The Federation of Jewish Communities in the Czech Republic (FŽO) made a statement expressing their concerns about the rise of antisemitism in the country’s universities.
“The Federation of Jewish Communities in the Czech Republic (FŽO) has been following with great concern the latent and overt spread of antisemitism at Czech universities, higher education institutions, and research centres in recent months.
After the unprecedented terrorist attack on 7th October 2023 and the subsequent war in the Middle East, we are witnessing a dramatic rise in anti-Jewish hatred. The trend of normalising antisemitism is accelerating dangerously.
Anti-Israeli activism, which applies double standards to the State of Israel, is in reality nothing more than antisemitism. The delegitimisation and demonisation of Israel in the context of the Middle Eastern situation merely replicates earlier Soviet propaganda: the interpretation of Zionism as a racist, fascist, settler-colonial, and imperialist ideology was formulated after the Six-Day War in 1967.
The first organised voice of this narrative in the academic environment came from several anonymous groups, mostly on social media. In a more sophisticated and simultaneously institutionalised form, the so-called Initiative for a Critical Academy (IZKA) portrays a prejudiced image of Israel. Its critics from the academic world are targeted for scandalisation and ostracisation. Instead of open, fact-based, and free discussion, there are systematic attempts to silence them.
We also warn against calls for the boycott of Israeli universities, higher education institutions, and research centres. Exclusion, marginalisation, or isolation are familiar phenomena in the history of anti-Jewish hatred. Limiting academic cooperation threatens the position and development of Czech science and research and could have a negative impact on Czech society as a whole. Academic antisemitism thus affects not only Jewish students, educators, and academics, but also concerns the broader public.
FŽO calls for the strict adherence to academic rights and freedoms, which, under no circumstances, should serve as a pretext for legitimising anti-Jewish hatred.”
