholar. It appears that Maya Wind has focussed in on one aspect of the Israeli cesspool.
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