On Oct. 4, UC San Diego’s anthropology department sent out a mass email to all undergraduate students promoting a study abroad program in Jordan and Israel. The promotion, aimed at “adventuresome, open-minded students,” outlines how participants can pay a “greatly reduced” price to visit archaeological sites in Jordan and Israel. The email promises activities such as floating in the Dead Sea, eating local foods, and “meeting people of very different religious and ethnic backgrounds” — all in a state that has attacked six neighboring nations just this past year and has routinely been accused of violating international law.

UCSD’s anthropology department should revoke its reckless and unethical decision to sponsor and promote a study abroad course in Israel. By allowing this program, the University not only puts students at risk, but politically and sociologically normalizes a controversial militarized state and commodifies conflict zones as tourist attractions. 

The advertisement’s cheery tone is a prime example of the Israeli government’s project of marketing the state as a cultural and tourist destination while obscuring the violence that sustains it. This form of public diplomacy by Israel, or Hasbara, has been a long-standing framework of rebranding the state from a militant state to that of a center of culture and tourism. 

What is framed as an opportunity for academic enrichment instead resurfaced criticism among students — who are rightfully outraged — of UCSD’s complicity in human rights violations. UCSD students criticized the anthropology department’s apparent disregard of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, its continual theft of land in the West Bank, and its occupation, the latter of which has created politically volatile conditions that have permeated the region for the past seven decades. 

Even under the guise of education, this trip exemplifies moral bankruptcy by trivializing ongoing conflicts and human suffering. When a public institution not only promotes but subsidizes the whitewashing of genocide and apartheid, it contradicts its commitment to educational neutrality.  

Considering that student safety should be of the utmost importance, the anthropology department is completely disregarding the University’s duty to protect its students. The United States Department of State applies a Level 3 travel advisory to Israel, which recommends American citizens to avoid nonessential travel due to “political unrest, terrorism, and civil conflict.” 

In reckless non-compliance with this advisory, the program’s itinerary includes militarily contested sites, such as Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, increasing the risk to visiting students. This is especially so considering last summer, when a sudden escalation of tensions between Israel and Iran resulted in the deaths of Israeli civilians, despite the protection of the Iron Dome. When the state of Israel fails to protect its own citizens, questions should certainly be raised on the safety of visiting students. 

As an additional moral consideration, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Israel’s own B’Tselem have repeatedly reiterated that Israeli authorities are responsible for apartheid. Similarly, a United Nations Special Rapporteur stated in 2024 that there are “reasonable grounds” to believe that “Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.” 

Even with a developing yet unstable ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, a sudden escalation in the region would unnecessarily place our students in the crossfire. Putting students in danger for a study abroad program is simply unreasonable, regardless of your views on the Israeli state. 

Anthropology professor Geoffrey Braswell, a co-leader of the program, responded to these safety concerns in a statement to The UCSD Guardian, saying, “[A Level 3 travel advisory] is on par with most of northern and western Mexico, and also with Guatemala and Honduras–other places we often go to. Students visiting Los Cabos over Spring Break should keep in mind that the USDoS classifies it and Jerusalem at the same level of concern.” 

Braswell’s answer is an obvious false equivalence, as these advisories are the result of organized crime — usually localized and predictable — relative to systemic and volatile international conflicts. Moreover, UCSD study abroad programs do not place students in the parts of Mexico that are under a Level 3 travel advisory, nor do they have any programs in Guatemala or Honduras. 

University of California Education Abroad Program guidelines explicitly advise participants not to travel to locations that the State Department has issued a Level 3 or higher travel advisory, requiring additional safety waivers when participants do visit these areas. Suggesting that these places are at all comparable to the level of conflict in the Middle East is a disingenuous defense for disregarding student safety, even without considering the context of ongoing genocide and apartheid by the Israeli state.

Braswell’s inconsideration is evident in the way he downplays the program’s associated risks by omitting it completely from promotional materials. Both internationally and domestically, the Israeli government’s actions have spurred moral calls for boycotting any support and association with Israeli institutions and corporations. Advocates, especially in academic circles, have raised concerns that money garnered via direct and indirect means could be utilized for genocidal military operations and to further entrench a system of apartheid. 

In allowing this trip, UCSD is disregarding the boycott, consequently legitimizing Israeli control over occupied territories, serving as a mouthpiece for Hasbara, and funding its government. This trip is a clear example of direct support for Israeli apartheid and genocide as well as the unethical cooperation of American universities. 

The anthropological focus of the program compounds this controversial decision, as Israeli authorities historically have used archaeological excavations to assert control over contested land. The promotion uses phrases like “exciting part of the world” to characterize a genocidal state — an act of intentional erasure and propaganda, deliberately painting archaeological excursions as a neutral site of education. 

Most concerningly, the Murray-Galinson San Diego Israel-Initiative is a key sponsor of the program — and the reason for this program’s “greatly reduced” cost. On its home page, this initiative explains its sole purpose: “to strategically promote, support and catalyze knowledge discourse and interaction on the modern state of Israel through scholarship, engagement and collaboration.” This could be an explanation as to why the email promotion failed to address the controversial nature of the program and utilized language that effectively whitewashed the state of its crimes. 

This partnership reveals the ultimate and political purpose of this project: legitimizing Israeli control over contested land. Though this program may appear to be inconsequential, it is actually a form of American and Israeli soft power influence on the West’s perception of land rights and indigeneity in the Middle East. Warfare is traditionally conducted with weapons on a battlefield, but as globalization progresses, the influence of tactics like propaganda and persuasion have become so powerful as to legitimize the most well-documented genocide in history. Participants are bound to experience a biased educational framework of the region, all the while handing dollars directly to an apartheid state. 

Anti-Israel campaigns are also evident among the student body at our university; in 2023 and 2024, thousands of students participated in on-campus protests calling for UCSD to terminate programs and research that actively contribute to Israel’s human rights violations. The administration not only ignored the protests and broad student sentiment but also sent in militarized police to crack down on protest participants. 

Considering these recent events, it comes as no surprise that following the schoolwide email, many UCSD students strongly opposed such a tone-deaf promotion. If the anthropology department wants to stop damaging its own reputation among students and the general public, it needs to reconsider where it takes its students.