Israeli Government Threatens to Increase Governmental Control over Universities in Response to “Politicization”

Israeli police respond to protests with water cannons during the 2023 "Judicial Overhaul" Protests during which many universities went on "academic strikes". Photo credit: Oren Ziv / Associated Press via Los Angeles Times.

On Wednesday, May 6, 2026, the education minister of Israel, Yoav Kisch released a statement demanding that university and college presidents sign written pledges to restrict “political activity” on their schools’ campuses, threatening the institutions of the presidents who fail to do so with budget cuts under a proposed bill. If they agree to Kisch’s demands to end the “politicization of university presidents”, university presidents would be committing to refraining from voicing political views and minimizing disruptions to education stemming from political activity such as shutdowns and political strikes. Minister Kisch stated explicitly that if they do not agree, the government “will advance legislation that will deny them funding” by passing a July 2025 bill proposed by a representative of the governing party Likud in the Knesset that gives the government vast discretion in the funding of universities.

The “Higher Education Council Bill” aims to increase direct executive control over higher education in Israel through the Higher Education Council, which is the main public authority overseeing university and college funding, accreditation, and planning. The most critical aspect of the bill concerns the financing of universities. The new bill aims to give more power to the education minister in the determination of each university’s budget, sidelining the Council’s committees on budgeting and planning, which currently allow the members of the Council, most of whom are academics, to take an active part in planning and shaping the future of higher education. Furthermore, a new committee would be formed, tasked with identifying universities that commit “irregularities” and imposing sanctions on them, including fines.

The bill also increases governmental involvement in the appointment of the members of the Higher Education Council. If the law passes, all members of the council would be dismissed following the next general election, and the government would be allowed to appoint new members. This comes after a series of controversies around Kisch’s previous appointments to the Council, including his appointment of a loyalist as the president of the Council and his refusal to appoint candidates proposed by certain universities.

The Higher Education Council Bill was framed in the Knesset as an attempt to increase the influence of the “popular will” over the operations of the council. But its foreseeable impact will be to not only undermine measures of horizontal accountability and the governmental level but also detrimental to academic freedom. The bill is likely an attempt to rein in universities politically, especially in the context of their vocal opposition to the government’s attempts to increase control over the judicial bureaucracy as threats to the rule of law. On March 9, 2025, the presidents of eight universities in Israel issued a joint statement protesting against the government’s attempts to remove the Attorney General, threatening an academic strike if the government proceeds with the firing. Ten college heads had also signed on to the presidents’ letter, and eight of the nine members of the Association of University Heads (VERA) also endorsed the statement. In March 2023, VERA decided to suspend all educational and research activities at all Israeli research universities in response to the government’s “judicial overhaul” attempt. Several other universities had also joined in July 2023 amid a months-long period of nationwide protests.

VERA criticized the statements of Yoav Kisch for instrumentalizing Israeli academia for political gain and further denounced the proposed Higher Education Council bill as a threat to the independence of higher education institutions.

Endangered Scholars Worldwide (ESW) condemns the Israeli government’s attempts to undermine university autonomy by weaponizing public funding to force universities into compliance. Executive aggrandizement regarding the management of higher education presents a significant threat to academic freedom, which depends on the ability of universities to govern themselves. We call on the Israeli government to reverse its actions and halt its efforts to subject universities to more direct and unilateral executive control. We invite the global community to join our call.