While campus protests over Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza have continued in recent months, so have attacks on academic freedom and free speech at universities across the U.S. In his recent piece for Truth Out, “Israel Has Formed a Task Force to Carry Out Covert Campaigns at US Universities” activist and scholar William I. Robinson argues that the attacks are part of an Israeli government campaign to shape US public opinion and neutralize opposition to Israel’s war.

Robinson points to a report by Israeli news outlet Ynetnews, that says the government is behind the covert campaign to harass and intimate students, campus journalists, faculty, and administration. He tells A Public Affair, “The  intent is to crush any dissent on U.S. campuses, any attempt at solidarity with Palestine, any attempt to oppose the genocide that’s being carried out.”

William I. Robinson  is an American professor of sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He’s the author of a number of books including Can Global Capitalism Endure? (Clarity Press, 2022) and Global Civil War: Capitalism Post-Pandemic (PM Press, 2022).

Photo by Ian Hutchinson on Unsplash

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