When I was a child, my father, an administrator at Tel Aviv University, often took me with him to work.At the time, the young campus's offices were housed across the road in old stone buildings whose architecture set them apart.My father explained to me that these were the remaining structures of the Palestinian village of Sheikh Muannis, which had stood there before the university was established.By the time I later became a student at the university, most of those buildings had been demolished and new ones erected in their place.One remaining structure was known as the Green House, which had been converted into a restaurant where my professors held celebratory dinners, one or two of which I attended.For me, those were tormenting occasions, since I was unable to ignore the history of annexation and the dislocation of the original Palestinian inhabitants.Consequently, I did not need Maya Wind's Towers of Ivory and Steel to remind me that my academic trajectory, like that of my colleagues, has been shaped by the Nakba and the ongoing project of settler colonialism in Israel.Tel-Hai College, where I have worked for the past twenty-five years, was established as part of the Judaization of the Galilee, south of Metula -once a Druze village -and two kilometres from the former Palestinian village of Khalsa, now Kiryat Shmona.More recently, its merger with Ohalo College in the Golan Heights occurred despite opposition that I and others led, further advancing the Judaization of the region.Wind's extensive documentation enhanced my knowledge of the ways in which Israeli academic institutions have collaborated with the state and the military -the central arm of the occupation -by training soldiers and developing technologies that reinforce systems of control.She also provides a detailed account of the methods by which universities have suppressed the protests of students and faculty, like myself and others, against the occupation, thereby hindering dialogue between Jews and Palestinians and the development of young leadership that could change the political climate.In this review, I address Wind's critical project, highlighting its contributions but also its puzzling and troubling omissions, which raise concerns about the book's accuracy.Strikingly, Wind, a white Jewish Israeli, presumes to speak on behalf of Palestinian civil society, positioning herself as its representative and attributing to its members the question: "Are Israeli universities complicit in the violation of Palestinian rights?" (p.8).This self-appointed role raises significant concerns about authority, representation, and the appropriation of Palestinian voices.Drawing on research conducted
Tamar Hager (Tue,) studied this question.