Breaking the Silence over the Genocide in Gaza
Decolonizing Academic Whiteness
- By Rachele Borghi
- and Tal Dor
Pages 81 to 86
Cite this article
- BORGHI, Rachele
- and DOR, Tal,
- Borghi, Rachele.
- et al.
- Borghi, R.
- and Dor, T.
https://doi.org/10.3917/mult.101.0081
Cite this article
- Borghi, R.
- and Dor, T.
- Borghi, Rachele.
- et al.
- BORGHI, Rachele
- and DOR, Tal,
https://doi.org/10.3917/mult.101.0081
Since October 7, we have witnessed a phenomenon concerning universities around the world: the injunction to silence. Western academic institutions have thus participated in the normalization of colonial brutality in Gaza through their complicit silence. The fear of debate, of “taking a stand,” and of “disrupting order” has transformed the vast majority of French university classrooms from sites of knowledge into hubs of silence—reinforced, as in the France Université press release of October 11, 2023, by the conflation of anti-Semitism with criticism of the State of Israel, particularly amid calls for genocide by Israeli politicians, journalists, and high-level officials. How can we explain the glaring gap between the mobilization and courage of students on French campuses and in public spaces and the silence of their teachers? What is this silence?