Articles | Volume 80, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/gh-80-493-2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/gh-80-493-2025
Intervention
 | 
28 Nov 2025
Intervention |  | 28 Nov 2025

Trapdoors: Palestine solidarity and the authoritarian potential of invisible academic bureaucracies

Theo Aalders, Inès Bakhtaoui, Angela Last, and Eva Youkhana

Cited articles

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Ahmed, S.: Complaint!, Duke University Press, Durham London, 1 pp., https://doi.org/10.1515/9781478022336, 2021. 
Başar, C.: “Wir deutschen Kurden ärgern uns über die Bundesregierung” – Politik – SZ.de, https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/interview-am-morgen-wir-deutsche-kurden-aergern-uns-ueber-die-bundesregierung-1.3913545 (last access: 12 November 2025), 2018. 
Burrell, G., Hartz, R., Harvie, D., Lightfoot, G., and Lilley, S.: Shaping for mediocrity: the cancellation of critical thinking at our universities, Zer0 Books, London, UK Washinton, DC, USA, 233 pp., ISBN 978-1-80341-796-7, 2024. 
Celikates, R., Koddenbrock, K., and Koloma Beck, T.: Attacks on German Campus Protests Fuel Authoritarian Turn, Jacobin, https://jacobin.com/2024/05/germany-palestine-protest-authoritarianism-universities (last access: 15 April 2025), 2024. 
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Short summary
This article shows how universities can quietly restrict speech on controversial topics like Palestine by using bureaucratic rules such as safety protocols not originally meant for censorship. These hidden barriers, which we call “trapdoors,” limit academic freedom without open debate. We draw on real examples and interviews to show how this silencing works, why it matters, and how it threatens democracy.
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