Education minister threatens universities’ funding over student Nakba events
Finance minister says he’ll implement demand to punish Hebrew University and Tel Aviv University for protests commemorating Palestinians ‘catastrophe’; schools slam ‘illegal’ move
Education Minister Yoav Kisch threatened on Tuesday to revoke funding for Hebrew University and Tel Aviv University over student rallies commemorating the Nakba, or “catastrophe,” the Arabic term for the expulsion and exodus of some 700,000 Palestinians during Israel’s 1948 War of Independence.
“Academia is not a platform for incitement under the guise of freedom of expression,” Kisch wrote in a post on X, adding that he had appealed to Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to revoke funding for the universities.
Smotrich later said in a statement that he supported the move and would “instruct the professional authorities to immediately act on revoking the funding.”
The universities rejected Kisch’s threat, saying they supported their students’ freedom of speech. Smotrich would have difficulty revoking the schools’ budgets under the so-called Nakba Law, legislation passed in 2011 that empowers the finance minister to penalize institutions that fund activities marking Independence Day as a “day of mourning.”
Nakba Day is traditionally observed on May 15 — the day in 1948 when the British Mandate ended, and a day after Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben Gurion, announced the state’s establishment.
Israel celebrates its Independence Day according to the Hebrew anniversary of Ben Gurion’s declaration. The country marked its 77th Independence Day on May 1.
Students at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem held a Nakba ceremony on Monday, and Tel Aviv University students are set to hold one on Wednesday.
YESTERDAY: Dozens of Palestinian students and supporters protest at the Hebrew University, built on Jabal al-Masharif, in Jerusalem, as part of Nakba Week, organized to highlight the ongoing Nakba and the genocide in Gaza. Photos: Yahel Gazit /Activestills. pic.twitter.com/M2eLGymgIC
— Activestills (@activestills) May 13, 2025
Right-wing student group Im Tirtzu, which has helped draft a bill to fire teachers the government accuses of support for terrorism, held a counter-demonstration at the Jerusalem Nakba ceremony, and plans to hold one in Tel Aviv on Wednesday. Past campus Nakba memorial demonstrations have seen violence erupt between protesters and counter-protesters.
Noting that students at Hebrew University had waved Palestinian flags on Monday, Im Tirtzu said it “won’t be silent as terrorist flags are waved, and won’t allow the desecration of the day the country was established.”
Palestinian student groups at Hebrew University said Monday that commemorating Nakba Day was even more essential this year, “as the genocide against our people in Gaza continues.”
“Let us raise our voices against this genocide and displacement,” a statement from the groups said, adding that they would pass the day reading letters and poems from people in the Strip, which has been devastated by 19 months of war sparked by the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023.
Both Tel Aviv University and the Hebrew University said in statements that they supported their students’ right to mark the Nakba, and called Kisch’s threats illegal.
“Tel Aviv University categorically rejects the Minister of Education’s appalling threats to take illegal action and withhold funding from the university,” Tel Aviv University said in a statement.
The university said that under Israeli law, “demonstrations initiated by students on Nakba Day, which is held at most Israeli universities, are protected by the freedom of expression and protest.”
The Hebrew University responded similarly, saying that Kisch’s “directive is without any legal foundation or statutory support.”
“The Hebrew University is committed to fostering coexistence across all segments of Israeli society,” the statement said. “As part of its dedication to freedom of expression, the university ensures that diverse voices can be heard — embracing complexity in dialogue and encouraging mutual respect.”
Kisch responded on X that embracing such events “prevents academic freedom,” and that “any students who think that Nakba Day is a national day of mourning are invited to study at Birzeit University and not at the university of the first Zionist city in Israel.” Birzeit is a major Palestinian university in the West Bank.
Kisch said that under the law, institutions supporting Nakba Day activities should expect to have their budgets denied.
The Nakba Law allows the finance minister to cut an institution’s state funds by up to three times the money that the institution had spent in support of actions that incite to racism or violence, mourn Independence Day or deny Israel’s existence as a Jewish and democratic state. That means Smotrich would have to prove that Hebrew University and Tel Aviv University had themselves funded their students’ Nakba commemorations.
Kisch has previously clashed with university heads over their threats to go on strike if the government proceeded with steps to weaken the judiciary.
Israeli universities have suspended Arab students over social media posts seen as supporting the October 7 Hamas onslaught. Haifa University, where roughly 40 percent of the student body is Arab, in April suspended a Jewish-Arab student group that had held an unauthorized anti-war sit-in.
According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, Arabs make up roughly 19% of the student body in higher education, compared to their 21% share in Israel’s population at large.
The Times of Israel Community.