The administration at Bar Ilan University decided to cancel a professional conference on military intelligence scheduled for later this month since the panel of professionals that was supposed to address it did not include a woman.

The conference on open-source intelligence was organized by the Middle Eastern Studies Department at the initiative of the students and was supposed to host four professionals in the field. It was dedicated to the memory of Sergeant Major Avraham Tzvi (Tzvika) Friedman, who fell during operational activity in the Efraim Brigade last month.

In a letter to the university administration that was obtained by Arutz Sheva-Israel National News, department head Prof. Ze'ev Maghen wrote: "Hundreds of participants, mostly from the younger generation, signed up for the conference. At some point, someone discovered that the professional panel that the students chose consisted of four men. It did not matter to that man or woman that they are the leading professionals in that field. The only thing that mattered was gender. Within less than a day, the entire university administration was on their feet, demanding the addition of some sort of female representation, even if it was the moderator - otherwise the conference would be canceled."

Prof. Maghen explained that the claim of discrimination at the conference was ridiculous. "We in the Middle Eastern Studies Department never dealt with gender. Sometimes our conferences have more female speakers than male speakers, the only consideration is the academic suitability of the speaker on the topic. The university decided to toss that criterion in the trash in favor of a totally irrelevant and anti-academic approach.

The department head added that the administration is treating a panel without women as if it were some sort of "crime." He concluded: "My answer was that I do not intend on submitting to pressure and bullying and violate moral and academic principles to submit to this anti-intellectual dictate. Personally, I am sad and shocked by this conduct before dark forces that already harmed and will harm academia, the nation, and the state even more."

Bar Ilan University commented: "The administration did indeed cancel the conference. We will not give academic backing to conferences that exclude women."