On 23 August, Universitas Indonesia (UI), the nation’s oldest and most respected institution of higher learning, committed a profound mistake. At the orientation for its graduate program, UI handed the podium to Peter Berkowitz — a longtime defender of Israel’s occupation and its ongoing genocide in Gaza. Berkowitz is no neutral scholar. He has spent decades justifying Israel’s bombing campaigns, collective punishment, and illegal occupation of Palestinian land. He served as director of policy planning in Donald Trump’s State Department — a government that gave Israel carte blanche to escalate its violence. His writings, including a book defending Israel against international war crimes investigations, repeat one message over and over: Israel’s supposed right to kill with impunity. And yet, at […]
