Facing backlash, Moroccan university UM6P cancels event with Israeli lecturer who backed genocide on Gaza

In Morocco, a university cancelled a lecture by an Israeli computer scientist after students flagged his support for Israel's genocide on Gaza. However, he later spoke at a separate event in Marrakech.

On 7 October—which marks one year of Israel's war on Gaza—Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) in Bengrir, near Marrakech, announced a lecture by Michael Bronstein, an Israeli computer scientist and AI professor at Oxford University.

The university, which maintains partnerships with several Israeli institutions despite growing protests, made the lecture mandatory for students.

However, the event was cancelled shortly after the UM6P for Palestine Students Union called for a boycott, pointing to Bronstein's history of social media posts "supporting Israel's genocide in Gaza."

"Bronstein and all supporters of occupation, apartheid, and genocide are not welcome at our university," the student union declared.

Since October 2023, Bronstein has made several posts denying the genocide in Gaza, accusing pro-Palestinian activists of anti-Semitism, and threatening to leave Oxford if it allowed lectures critical of Israel's apartheid policies.

Despite the cancellation, Bronstein spoke on 9 October at the 27th conference of the Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention Society (MICCAI) in Marrakech, organised by a US-based non-profit.

"It was a pleasure to speak at MICCAI Society in Morocco. I found a wonderful country, warm and hospitable people, and a welcome from colleagues and students", Bronstein tweeted. 

"No petty venomous bullies—whom I don't give a bloody damn about—will change this impression," he added in response to the UM6P student union's post on X (formerly Twitter).

The pro-Palestine student union hailed the lecture's cancellation as a small victory in their broader fight against the university's role in academic normalisation with Israel.

In Morocco, normalisation continues amid genocide

Since Morocco's 2020 normalisation agreement with Israel, UM6P has signed agreements with eight Israeli universities, including the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, known for collaborating with the Israel Defence Forces on military technology. 

In June, the UM6P administration informed students that these agreements would remain intact. "There have been no updates since June", confirmed UM6P Students & Alumni for Palestine to The New Arab.

UM6P, a private non-profit research university with campuses in Ben-Guerir, Rabat, and a new one in Paris, launched Morocco's first student exchange programme with Israel in 2022, in partnership with Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

Although subsequent exchange programmes followed, they were temporarily suspended last October due to security concerns and public backlash, according to the student union.

On 6 October, the UM6P for Palestine Union joined tens of thousands in the "Year of Genocide" march in Rabat. It marked the first time Moroccan student unions took to the streets to protest Israeli ties since the normalisation agreement was signed four years ago.

Newly formed pro-Palestine groups from Rabat's International University and Fez's Euro-Mediterranean University also participated, rallying under the slogan: "There's no place for genocide supporters in our universities."

To date, Moroccan universities have shown little willingness to engage with student unions on the issue of academic normalisation. After months of attempting to address their concerns internally, student groups say they had no choice but to resort to public demonstrations.

The path to academic normalisation in Morocco began in 2022 when the Moroccan and Israeli higher education ministries signed the first cooperation agreement between their universities and research centres.

Facing backlash, some Moroccan universities have started distancing themselves from Israeli ties, however, Rabat doesn't shy away from its relationship with Tel Aviv. In March, Rabat confirmed it maintains relations with Israel, citing the normalisation's supposed benefits for the Palestinian cause.