Peter Beinart, the far-left Jewish writer, apologized on Wednesday for giving a speech at Tel Aviv University this week following a wave of backlash from leading anti-Zionist activists.
Beinart opposes Jewish statehood in Israel and says he is a supporter of “many forms” of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against the country, known as BDS. He was criticized by pro-Palestinian groups for violating that boycott.
He had initially said the speech on Tuesday was an opportunity to communicate his views to Israelis, but later wrote in a lengthy post on X that he “let my desire for that conversation override my solidarity with Palestinians.”
“I wanted to say certain things to an Israeli audience. Speaking at Tel Aviv University seemed to offer that chance,” Beinart posted on X on Wednesday.
He added, “It’s embarrassing to admit such a serious mistake. “I dearly wish I had not made this one, which has caused particular harm because international pressure is crucial to ensuring Palestinian freedom. This was a failure of judgment. I am sorry.”
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Beinart, an author and journalism professor at the City University of New York, spoke at the Tel Aviv campus with Yoav Fromer, a senior faculty member at TAU’s English department, in an event titled “Trump, Israel and the Future of American Democracy.”
Illustrative: Students attend a protest march against the Israeli government at Tel Aviv University. March 26, 2025 (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)
Beinart faced pressure from anti-Israel activists ahead of the talk. A founding member of the BDS movement publicly called on Beinart to cancel his visit, after saying they had privately urged him to do so.
“Palestinians condemn Peter Beinart’s event at complicit Tel Aviv University in the midst of Israel’s genocide in Gaza,” the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, the BDS movement’s cultural arm and a leading advocate for boycotts of Israeli academic institutions, said in a post on X. “Whitewashing genocide can never be reconciled with any claim to humanism or moral consistency.”
In a press release, PACBI accused the university of being “deeply complicit in enabling and trying to whitewash Israel’s US-armed and funded genocide as well as its decades-old regime of settler-colonialism, military occupation and apartheid.”
Ahead of the talk, on Tuesday, Beinart posted on X that he decided to speak at TAU “because I want to reach Jews who disagree with me—because I believe that by trying to convince Jews to rethink their support for Israel’s oppression of Palestinians, I can contribute, in some very small way, to the struggle for freedom and justice.”
By the following day, he was expressing regret for that decision.
When asked by The Times of Israel whether his apology was for speaking at Tel Aviv University in particular, or for speaking in Israel at all, Beinart responded, “As I said in the tweet, I will look for ways to talk to and with Israelis without speaking at institutions that are complicit in the oppression of Palestinians.”
Nerdeen Kiswani, the leader of Within Our Lifetime, at a protest in Manhattan on September 17, 2021. (Luke Tress)
His apology, however, drew more backlash from leading anti-Israel activists. Nerdeen Kiswani, a leading anti-Zionist organizer in New York City, posted on X, “Peter consistently disrespects communities he claims to support, particularly Palestinians, and then apologizes for it.”
Ali Abunimah, founder of the Electronic Intifada website, wrote, “It’s hard not to see this as anything other than an exercise in damage control, to restore his marketability following the overwhelming backlash to his informed, conscious, willful decision to violate a clear picket line.”
Criticism — and some mockery — also came from supporters of Israel on X. Todd Richman, co-founder of the Democratic Majority for Israel, posted that Beinart’s apology “should be an eye-opening moment for any Jew standing on the other side of the fence.”
He continued, “There’s nothing wrong with criticizing the Israeli government, but when you think you can win favor with people who deny Israel’s legitimacy by leading the charge against it, you’re fooling yourself.”
This is unbelievable. Peter Beinart couldn’t take the heat from his own anti-Zionist and pro-Palestinian allies. Hopefully he now sees the truth: to them, he’s just a Jew—nothing more.
The vitriol he got for going to @Israel, even though his speech at @TelAvivUni was thoroughly… https://t.co/SH7lujnu6h
— Todd Richman (@toddrichman) November 26, 2025
Beinart, a former New Republic editor who previously identified as a “liberal Zionist,” now opposes Israel’s existence as a specifically Jewish state. The author of several books, including “Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza,” published earlier this year, he is also an editor-at-large at the left-wing US magazine Jewish Currents.
Following Beinart’s apology, the magazine’s editor-in-chief, Arielle Angel, likewise criticized his choice to give the speech but praised him for saying sorry.
“I’m glad to see Peter’s apology,” she posted on X. “Jewish Currents was not aware of this event until the 11th hour, and was not consulted on his decision. If I had been, I would have urged him not to cross the picket line. I appreciate him taking responsibility for his mistake.”
Before the speech, Matan Jerafi, the CEO of the right-wing Israeli activist group Im Tirtzu, had sent a letter to Tel Aviv University’s president, Ariel Porat, urging him to cancel the event, according to Israel National News.
“Why is he hosting someone on his campus who does not recognize the State of Israel and calls for sanctions against Israel?” wrote Jerafi. “We call on Mr. Porat to cancel this absurd event. Stop tarnishing the reputation of Israeli academia. This is not Columbia University.”
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