Draft Israeli law to limit academic speech labelled ‘McCarthyite’

Law allowing committee to fire staff for supporting terror' backed by education minister and national student union

Israel's education minister and the country's national union of students are backing a draft law to limit academic speech in the country, which the heads of leading universities have attacked as McCarthyite" and fundamentally undemocratic.

The legislation, currently being debated in the Knesset, would give a government-appointed committee the power to order the firing of academic staff that it decides have expressed support for terror". If the universities refuse, their funding would be cut.