A draft law currently being discussed in Israel’s parliament has been labelled as undemocratic and “McCarthyite” by renowned Israeli physicist Uri Silvan. The law, which has now passed the first of four votes in the Knesset, is said to pose extreme limits to academic speech and has been strongly opposed by many Israelis. It gives a government-appointed committee the power to fire staff it believes have expressed “support for terror”, while universities who refuse to fire academics could see state funding cuts. Pro-Palestine activists and academics who have highlighted the horrifying death toll…