A campus lecture by American Jewish commentator Peter Beinart at Tel Aviv University (TAU) triggered an unusual backlash on Tuesday, drawing fire both from Israeli right-wing groups and pro-Palestinian boycott activists abroad.
Beinart, a professor of journalism and political science at the City University of New York and a prominent critic of Israeli policy, was invited to speak at TAU in a conversation titled “Trump, Israel, and the Future of American Democracy.”
The American studies program at the university, in collaboration with the Center for US Studies, organized the event for students and faculty on Tuesday evening.
A few hours before the lecture, Beinart posted on X/Twitter that he understood how many people he respects would think his decision to speak at TAU was wrong, given that, in his view, Israeli universities are implicated in the state’s treatment of Palestinians.
In the same post, he reiterated the long-standing positions that have made him a controversial figure in Jewish debates about Israel.
He wrote that Israel “practices not only apartheid but genocide,” and he said he backs “many forms of ” boycott, divestment, and sanction against Israel.”
Beinart also urged the United States to sharply restrict arms sales to Israel, calling for the Leahy Law, which bars US security assistance to foreign units implicated in serious human rights abuses, to be applied in a way that would severely cut, if not end, weapons transfers.
Beinart explained that, despite his support for academic and cultural boycotts of Israeli institutions, he chose to make an exception in this case because he rarely has the chance to speak directly to Israeli audiences.
He said he believes there is value in confronting Israeli Jews with what he describes as Israel’s “crimes” against Palestinians and in trying to persuade those who support what he calls Palestinian “oppression” to reconsider their views. He added that right-wing Israeli organizations had already pressed TAU to cancel the talk.
Im Tirtzu demands that the event be cancelled
The nationalist student movement Im Tirtzu quickly seized on the post. Matan Gerafi, its CEO, sent a letter to TAU president Prof. Ariel Porat demanding that the university cancel Beinart’s appearance, arguing that the school was giving a stage to a figure who “supports the Palestinian right of return, opposes the existence of a Jewish state, and backs sanctions against Israel.”
Gerafi cited Beinart’s 2020 essay titled “I No Longer Believe in a Jewish State,” in which he endorsed a single binational state, as well as Beinart’s recent book on the Gaza war, which describes the events of October 7 and the ensuing fighting because of Israeli occupation. He also pointed to Beinart’s signature on a letter calling for international sanctions against Israel after the war began.
In the letter, Gerafi accused TAU of hypocrisy for, in his words, speaking “day and night” about the defense of Israeli democracy while hosting what he called an Israel-boycotting activist who rejects the state’s legitimacy.
He urged Porat to block the event, calling the decision to invite Beinart “completely crazy” and telling the president to “stop giving Israeli academia a bad name” because “this is not Columbia University.”
A separate brief report was published on Walla! News likewise noted that Im Tirtzu had urged Porat to intervene after Beinart publicly promised to present “harsh” positions on Israel at the event.
Israeli journalists and influencers join criticism
Im Tirtzu was quickly joined by Israeli journalists and social-media commentators who questioned the decision to host Beinart at a state-funded university.
Israel Hayom columnist Ariel Kahana wrote on his Telegram channel that there was “no reason in the world” for Israel to allow Beinart into the country to spread what he described as incitement, comparing him to fringe anti-Zionist ultra-Orthodox groups that meet with the Iranian leadership. Kahana listed Beinart’s support for the Palestinian “right of return,” for boycotts of Israel, for canceling trade agreements with the European Union, and even for expelling Israel from FIFA as evidence that he is working to “undo” the state.
On X, an Israeli physics professor using the handle @slowphoton1 wrote that “Something very wrong is happening at Tel Aviv University under Ariel Porat’s tenure,” arguing that the campus had become “blatantly political” and was now drifting into “anti-Zionist” territory. The Beinart invitation, he said, symbolized the “decline of an institution that once prided itself on academic excellence.”
Israeli public diplomacy activist Hen Mazzig noted that Beinart was coming to TAU “to lecture… about how Israel is an ‘apartheid’ state” and wondered how he would react to the fact that roughly one in five Israeli citizens are Arab.
Pro-Israel influencers widely shared Mazzig’s post, arguing that Beinart’s boycott advocacy should have disqualified him from speaking at an Israeli university.
Yediot Ahronot columnist Nadav Eyal also bashed Beinart, saying the latter is “probably having a hard time with his anti-Israel base, so he feels the need to remind them of his anti-Israel, pro-BDS credentials in order to forestall antisemitic tirades, this time directed at him.”
“Yet anyone who claims to support the Palestinian so-called ‘right of return’ is not interested in a conversation with Israelis but in the destruction of the state called Israel,” Eyal added.
Other Jewish commentators, including some outside Israel, echoed the criticism, questioning why TAU would invite a speaker who accuses Israel of genocide while the country is still at war in Gaza and absorbing the trauma of the October 7 Hamas massacre.
Tel Aviv University: academic freedom, but stay on topic
In a written response, Tel Aviv University defended the invitation as an expression of academic freedom, noting that Beinart had been invited by the American studies program to speak about Trump and the future of American democracy.
University officials said that after Beinart’s X post raised concern that he intended to focus primarily on Israeli “crimes,” the organizers contacted him and “made clear” they expected him to speak only on the agreed-upon topic. Beinart, they said, had promised to do so.
The university stressed that individual departments have wide latitude to invite speakers and that hosting controversial voices did not imply institutional endorsement of their views.
A university webcast page listed Beinart as a lecturer. It indicated that the event formed part of TAU’s regular public lecture series, with video services provided by the campus computing division.
Criticism from BDS activists as well
While Israeli right-wing groups and commentators demanded the cancellation of the talk, the event also faced pro-Palestine opposition.
A video reel posted by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) condemned Beinart’s decision to appear at what it called a “complicit” Israeli university, accusing TAU of involvement in Israeli military policies and calling on supporters to oppose the lecture.
In other words, the same pro-boycott writer who has championed sanctions on Israel and backed academic boycotts was attacked by BDS supporters for allegedly normalizing an Israeli institution by speaking there at all.
Beinart, long known as a self-proclaimed liberal Zionist, has in recent years become one of the most prominent Jewish advocates of a one-state framework and of boycotts targeting Israeli institutions.
His latest book, Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning, argues that the Israel-Hamas War has forced American Jews to reassess their relationship with Israel.