The Science4Peace Forum, representing scientists from the CERN and DESY, a huge international collaborative research effort into fundamental physics, supports the following open letter, co-signed by 36 scientific, academic, social, and arts organizations. Under the headline, it begins:
“Where If Not at a University?”
“Following pressure from politicians, the Free University of Berlin has cancelled the public, in-person lectures planned for 2/19/2025 by UN Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese and Israeli architect Prof. Eyal Weizman. A week earlier, the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich cancelled a lecture by Francesca Albanese. Such actions confirm a worrying trend: political influence undermining university autonomy and endangering academic freedom.
“These cancellations are part of a series of measures against people who name and criticize documented violence and warfare in violation of international law in Palestine by the Israeli government and its support by Germany. Debates about the violent reality of the Gaza war are thus deliberately hindered, and academic freedom, which is constitutionally protected (art. 5, para. 3 German Basic Law) is being arbitrarily, politically restricted at universities. The role of the university as a space for open debate about current and international themes is being curtailed—academics in Germany and around the world recognize this with dismay. The handling of politically critical positions creates a climate of self-censorship in reporting, program planning and academic debate culture.”
The statement goes on to demolish various excuses for this censorship, amounting to “a kind of state-imposed ban on factually supported criticism of Israel’s warfare—an unacceptable interference into freedom of opinion, academic freedom and university autonomy….
“Varying opinions on the positions of Albanese and Weizman exist. And universities in particular are places where differences in opinion should be negotiated in open discourse.…
“We demand that the leadership of universities resist pressure from biased press coverage and politicians and defend university autonomy as well as the freedom of opinion and academic freedom of their staff and students.”
