From Academia to Antisemitic Tropes? Tel Aviv University-Affiliated Journal Accused of Pushing Anti-Israel Propaganda in Wartime

An academic journal linked to Tel Aviv University faces outrage for publishing a call for papers accusing Israel of “systematic destruction” and echoing antisemitic propaganda — in the middle of a war.

The Israeli Sociological Society’s flagship journal, Israeli Sociology — published in affiliation with Tel Aviv University’s Faculty of Social Sciences — is at the center of a storm after issuing a call for “real-time essays” on what it calls “Israel’s transformation into a society enabling systematic destruction.”

The invitation to researchers, circulated this week by the editorial board, accuses Israel of daily killing innocents, ethnic cleansing, and deliberately starving civilians — language critics say mirrors centuries-old antisemitic blood libels and modern anti-Israel propaganda.


📧 The Email That Sparked the Firestorm

The editorial team’s message to academics reads:

“In light of Israel’s ongoing inhumane actions in Gaza — including daily killing of innocents, systematic destruction of homes and infrastructure, starvation, and denial of basic life services to a civilian population — our ability to maintain the narrative of a necessary response to October 7 is eroding. Israeli Sociology is launching a special online section for short real-time essays on how Israeli society has come to enable systematic destruction and avert its gaze from the horrors committed in its name.”


🔥 Academic & Public Backlash

The reaction was swift — and furious.

“This is propaganda against the State of Israel during wartime, not academic research,” charged a senior Israeli academic. “The fact that this is being published from within an Israeli university is a national disgrace.”

Critics accuse Tel Aviv University of harboring a radical anti-Zionist intellectual enclave, using the veneer of scholarly debate to promote political messaging indistinguishable from Hamas talking points.

The proposed essays include themes such as:

  • “The social causes enabling the continued policy in Gaza”
  • “The boundary between victimizer and victim”

Analysts warn these framings blur the line between Hamas terrorists — who massacred 1,200 Israelis on October 7 — and the democratic state defending its citizens while adhering to moral and legal norms.


🎯 Editors’ Stated Goal: A Media Alternative

The journal’s editors admit their aim is “to present insights not found in other sources” — effectively positioning the project as a counter-narrative to mainstream Israeli media, built on an explicitly anti-Israel worldview.


🏛️ University’s Distancing Statement

Tel Aviv University quickly sought to distance itself, stressing:

“Israeli Sociology is an independent journal. Its content does not reflect the views of Tel Aviv University in any way.”

But for many, the damage is done — and the debate over the politicization of Israeli academia has been reignited.

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