Palestinians welcome growing academic boycott of Israeli institutions
Brazil’s Federal University of Ceará was among the first to act last year, cancelling an innovation summit with an Israeli university
GAZA (MNTV) – Palestinian academics and campaigners have praised a rising number of universities in Europe and South America that are cutting ties with Israeli institutions over what they call complicity in Israel’s assault on Gaza.
Brazil’s Federal University of Ceará was among the first to act last year, cancelling an innovation summit with an Israeli university.
Since then, institutions in Norway, Belgium and Spain have ended or suspended cooperation, and this year Trinity College Dublin joined the list.
In March, the University of Amsterdam froze a student exchange with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, while the European Association of Social Anthropologists announced it would not work with Israeli academic bodies.
Palestinian scholars say such measures highlight the responsibility of Israeli universities in supporting the military occupation.
Historian Ilan Pappé argues that most Israeli academics neither refuse army service nor challenge state repression, with many institutions offering courses to security agencies. “They are part of the machinery that oppresses Palestinians daily,” he said to Middle East Eye.
Campaigners see boycotts as a peaceful way to pressure Israeli society to reckon with its role in the Gaza genocide, which has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, according to Palestinian health ministry in Gaza.
But in the U.K., France and Germany, most universities have resisted calls for an academic boycott.
Universities UK (UUK) said a ban would undermine academic freedom, while the Royal Society warned it could punish those sympathetic to Palestinians rather than government policy.
Meanwhile, British universities have intensified disciplinary action against students and staff supporting Palestine.
A February investigation by Liberty Investigates and Sky News found at least 28 U.K. universities had opened inquiries into campus activism since October 2023.
Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a British-Palestinian surgeon and rector of the University of Glasgow, said crackdowns have pushed some academics to make personal choices not to collaborate with Israeli colleagues.
Earlier this year, hundreds of Israeli scholars calling themselves the Black Flag Action Group urged their country’s universities to act against the Gaza genocide, calling it “a horrifying litany of war crimes.”
For Palestinian educators, such internal dissent — combined with growing global pressure — offers hope that universities can help curb what they see as an ongoing assault on their people.
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