Knowledge is power, and Israel is intent on destroying both in Gaza
A relative carries the body of Palestinian infant Jabr Al-Ashhab last week who was killed in an Israeli military strike. Recently released figures from a classified Israeli military intelligence database show that 83% of those killed in Gaza by May 2025 were civilians. Photo: AP/Jehad Alshrafi
A recent Israeli study titled Debunking the Genocide Allegations: A Reexamination of the Israel-Hamas War (2023-2025) led by academics at The Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University makes for unnerving reading.
While leading genocide scholars all over the world now support the claim that Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza, this document claims otherwise. Here, in eloquent academic language, neatly titled and subtitled are a range of justifications, deflections and denials of accountability for some of the most horrific war crimes in modern history.
While many scholars were previously unwilling to describe Israel’s actions in Gaza as ‘genocide’ due to the complexities of proving genocidal ‘intent’, recent statements by prominent Israeli politicians are explicit as to their plans for Gazans. undermines reports not only from the Gaza Health Ministry, but also the Palestinian American Medical Association, Amnesty International and the UN, among others.
This study emphatically denies accusations that the IDF have deliberately targeted civilians, repeating their claim that the IDF "has employed numerous protective measures to minimise 'collateral damage'”. Such claims are sharply contradicted by the recently released figures from a classified Israeli military intelligence database which show that 83% of those killed in Gaza by May 2025 were, in fact, civilians.
The summary of this study highlights the efforts of the US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, without mention of the 1000+ people killed as they sought aid. It also focuses on Hamas’ ‘human shield’ practice, without mentioning the IDF practice in which Palestinians are forced to enter potentially booby-trapped buildings, barbarically used as ‘human shields’ to protect Israeli soldiers.
The title of this study alone speaks volumes. How on earth can Israel re-examine a war as it rages on? How can Israel continue to call this a war while its leaders are calling for ethnic cleansing?
How can academic papers claiming to focus on the years 2023-2025 have already been written and comprehensively peer reviewed when it is only September and hundreds of Palestinians continue to be killed each and every day?
The weaponisation and corruption of academia is a powerful tool in the strategy of any regime. Recent years have seen educational institutions across the world attempt to decolonise their curricula to include greater diversity of voices, while acknowledging and rectifying the systemic biases across a wide range of academic fields.
It sickens me to bear witness to Israel’s production of self-legitimisation through official statements and across the media. As an academic, the role of Israeli universities in the proliferation of hasbara has an even more chilling effect.
Education has always been both empowering and disempowering simultaneously. For years, I misunderstood Michel Foucault’s claim that "Knowledge is power". I mistakenly thought he meant that the more a person knew, the more empowered they would become.
I now understand those words to mean something entirely different. Those who produce knowledge are the ones who hold power. Nowhere is that more evident than in the history produced and destroyed by colonial and imperial projects.
A nation’s history does not exist without historical record, something Zionism has been intent on destroying since the Nakba in 1948. During this period an estimated 70,000 books, as well as photography collections, were looted and stolen from Palestinian homes.
Similarly, in 1958, Israeli authorities destroyed 27,000 Palestinian textbooks from the pre-1948 period deeming them "either useless or threatening". While oral histories may survive, their legitimacy is often undermined by the written word of those who serve the colonial narrative.
Palestinian academic Khaled Odatallah highlights the ways in which archaeology, memorials and museums have been used to reinforce Zionist narratives, explaining: "If they control the history of the area, they control it."
Palestinian rights to the land of their ancestors have been repeatedly undermined by emphasising historical Jewish connections to the region at the expense of recognising Palestinians as indigenous. There can be no denial of the profound significance that many Israeli and Palestinian holy sites hold within Judaism, however, the violence of the Zionist settler colonial project is anathema to Jewish values and teachings.
Benjamin Netanyahu, his government, and the IDF are not only attempting to ethnically cleanse the Gaza Strip, they are also committing scholasticide. A recent inquiry mandated by the UN found that Israeli forces have "damaged or destroyed more than 90% of schools and university buildings across Gaza".
They have also continued to destroy invaluable libraries and archives, resulting in the loss of irreplaceable Palestinian documents and artefacts.
Meanwhile, Israeli universities flourish with state-of-the-art facilities, industry opportunities and international recognition. Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of British Columbia, Maya Wind, highlights the research carried out at Israel’s universities that is actively contributing to the weaponry, robotics, surveillance and AI which has enabled the genocide in Gaza.
This military technology is later sold abroad as "field-tested" or “battle proven”. Such research has transformed warfare, the effects of which we are yet to fully comprehend.
As I return to work for the new college term, I have never been so conscious of the role such institutions play in society. It is our collective responsibility to engage in robust, ethical research and critical debate, no matter how uncomfortable or inconvenient the outcome may be.
It is also imperative that we do not collaborate with those who are complicit. In response to Israel’s ongoing genocide and the roles played by its third-level institutions, many colleges and universities are committing to academic boycotts.
Trinity College Dublin recently severed ties with all Israeli academic institutions, while many other universities around the world are suspending projects and collaborations with their Israeli counterparts.
We are currently bearing witness to events that will be analysed, researched and revisited for generations to come. It is deeply important that these histories be told truthfully, and in doing so redress the grave injustice done to Palestinians.
As Israel scrabbles to maintain control of a crumbling narrative, it is time for the voices and experiences of Palestinians to be amplified and recognised. Palestinian solidarity is not about speaking for the people of Gaza or presenting a tokenistic minority of Palestinian voices.
As Gazan academic, Abdalhadi Alijla, recently pointed out: "An ally should look for those who are under genocide, to actually raise their voices and give them space to write and give us their narrative. Hijacking their narrative is unacceptable and only continues the colonisation of knowledge production."
If we are truly committed to addressing the injustices of colonialism, it is essential that we listen, learn and actively call out those intent on rewriting history to serve their own agenda.
- Ria Czerniak-LeBov is a Jewish artist and academic from Dublin
