On February 7, 2024, the German research organization, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology fired Lebanese-Australian Professor Ghassan Hage for posts he had shared on X. Hage stated that the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag had contacted the Max Planck Society after contacting Hage himself on January 3. On February 5, Welt published an article that characterized Hage's posts as critical of Israel and declared him an activist for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement who "glorifies Hamas terror." Hage voiced that between the time of the newspaper’s first public allegations and his termination, the Max Planck Society did not reach out to him or offered him a chance to respond.

A letter from the Max Planck Society dated February 9, posted on Hage’s X account on May 19, 2024, speaks to Hage: “[Y]ou were aware that German politics considers Israel’s security and thus its right to exist to be particularly worthy of protection for historical reasons and that comparisons of the deeds of the Nazi regime with the deeds of others are forbidden in Germany.” The letter also claims that unspecified posts made by Hage “are to be seen as anti-Israel and anti-Zionist and therefore likely to stir up hatred.” The letter further affirmed that the Max Planck Society is “equally committed” to what they characterized as “German politics.”

Upon the news of Professor Hage’s dismissal, a petition was started to oppose the decision. The petition included a text supporting Professor Hage’s commitment to social justice: “Professor Hage's commitment to deconstructing all forms of racism and domination through rigorous academic research is commendable. His work as a scholar has always been marked by integrity. However, this smear campaign threatens not only his reputation, but the very foundation of free speech upon which education is based.” It collected just short of 3,800 signatures as of this writing.

Organizations, such as the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA) and the Canadian Anthropology Society (CASCA), published letters of support. Both letters by EASA and CASCA strongly called for the reversal of the decision to terminate the working relationship with professor Hage. EASA stated in their letter: “Not only does the statement of the MPS not present any proof of racism and anti-semitism in the work of Prof. Hage; we know with certainty that such proof will be impossible to find in his work because of the deep commitment to anti-racism that pervades his writings.”

Hage decided to take legal steps against the Max Planck Society regarding the dismissal protection. In a post on X from May 19, Hage wrote: “The first court meeting with Max Planck’s lawyers has happened and as expected, as I am not interested in a financial settlement, and they are not interested in apologizing to me, there was no reconciliation. So now Max Planck’s lawyers have to present us with what they think is incriminating evidence and we meet and fight it out in October.”