Universities and academic institutions worldwide are increasingly severing ties with Israeli institutions in response to Israel’s military operations in Gaza, which have resulted in nearly 65,000 Palestinian deaths, most of them civilians. The scale of destruction has been compared to a man-made famine, with UN-backed assessments confirming widespread devastation across the territory.
Several universities in Brazil, Norway, Belgium, Spain, and Ireland have suspended collaborations with Israeli institutions. For instance, the University of Amsterdam ended its exchange program with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem al-Quds, and the European Association of Social Anthropologists announced it would no longer cooperate with Israeli academia. Advocates argue that Israeli universities are complicit in the country’s decades-long occupation, settler colonial policies, and current military actions, framing global academia as having a moral and legal obligation to act.
Despite this growing wave, universities in the UK, France, and Germany have largely resisted boycotts, citing concerns over academic freedom. Some scholars, including Nobel laureate Venki Ramakrishnan, recognize the disproportionality of Israel’s actions but question the fairness of penalizing individual academics. In contrast, Israeli historian Ilan Pappé asserts that most Israeli academics remain complicit in the oppression of Palestinians, supporting calls for boycotts to highlight their role.
Mounting outrage has also led academics to take personal decisions to avoid joint projects with Israeli institutions. British-Palestinian surgeon and University of Glasgow rector Ghassan Soleiman Abu-Sittah noted that moral outrage is driving informal, individual-level boycotts, even where institutional policies lag.
The broader impact of these academic boycotts on Israeli research remains debated, but there are warnings of a potential brain drain. Israel relies heavily on European Union research funding, receiving €875.9 million from the Horizon Europe program since 2021. Proposed suspensions of certain projects, particularly those with dual military applications, and a decline in EU starting grants signal the growing consequences of the boycott movement. The Israeli government allocated €22 million in 2024 to counter these efforts, reflecting Tel Aviv’s concern over academic isolation.
Proponents of the boycotts, including Abu-Sittah, maintain that these measures can exert meaningful pressure on Israel, suggesting that academic sanctions alone could influence policy decisions and potentially halt ongoing atrocities in Gaza.
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