Max Planck Institute terminates Ghassan Haje’s affiliation following a social media smear campaign regarding his criticism of Israel

In February 2024, the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology moved to terminate its relationship with Lebanese-Australian anthropologist Ghassan Hage following a media campaign in the German press accusing him of antisemitism over his public criticism of Israel and his social media posts on Gaza.

According to Hage, the controversy began after the newspaper Welt am Sonntag contacted both him and senior officials at the Max Planck Society regarding his online statements. Shortly afterwards, he was informed that the Institute had decided to end their relationship, citing concerns arising from Germany's institutional approach to antisemitism. Hage stated that he was not given an opportunity to respond to the allegations before the decision was made. He also rejected a proposed confidential settlement and instead requested a formal termination stating the reasons for his dismissal.

Maintaining that his comments constituted political criticism of the Israeli state rather than antisemitism, he emphasized that his longstanding academic work advocated for a shared, “multi-religious” future in Israel-Palestine. The case prompted criticism from academics and free expression advocates, who argued that it exemplified the growing restriction of academic speech on Palestine in Germany and the conflation of criticism of Israel with antisemitism.