Tel Aviv University President: 'The time has come to talk about the humanitarian crisis'

TAU President Prof. Ariel Porat is urging Israel's government, academia, and media, and Israeli society as a whole, not to refrain from discussing the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. He says that this crisis raises some profound moral questions and has the potential to erode our moral fabric as a nation. Furthermore, it is contributing to our isolation in the international arena, potentially hindering our ability to achieve the goals of the war.

Prof. Porat spoke at a conference held at TAU under the title 'Challenges of the Wartime Humanitarian Crisis', which was attended by experts from different fields. Prof. Porat said: "We are still fighting a grueling war, forced upon us six months ago. We all worry endlessly about our hostages and soldiers, about the injured and the evacuees. We have not yet recovered from the horrendous events of October 7 and their aftermath. I don't know if we will ever fully recover.

“Because we are engulfed in our concerns and grief, most of us have simply been unable to hear or think about the pain of others - the suffering of uninvolved civilians in Gaza, including many thousands of children. But we cannot continue to bury our heads in the sand. We are receiving more and more information, including some terrible images, of what is happening in Gaza, and we no longer have the privilege of shutting our eyes and ignoring the situation as if it were not our problem.

“Make no mistake. The main responsibility for the terrible things now happening in Gaza lies with Hamas. It was Hamas that unleashed devastation upon us; it is Hamas that is bringing calamity upon its own people. But Hamas' undeniable culpability does not release us from accountability.

“Many questions surface around the humanitarian crisis developing in Gaza. First, the question of our moral responsibility as a nation. This gives rise to all kinds of additional questions, but one thing at least cannot be disputed: no goal, as important as it may be, can justify all means. The question is how and where to draw the line; and if we have already crossed it, how can the damage be rectified? This is one pivotal question which I believe must be addressed.

“But it's not the only question. Some believe that the humanitarian crisis in Gaza can help us achieve the war's goals. In my unprofessional opinion, the opposite is true. Suffice it to see and feel Israel's unprecedented delegitimization around the world, including among our most steadfast allies. So, the question arises: does the continuation of the humanitarian crisis serve any purpose at all? As I said before, I doubt it.

Another highly alarming issue is the place of the media in this matter. The free Israeli media has apparently decided to conceal from us, Israel's citizens, the terrible images from Gaza to which the rest of the world has been exposed for months. The question is: why does the media do this? One possible explanation is that they are trying to keep up our morale, which is not very high right now, or trying not to damage the mood more than is necessary. Another explanation is that they have realized that images from Gaza are bad for their ratings: why show viewers images they simply don't want to see? Whatever the reason, a dissonance has been created in the minds of many Israelis, between reality as they are experiencing it, and reality as it actually is. For a while I was also guilty of looking away from actual reality. But as I've said, we no longer have the privilege of shutting our eyes and thinking that if we don’t see the humanitarian crisis developing in Gaza, it doesn't exist. 

“But there's another issue that's even more important: what is this humanitarian crisis doing to us as a nation and as individuals? I refer to the damage, the moral corruption, that we might suffer as a result of this crisis and of our inability to handle it properly. In coming years, it will be very difficult to fix this moral damage.

“Finally, when we announced that we were organizing this conference, there were those who thought that the time has not yet come to discuss the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Some thought we should deal with other questions - and those other questions are very important indeed. But we cannot ignore the humanitarian crisis even if talking about it is unpopular for one reason or another. That's what we do in academia. That's what we do at Tel Aviv University. We discuss difficult questions, openly and truthfully. If we don't do this here, where will it be done?!”