Harry Pettit

Harry George Pettit (born 1991) is a British political activist and a social geographer. As a geographer, he specializes in urban geography, social geography, and the dynamics of job insecurity in Egypt.

During his tenure as a lecturer at Radboud University Nijmegen, Pettit came to public attention several times due to his controversial public statements regarding the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. These statements, which resulted in his dismissal, sparked debates in the Netherlands concerning academic freedom, freedom of expression, hate speech, and antisemitism. Further statements of similar nature, including posts praising the late Iranian leader Ali Khamenei led the Vrije Universiteit Brussel to withdraw its offer of employment to Pettit.

Pettit was born and grew up in Retford, United Kingdom, and studied geography at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where he also obtained his PhD in 2017. He subsequently held several short-term research and teaching positions at universities across the United Kingdom. In 2022, he served as a visiting researcher at the University of Amsterdam.

In 2023, Pettit was appointed assistant professor of social geography at Radboud University Nijmegen.^[1]

Between 2023 and 2025, Pettit became involved in major controversies due to his outspoken pro-Palestinian positions on social media, particularly following the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023. He was accused of antisemitism, glorification of violence, and incitement after referring to the attack as a “legitimate act of resistance” and “brilliant in some aspects.”^[2][3] Pettit also called for “finishing what the Palestinians began on October 7,” advocated for “the eradication of Israel,” and publicly expressed support for Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, whom he described as a “hero.”^[4]

In October 2024, Pettit invited Mohammed Khatib, the European coordinator of Samidoun, a pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel^[5] advocacy group based in Canada, to give a lecture at Radboud University. Khatib, who had described Hamas as a resistance movement and expressed pride in the 2023 Hamas terror attack, was ultimately denied entry to the Netherlands by the Dutch government.^[6]

On 11 March 2025, Pettit reportedly led a group of protesters attempting to disrupt a lecture at Radboud University by Syrian activist Rawan Osman, who campaigns for the normalization of relations between Arab states and Israel.^[6]

On 20 June 2025, Dutch MP questions were submitted to then-Minister of Education Eppo Bruins concerning Pettit's remarks comparing Zionism to Nazism. The minister condemned the comments as abhorrent but stated that it was up to Radboud University, as Pettit's employer, to determine whether disciplinary action was appropriate.^[7]

In October 2025, a petition calling on Radboud University to take action against Pettit received more than 12,000 signatures within a few days.^[3] Around the same time, 113 (former) students, professors, lecturers, and staff members of the university urged the institution to act, while Minister of Education Gouke Moes advised the university in an interview with journalist Sven Kockelmann to file a formal complaint against Pettit.^[4] Pettit in turn filed a complaint against Moes, stating that he “would not accept political repression in the service of Zionism.”^[2]

On 10 November 2025, Pettit announced on social media that he had reached an agreement with Radboud University and claimed to have secured a new position elsewhere. The university confirmed his departure, stating that, after “an intensive process lasting several months,” both parties had “agreed to part ways” and that Pettit had made “statements inconsistent with the university's code of conduct.”^[4]

In early March 2026, Vrije Universiteit Brussel withdrew an offer of employment^[8][9] to Pettit following statements made on social media. Following the killing of Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei during a US-Israeli strike, Pettit posted on X that the ayatollah would be remembered for standing up to 'US-Israeli cabal' and reiterated praise for leaders of designated terror groups Hamas and Hezbollah. While the university's first response was to defend the appointment on freedom of expression grounds, it later said that “statements that incite hatred or violence” violate the university’s values.^[10] Responding to the issue, Pettit claimed that he had to learn about the university’s decision through the media and stated that it was not his remarks, but pressure from “Zionist lobby groups” that had led the university to its decision.^[11]

• The Labor of Hope: Meritocracy and Precarity in Egypt, Stanford University Press. Palo Alto, CA, 2023.^[12]
• “Introduction: Hope, Labor, Disconnection” Environment & Planning D: Society & Space, Volume 39, Issue 5, 2021.^[12]
• “Uncomfortable ethnography: fueling the cruel hope of Egypt's disconnected middle-class,” Emotion, Space, and Society . Volume 36, 2020.^[12]
• “The cruelty of hope: emotional cultures of precarity in neoliberal Cairo.” Environment & PlanningD: Society & Space . Volume 37, Issue: 4. pp. 722–739, 2019.^[12]
• “Hopeful City: meritocracy and affect in global Cairo”. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. Volume 42, Issue 6. pp. 1048–1063, 2018.^[12]