University of Bremen Cancels Lecture Over "Extremism" Concerns
- Endangered Scholars Worldwide
- 18 hours ago
- 3 min read
Photo credit: Udi Raz
On June 28, 2025, Iris Hefets was set to deliver a presentation at the University of Bremen. However, in the lead up to the event, the university announced that it would not let the event occur because of concerns about “extremism”, adding to the list of cancelled academic events in the context of the repression of pro-Palestine speech in Germany.
Iris Hefets is a German-Israeli psychologist with expertise in trauma research and Holocaust remembrance. For the past few decades, Hefets’s work has focused on improving understanding between Israelis and Palestinians, founding organizations working on this issue, and authoring books aiming to bring the realities of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories to light. Upon the invitation of the University of Bremen student union among other organizing groups, Hefets was set to make a presentation titled “Silence and Guilt – Psychological Mechanisms in Dealing with the Genocide in Gaza”.
However, before the event, the rector of the university, Jutta Günther, announced via email that the university administration had cancelled the event, citing Hefets’s board membership at Jewish Voice for Just Peace in the Middle East, which is classified as “reliably assessed as extremist” in a 2024 report by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, a part of the German Ministry of Interior. Based on the report and their classification of the organization, Günther argued that allowing this event to be carried out posed a “concrete danger” to the principles of Germany’s liberal-democratic constitutional order.
Jewish Voice for Just Peace in the Middle East is a non-profit association created by Jews in Europe and dedicated to “asserting that the Israeli colonisation and occupation of Palestine and the oppression Palestinian people is not carried in the name and in the interest of Jews worldwide”. Reacting to the classification of their organization as “extremist” by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the organization accused this particular office of having maintained deep ties with radical right-wing groups and circles for many years and used the powers of the office disproportionately against left-wing organizations.
Responding to the cancellation of the event, Hefets stated that she found the decision of the university concerning, arguing that this action is in violation of Germany’s Basic Law and is reminiscent of the workings of a totalitarian system. She further accused the German state of expecting Jews to fit an “ideal” type they have set for Jewish people, often requiring them to support the actions of the state of Israel.
This is not the first time Hefets has faced pressure and censorship. Hefets has been detained repeatedly by German police over her protest activity on Palestinian rights in the past two years. In October 2023, Hefets was detained for carrying a sign that read “As a Jew and Israeli: stop the genocide in Gaza”. On November 10, 2023, she was detained again for holding up the same sign. She was later detained once more for holding up a sign that read “Zionism kills”.
Germany has witnessed many academic event cancellations over scholars’ views on the Israel/Palestine conflict, both by educational and governmental institutions. In April 2024, University of Cologne withdrew an invitation to Nancy Fraser, Henry and Louise A. Loeb Professor of Philosophy and Politics at the New School for Social Research, citing Fraser’s signature on the open letter “Philosophy for Palestine”. More recently, in March 2025, the German government ordered the deportation of Cooper Longbottom, a student at Alice Salomon University in Berlin, over their involvement in Palestine protests.
Endangered Scholars Worldwide (ESW) condemns the unjustified restrictions placed on pro-Palestinian speech within academia by German higher education institutions as well as the German government. These restrictions constitute violations of academic freedom, a fundamental human right which educational and governmental institutions in Germany are responsible with upholding. We call on the global community dedicated to upholding academic freedom to join us in condemning these actions of the German government and the University of Bremen.
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