Relativization of terrorism generates conflicts at universities in Brazil

The terrorism of the Hamas group against Israel and the escalation of tension in the Middle East have reverberated in the Brazilian academic environment. Statements by professors who relativize the terrorist nature of Hamas or express anti-Semitism have had repercussions, in recent days, inside and outside universities.

On Monday (16), the State University of Paraíba (UEPB) canceled an online lecture on the conflict in the Middle East with Fernanda de Melo, a bachelor in International Relations, after she celebrated the death of Brazilian Bruna Valeanu, who lived in Israel, via social media. Days before, Fernanda had taught a public class at the University of São Paulo (USP), organized by the Committee of Students in Solidarity with the Palestinian People.

In the same class, Fernanda was accompanied by another speaker, the professor of International Relations at PUC-SP Reginaldo Nasser, who, in a recent interview with Institutoconhecimento Liberta, equated the terrorist acts of Hamas with the way the State of Israel treats the Palestinians . “Unfortunately, what Palestinians have been living with for 75 years has now happened to Israeli civilians,” he said.

Other recent cases of teachers with a similar bias have been criticized on social media, such as that of anthropologist Francirosy Barbosa, professor of the Psychology course at USP (University of São Paulo) on the Ribeirão Preto campus, who, after the attacks, expressed in her networks “total support for the struggle of the Palestinian people” and said that the current situation has “a single culprit, Zionism, which has been exploiting, killing and humiliating the Palestinians for decades.” She is a member of a working group to combat “hate speech and extremism” at the current Ministry of Human Rights and Citizenship.

A People’s Gazette, International Relations professor Daniela Alves, executive director of the Center for Strategy, Intelligence and International Relations (CEIRI), reports concern about the manifestation of professors who relativize terrorism. “What values ​​are they passing on to students?” she asks. “There is a relativization of concepts. When this starts to be defended among academics, this also has an impact on our political system and our legal system. Because academic production also influences public policies”, she adds.

For Daniela, a possible explanation for why the relativization of terrorism has been trivialized in Brazilian universities – even though it is seen as abject in Brazilian society as a whole – is the disconnection between the academic environment and the reality of ordinary citizens. Teachers create self-referential bubbles and detach themselves from what, in other social contexts, tends to be common sense.

“Within the academy, you close yourself into small groups, and you need to choose which group you will be part of. And this group will keep citing itself in books and articles practically your entire life”, he observes. “There are students who leave college, in any human sciences course, and go straight to the master’s degree. They haven’t had any professional experience outside of that, but they get an internship as a teacher somewhere”, he adds.

Universities are on the defensive after backlash over anti-Israel speech

The reaction on social media to the relativization of terrorism by university professors has placed educational institutions on the defensive.

UEPB, for example, canceled not only Fernanda de Melo’s presence, but also the event at which she would be a speaker. The lecture, entitled “Understanding the Conflict between Israel and Palestine”, was being organized by the Center for Studies in Politics, International Relations and Religion (CEPRIR), which published in a note: “The debate will be resumed at an appropriate time. We take this opportunity to reinforce that CEPIR does not support any type of intolerance or racism, and they are not accepted by the parties that make it up.”

Last week, the management of Ibmec Colleges instructed non-specialized professors to avoid giving their opinion on the war in the press. Only the coordinator of the International Relations course at Ibmec, professor José Niemeyer, is authorized to make public statements about the conflict on behalf of the institution. The objective is to avoid inappropriate comments.

Outside Brazil, terrorist attacks also sparked controversy in the university environment. The main one came from Harvard University, in the USA, where 34 student associations from the educational institution signed a letter stating that Israel is responsible for the escalation of violence in the Middle East.

The students’ anti-Israel bias does not appear to be accidental. Political scientist Adriano Gianturco recalls a 2022 report from the Middle East Studies Association – an American society of researchers specializing in the Middle East – which highlights an anti-Israel bias in 80% of member professors.

“More than talking about subjective perceptions and cases, I mention this study to show empirical data, that is, it is not something casuistic, accidental, but there is this data. This is in the United States. I imagine that in the rest of the world it is even worse”, he states .

For him, a plural academic environment is important, but the search for diversity of ideas should not serve as a pretext to disseminate a distorted view of the ongoing conflict. “The ideal is a plural environment. Now, one thing is Israel-Palestine, and another thing is Hamas,” he comments.

Media teachers become the center of controversy

Controversies in the academic environment have also involved Brazilian professors with a strong presence in the media on topics related to the Middle East.

In an article dated October 10th in the newspaper Folha de S.PauloSalem Nasser, doctor in International Law from USP and professor at FGV-SP, criticized the use of the word “terrorist” to classify Hamas.

“Folha can call Hamas a terrorist group to remain faithful to its Manual, but, to remain faithful to the same Manual, it would need to refer to Israel as a terrorist State and its rulers as terrorists, in accordance with its own definition. (…) if Folha makes a point of covering, in the way it refers to Hamas, what it perceives as violations of humanitarian law, or as war crimes, or, even, crimes against humanity, I would resort to another terminology other than terrorist”, he wrote.

A petition repudiating Nasser’s article published on the website Change.org it already had more than 8,000 signatures on Friday afternoon (20).

“Professor Salem H. Nasser has a solid academic background. However, knowledge can be used to do good, or to destroy. Today, we call on FGV, which is worthy of our respect, to take appropriate measures to ensure the safety of its students and a firm stance against any teacher or employee who uses the institution’s name to spread hate speech against any individual or minority and to support terrorist acts”, states the document.

Another controversy originated at PUC-Rio, centered on Michel Gherman, professor of Sociology at UFRJ and researcher at the Center for the Study of Antisemitism at the University of Jerusalem. In a debate with some professors about the attacks in Israel, Jewish students criticized the position of the debaters, including Gherman, who had been called to represent the Jewish side. Students and teachers clashed, and some Jewish students were silenced, as this report from People’s Gazette.