Jonathan Ventura, an associate professor at Shenkar University in Tel Aviv, Israel, said EKA never formally informed him of its decision to cancel the second part of a seminar he was due to give at the Tallinn-based academy next February.

On the whole Ventura praised Estonia despite this, and said that he would be willing to return if the opportunity arose, in an interview given to ERR which follows.

The decision by EKA to stop cooperation with all Israeli universities and scientists as well: What is your feeling about it?

I've been a full year of dealing with the same thing: I had the same thing in Italy and Spain and in some cases Germany too, but I guess it was surprising in Estonia, for two reasons.

First, because I knew that I didn't expect anything like that because I had been working at EKA for a few years and I have a lot of friends there and I really value the place.

But the whole thing was a bit weird; I got an email from a friend that I was working with, but I didn't receive anything formal.

And just after I told this to the rector of Shenkar University, he contacted EKA and apparently they said that they had decided to postpone all activities for the next year, after which they would see what happens next, something along those lines.

Did they provide you a rationale on why they decided to do that? How did they explain their actions?

I got nothing. I didn't even get a formal email.

Simply my friend that is working there told me that that was the decision ... I'm just saying I didn't see it with my own eyes but from what I heard from my rector, the reason was that things are a bit complicated right now and so they decided to postpone all activities.

They didn't explain what they meant about things being "complicated?"

No. Which again I have to say that I'm pretty accustomed to by now, after the past year, but I was still a bit surprised by both the decision and then by the way that the whole thing was handled. It was all very strange.

Do you understand why they came to the decision in any case?

Again, I had a really bad experience in Finland, with institutes in Finland and in some other countries.

For me, there's kind of a double standard here as there's obviously a difference between a person and an academic institution and the government, isn't there?

While in some cases, people treated me as a representative of the [Israeli] government, which is unfair and I don't think again the solution is exclusion and boycotting and all that.

I think this is very bad for two really simple reasons.

The first is that we as academics are in most cases the only, I mean I'm talking about Israel here, we're the only "lefties," who are pluralist or whatever you want to call it, and we're kind of the last bastion against whatever is happening around the world.

And the moment that we're excluded, then we lack that connection that we have with partners outside of Israel. So I think it's bad as a system, and I think it's unfair.

I'm pretty sure that if Donald Trump decides on something very, very bad, no one will be boycotting an academy in the U.S.

So there seems something very strangely unfair in this whole situation.

I assume there are quite a few students at EKA who are pro-Palestine and anti-Netanyahu, or anti-Israel. Have you observed anything like that in your experience at EKA?

No, but once again I have to say that personally, although again I think we need to be very specific, because there is a difference between being anti-Netanyahu and anti-Israel, and anti-Jonathan - because if it is personal or if the person doesn't teach well, that's their prerogative.

But boycotting the academy doesn't mean anything.

Again, it's kind of a conflation with the government and the state.

Plus, personally, whenever I – and again, I teach a lot outside of Israel, in the last year – I always commence whatever I do in other countries by explaining my own view and how I perceive what's happening in Israel.

I had, again, in various countries, for instance Switzerland, a very good experience.

I presented my opinion. And even though there were students from Lebanon plus one from Iran, everything was okay. We had a nice debate, actually.

Then I had the same thing at EKA when one of the students told me that she had been to the West Bank and she had an experience of Palestine. Again, we had a really interesting debate. And there was nothing wrong about debating or presenting different opinions. That's great. But whenever you don't want to hear about anything and you just decide on boycotting someone from a specific country, then I think it becomes problematic.

What is your own opinion about the conflict?

Again, I have to say that it's complicated. Let me explain why.

First of all, what happens in Gaza relating to civilians that are getting killed there, that is terrible, as with every other war.

I think we need to remember that how this whole thing started and that we're still waiting for people that were kidnapped from their homes [to come back].

So again, I have to say that there is a tendency of people to relate to the situation in a very clear-cut, binary way. Either it's wrong or it's okay.

But in reality it is complicated, and I have a lot of criticism of our government.

I'm saying that it's complicated since the whole situation is complex even for me, and I was born there.

My son is in special education and his kindergarten teacher is Palestinian, and one of his friends is a Palestinian Christian. So living in Jerusalem, I am aware of this complexity, but I don't think someone hearing for the first time the name "Gaza" will understand this whole situation.

But obviously, when civilians get killed, that's horrible. There's no other way of seeing it.

Well some people are saying that your university, the Shenkar University, is actually providing services for the IDF, such as making boots and other things

So first off, that's neither correct nor exact.

We got a very nasty letter from Bologna, a university there saying the same thing and that our students are war criminals.

First of all, it's not so. Let's start at the end point. As in many other countries, you don't choose to get conscripted, or not.

If you do reserve time, you have to do it and if you don't, you're going to jail. So those people needed to go.

What we did at Shenkar, the start was working with people that were either missing, and with another family involved in the attack.

We worked with kids that survived that horrendous attack by Hamas.

And in some cases we did provide textiles and clothing and other accessories to soldiers, as was happening with any other academy and other NGOs.

So yes, but I think again that at the beginning that was expected from every similar institution because we're funded by the state, we're a public university; we're not a private institution.

But again, I think in some cases this was triggered by social media or people that misread things or in some cases even mistranslated the messages that had been stated on social media, because they didn't understand the language.

I mean, it's very easy to throw blame around.

I studied in London more than 10 years ago, and even back then, the treatment that I received was very unhealthy, let's call it that. So I think there's an inherent bias there. You can call it whatever you want, but there is a bias there.

You mean there is an inherent bias in the Western universities against the people of Israel?

Yes. I know everyone is saying that it's against Israel and it's not anti-Semitism, but it's like saying to a black person who is not living in Africa, that it's nothing against him.

I think it's semantics; it's a bit strange, but it is what it is.

You can call it whatever you want, but it is, there is a bias that now is really extreme, but it's nothing new.

I've experienced it in many countries way before what's happening now.

Do you feel this same bias in Estonia?

Not at all, that's why I was surprised. I felt it in other countries.

In some cases, people told me in Denmark that they hated me, even though that they didn't meet me before, simply because I was from Israel. But Estonia was great. I think it was my fourth time there.

I really like the country and I like EKA. I think it's a great school and I have a lot of friends there. That's why it was all so surprising.

Plus, obviously you know that there is a lot of defense-related contracts between Israel and Estonia.

There is obviously a lot of hypocrisy and mini-politics and I don't know, but it's not a secret that academia tends to be targeting things in a specific direction. And as I said, in some countries it's worse than others.

Do you think, going forward, you would be willing to come back to Estonia if EKA had a change of heart?

For sure. I have a lot of friends here.

I think in some cases people are afraid. I can understand why, but I don't understand the personal connection.

In some cases in the U.K. and in Italy, I have had friends for many years and just in a blink of an eye, they stopped answering emails.

I don't think it's the right way to act.

I'll just give you one more example: I direct the theory department at my school and more than two years ago, I got two emails, a week apart.

One was from a professor at the Moscow-based school of design, and the second one was from a Ukrainian professor.

I spoke with both, and I proposed to both of them my collaboration.

The Russian woman said obviously that she was against the government and that she just wanted to have a professional connection. So I said yes because I'm against the Russian government perhaps, but I have nothing against her personally.

As for the professors from Ukraine, I offered asylum in Israel. Obviously, it was before the [Gaza] war, so now I don't think it would have been that generous of an offer. But I don't see the contradiction here because I work with people, not with governments.

Do you feel you understand why EKA decided as they did?

I think I do. I don't want to just guess things, but I think perhaps they got some pressure from other, as perhaps it's a regional thing, with the Baltic countries.

As I said, I think in Finland there is some sort of a vibe against Israel, perhaps in some other countries, maybe Sweden or Norway, I wouldn't know, but I guess in academia there is the expectation of taking a side and not considering the complexity of things.

Just to reiterate, there are exceptions.

I had a very good experience in Switzerland; I had a very good experience in France. The moment I say something against my government: I need to be bold enough to state that out loud.

I think academies need to do the same thing and not just follow a general trend or pressure that is doing the rounds of academia as a whole.

But things will go back to the way they were before, hopefully soon enough.

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