With this letter, we reiterate the longstanding call on our university to cut all institutional ties with Israeli academic institutions and companies that are complicit in apartheid, the illegal occupation of Palestinian territories, and decades of atrocity crimes committed against Palestinians. These well-documented crimes have now escalated to unprecedented levels since October 2023, leading to formal charges of genocide in the International Court of Justice and a request by the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court for arrest warrants against the Prime Minister and Minister of Defense of Israel, as well as three members of Hamas. The State of Israel, with the unconditional support of our own Dutch government and other allies, has been committing these egregious violations of international law and inflicting unfathomable suffering on Palestinians in Gaza, as well as the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The deliberate nature of the violence perpetrated on civilians is underscored by three separate rulings of the International Court of Justice in the first half of 2024 that establish a plausible risk of genocide.
While our Board has publicly committed to review its institutional ties with Israeli universities and announced on 4 March 2024 that a committee will be established to conduct the review, it has now been three months and no information has been made public about the committee’s mandate, its members, or of its progress. We call on our board to follow through on its commitment and conduct the institutional review on the basis of Human Rights Due Diligence as a matter of urgency. In the meantime, we call on our university to immediately suspend all institutional ties during the review process.
We stress that the call to suspend and cut ties with Israeli academic partners and companies is not because they are Israeli, rather it is because they are directly complicit in atrocity crimes against the Palestinian people, in apartheid and in the illegal occupation of Palestinian land, all in violation of international law. Following the well-established guidelines of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, we stress that this boycott is not directed at individuals based on their identity, rather it is directed at institutions based on their complicity. The aim is to pressure and incentivize institutions to end their complicity.
The complicity of Israeli universities is well-documented, including of the universities identified as EUR partners in the list released on 8 May 2024, and involves several modalities of oppression which are also comprehensively documented by Dr. Maya Wind in her recent book Towers of Ivory and Steel: How Israeli Universities Deny Palestinian Freedom. These modalities include extensive education collaborations with the Israeli Defense Forces and Israeli military industry by all Israeli universities. Specifically, Israeli universities:
- host military bases on university grounds,
- provide study exemptions and compensations to active duty members in Gaza,
- provide incentives and scholarships for joint research initiatives,
- develop military and surveillance technologies that are deployed on Palestinian civilians – such as Dahiya Doctrine of collective punishment developed by EUR’s institutional partner Tel-Aviv University, and
- produce and disseminate arguments that explicitly seek to legitimize atrocity crimes committed by the State of Israel.
Additional modalities of oppression include:
- the subordination of academic enquiry to political interests – including in the field of law, where EUR has several activities,
- direct contribution to the expansionist interests of the Israeli state, including programmes that have forcibly removed Bedouins in the Negev, Palestinian citizens of Israel in Haifa and Palestinians in the West Bank living close to Israeli settlements and plantations,
- general and targeted restrictions of academic freedom against students; these include limitations on freedom of speech and academic freedom of students, as highlighted in a recent NOS special on Tel Aviv University,
- general and targeted restrictions of academic freedom against scholars, including the longstanding persecution of, and recent, extreme denials of academic freedom and physical harm to EUR external colleague and renowned Professor of Criminology Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, and
- structural denial of equal access to, and participation in, education of Palestinians at all Israeli universities.
Moreover, as scrupulously documented in Dr. Wind’s book, Israeli Universities have been purposefully built in Palestinian areas in order to expand illegal settlements across Palestinian land and neighborhoods. For example, students who go on exchange to Hebrew University of Jerusalem stay in a student village built on illegally occupied land. While it is the responsibility of students to arrange their own accommodation when they go on exchange, it is the responsibility of our university to ensure that ethical and legal standards are observed. A mobility exchange that involves a partnership with universities complicit in atrocity crimes not only violates international human rights law, but also our own code of integrity and research ethics framework.
The denial of Palestinian right to education and scholasticide has reached unprecedented levels, especially in Gaza: Israeli forces have killed more than one hundred university scholars, hundreds of educators and administrators, and thousands of students. The Israeli military has destroyed every single university, burned down libraries, and decimated the education infrastructure. Not a single rector or administrator at an Israeli university has expressed even a mild expression of concern or disapproval in response to these egregious attacks on Palestinian students, scholars, and education. To the contrary, universities in Israel explicitly stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Israeli military.
Regarding the concern of isolating critical voices within Israeli universities, we emphasize that under the current circumstances, critical voices inside Israeli universities are targeted and silenced by their own administration and the State. Maintaining institutional ties with Israeli universities serves to legitimize and normalize the repressive policies of these institutions, along with their participation in atrocity crimes. Indeed, many of these critical voices wholeheartedly support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction movement, and insist on “the right not to be a perpetrator”. Critical Israeli colleagues will continue to be supported by international colleagues, as is also the case with colleagues at Russian universities from which institutional ties have been cut without our Board raising such concerns.
In addition to cutting ties with Israeli universities, we call on Erasmus University Rotterdam to disclose and cut its commercial and other relations with companies complicit in human rights violations, such as Hewlett-Packard that directly helps the Israeli army to maintain its apartheid regime.
Furthermore, while we appreciate that the administration recognizes the right to demonstrate and has permitted the student encampment thus far, we expect that the right to demonstrate, of students and staff, will continue to be respected and that our board will commit itself to not initiate police violence on its own students and staff. We support the student encampment and their demand for an immediate boycott. After months of dialogue, our university board must act urgently and follow the example of universities in South Africa, Spain, Belgium, Norway, the United States, Ireland and elsewhere that have cut their ties with Israeli universities, the most recent and exemplary of which is Ghent University.
To conclude, on 29 May 2024, Gaza academics and university administrators made a call in an open letter, “to help us resist the Israeli campaign of scholasticide and rebuild our universities”.
We fully support their call and affirm their rights to self-determination. In line with this specific and urgent plea by Gaza faculty and administrators, we call on our university Board to also affirm the right of Palestinian self-determination, to denounce the multiple atrocity crimes and scholasticide, and to urgently facilitate the reopening of education in Gaza, including transition to online education to mitigate disruption, and help rebuild their universities and education infrastructure.
Signatories
Irene van Oorschot, Asst professor, ESSB
Jeff Handmaker, Associate Professor of Legal Sociology at the ISS (The Hague Campus of EUR)
Miriam Matthiessen, PhD Candidate, ESSB DPAS
Anissa Pelouto, MD, PhD-candidate, EMC
Jasmin Seijbel, PhD-candidate and lecturer, ESHCC
Daniela Garcia-Caro Briceño, PhD Candidate, Erasmus School of Law
Çağlar Köseoğlu, Lecturer, Erasmus University College
Elise Alkemade, PhD candidate ESHCC
Friso van Houdt, Senior Lecturer Political Philosophy & Critical Theory, EUC
Sjoerd van Tuinen, Associate professor of Philosophy, ESPhil
Catherine Koekoek, PhD candidate, Erasmus School of Philosophy
Zara Sharif, Senior lecturer, EUC
Lotta Plomp, PhD student, Immunology and Neurology
Syed Mansoob Murshed, Professor ISS
Abdurrahman Erol, PhD at ESL
Lise Zurné, Lecturer, History, Eshcc
Juliette Mattijsen, Coordinator Planetary Health Education, Junior researcher, department of public health Erasmus MC
Anonymous, Hospital pharmacy resident
Hassnae Boubrik, Student, student-teacher emergency medicine and working student at Intensive Care Adults.
Isabel Awad, Associate professor ESHCC
Anonymous, DPAS, ESSB.
Wout van Wijngaarden, CIO/Director IT (EDIS)
Martine Lamfers, Associate professor
Mostafa Mohseni, PhD student, ErasmusMC
Anonymous, Policy Officer Academic Affairs
Otto SPIJKERS, Assistant Professor at Erasmus School of Law
Esmee nuninga, Director CPC, General Management Directorate
Mahdi Salih, Internist
Hannah Kay, PhD Candidate, DPAS
Naomi Rommens, PhD candidate
Anne Slootweg, PhD candidate at ESSB DPAS
JN van der Geest, Assoc. Professor
Christian van der Veeke, Senior Lecturer, EUC
Guusje Enneking, PhD at EUR
Maryse Kruithof, Senior Lecturer EUC
Claire Tio, PhD researcher ESPhil / tutor RASL
Amira Fretz, Lecturer, Erasmus University College
Jess Bier, Associate professor
Bart Hesseling, EUC
Krista King, PhD Candidate, ESSB DPAS
Maud van Roessel, Junior researcher, Strategy Office
Nicolás Soler, PhD candidate, ESSB DPAS
Anonymous, Retired senior lecturer
Alessandra Arcuri, Professor, Erasmus School of Law
Gabriele Mari, Assistant Professor, ESSB
Anonymous, Postdoc, arts
Anonymous, Research Assistant
Michał Stambulski, Assistant Professor
Esra Kahramanoglu, Member university council
Anonymous, ABD
Federica Violi, Associate Professor of International Law, Erasmus School of Law
Mustafa al Saffar, Medical Doctor
Mirwais Mehrab, MD, PhD Candidate EMC
Samir El Abdouni, Pharmacist/PhD-candidate
Latiffah salima Baldeh, Junior researcher @ Strategy office
Anonymous, Senior Policy Advisor/AA/General Management Directorate
Abderrahim Ghaddari, Medical doctor
Zemzem Shigute Shuka, Assistant Professor, ISS
Geke Hasperhoven, PhD-student/physician at Sophia Children’s Hospital
Daniele Rossi-Doria, PhD Researcher (ISS/EUR)
Ida Vos, PhD candidate, ESHCC
Xander Creed, PhD Researcher, ISS
Sophie van Balen, PhD Candidate, Erasmus School of Philosophy
Natália da Silva Perez, Assistant Professor, ESHCC
Stephanie Triefus, Assistant Professor, Erasmus School of Law
Rosalba Icaza, Professor of Global Politics, Feminisms and Decoloniality
Sanne Boersma, Senior lecturer, EUC
Daan Tielenburg, Teacher, DPAS, ESSB
Tomris Cesuroglu, Senior researcher, PDPC, EMC
Loes de kleijn, Arts in opleiding tot huisarts en onderzoeker
Aysima Senyurek, Medical Doctor
Guido van Leeuwen, PhD student General Practice
David Ongenaert, Lecturer, ESHCC
Anonymous, PhD student
Ayse Zor, Health care psychologist
Kadir Caliskan, cardiologist at EMC
Phương Hoàn Lê, PhD/Lecturer at ESHCC
Ioannis Kampourakis, Associate Professor, Erasmus School of Law
Marjilla Jammy, AIOS huisartsgeneeskunde, huisartsopleiding ErasmusMC
Robyn Murning, PhD Candidate, ESHCC
Cox van de Weg, Consultant internal medicine
Shyamika-jayasundara-smits, Assistant Asst.Professor, ISS
Anonymous, Researcher, EMC
Anonymous, Student-instructur
Nicola Mangraviti, PhD Researcher, ISS
Ana C. Uribe Sandoval, Lecturer, Media & Communication, ESHCC
Leslie Sanderson, Assistant Professor, EMC
Siham Zabit, General practioner
Jeleesa Lynch, Nurse at EMC
Saliha Ergezen, PhD candidate, Erasmus MC
Gabi Helfert PhD, Director Educational Excellence, RSM
Maria Avraamidou, Lecturer ESHCC
Débora Antunes, Lecturer (ESHCC)
Zana Brkic, Internist
Jan Pronk, Prof. Emeritus ISS
Thea Hilhorst, Professor of humanitarian studies, ISS
Nicky Nathaniël Papilaja, Student Experience Officer, ESHCC
Adam Anas, Internist-Infectioloog EMC
Jiska Engelbert, Associate Professor ESSB
Anonymous, Assistant Professor, ISS
Anonymous, Professional services, ESHCC
Gabriela Veronica Villacis Izquierdo, PhD candidate
Kevin Pijpers, Postdoc at ESSB
Parnian Ajami, Professional services staff, ESHCC
Anonymous, Resident Psychiatry
Kirsten Kardijk, Researcher, ECWO RSM
Lisa Doeland, Lecturer, EUC
Wander van Baalen, senior lecturer, Erasmus University College
Fatimah Albuainain, MD, PhD candidate at EMC
Willem Schinkel, Professor, ESSB
Florence Atrafi, AIOS klinisch farmacologie
Nuria Jansen, PhD Candidate EMC
Amod Shah, PhD Candidate, International Institute of Social Studies (ISS)
Charlotte Waltz,Postdoc at ESSB
María Campo Comba, Assistant professor, ESL
Anonymous, PhD candidate, EGSL
Hyeonggeun Ji, PhD Researcher
Maria Panagiotou, Lecturer, Life Sciences, Erasmus University College
Maite Houwing, AIOS Psychiatrie
Eva Meyermans Spelmans, PhD researcher, Erasmus School of Law
Abdel el Hachioui, Erasmus MC
Ahmed Abofoul, Research Fellow on International law and legal mobilization in relation to Palestine
Ioana Tomici, Dean’s office, EUC
Gita Huijgen, PhD candidate, DPAS, ESSB
Lina Al-Hassany, AIOS and PhD-candidate, Erasmus MC
Ammar Muhammad, Resident Internal Medicine
Anonymous, Internal medicine
Mariela Miranda van Iersel, Junior Researcher, Strategy Office
Anonymous, Aios
Yara de Kwaasteniet, Programme Coordinator, ESHCC
Charlotte van Tuijl, PhD at ESSB
Julia Wetsteijn, Professional Services staff, ESHCC
Ryan Kopaitich, Postdoc – ESPhil, EUR
Palesa Mashigo, PhD Candidate and Lecturer, ESHCC
David van Putten, PhD ESPhil
Benjamin al Salehy, Platform and Eventmanager, Rotterdam School of Management
Thijs Heijmeskamp, PhD Candidate, Erasmus School of Philosophy
Isis van Rooy, Junior researcher
Sonia de Jager, PhD student
Aikaterini Genidogan, PhD Candidate, ESPhil
Lorenzo Pellegrini, Professor, ISS
Anonymous, ABD
Ursula Arroyo Spinoso, Student Assistant ESHCC
Soumia Aammari, Research Policy Advisor, Erasmus MC
Marion Smits, Professor of Neuroradiology, Erasmus MC
Anonymous, Schaduw tutor Psychologie
Anonymous, PhD student
Aurélie Sapa Furaha, PhD candidate, RSM
Eva Borkhuis, PhD candidate, ESSB
Rogier van Reekum, Assistant Professor, ESSB
Anonymous, PhD candidate
Victoria Balan, PhD candidate ESHCC
Gijs Custers, Assistant Professor, ESL
M Savas, EMC
Anonymous, PhD Candidate, Erasmus School of Law
Nasser Drif, AIOS Anesthesiologie
J Jansen, Assistant Professor, ESL
Anonymous, Geestelijk Verzorger
Zeinab Nosrati student, Board member at GIDS, working student at HPB department Erasmus MC.
Ayman Aaliouli, Master student & student job on the intensive care
Tessi Nobbe, Junior lecturer, ESSB
Anonymous, Junior Researcher, ESSB
Pieter Van den Heede, Lecturer
Britt Veldhuis, Teacher, ESSB DPAS
- Livaha, Senior Lecturer, EUC
Anonymous, Coordinator, ESSB
Adriana Kasperowicz, Student, coordinator emergency medicine team, ErasmusMC
Ayoub Lalouti, ANIOS psychiatrie
Hilal Ince-Askan, AIOS
Tareq Abdel Alim, Postdoc Erasmus MC
Anonymous, Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam, Faculteit der Gezondheidswetenschappen
Anna le Clercq, Student Researcher, Erasmus MC
Meryem Al Fatly, Junior researcher, EMC
Anahita Noruzi, MD, PhD candidate Erasmus MC
Anonymous, Pharmacist
Anonymous, PhD candidate
Anonymous, PhD candidate, Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine
Serdar Yavuzyigitoglu, Medical specialist, EMC
Sam Passeport, ErasmusX
Anonymous, Education Manager, ESSB
Ilke Akdoğan- Biçer, General practioner, Lecturer, Erasmus MC
Silke Heumann, Assistant Professor, ISS
Samira van der Bas – El Abdellaoui, Dietist
Eileen de Veer, Sr. Nurse consultant, department of Internal Medicine, EMC
Elmi Wopereis, Diëtist
Rosalie Giesbertz, Dietetics
Anonymous, Prof.services
Melissa de Roos, Assistent professor, ESSB
Anonymous, Assistant prof ESSB
Isa Sanchez, Academic Teacher, DPAS- ESSB
Dana Mustafa, Assistant professor & group leader
Laia Salvat, Internship student
Ethell-Marjorie Dubois, PhD candidate
Mala Dengkeng, PhD candidate, ESPhil
Tim Pendry, Junior Lecturer, ESSB
Marianne Littel, Assistant professor, ESSB
Anonymous, Senior Lecturer EUC
Selin Celik, Working at Erasmus MC hospital pharmacy
- Al Arashi, PhD candidate
Rayan Chettou, Working student hematology, EMC
Anonymous, Logistiek medewerker
Anonymous, Pharmacy technician, Erasmus MC
Anonymous, Anesthesia assistant i.o.
Mustafa Kumas, Radiology
Julie Hoppenbrouwers, PhD Candidate ESL
Anonymous, Dietician
Haya AlFarra, PhD candidate, ISS
Senned Karrar, Medical doctor
- Goverts, Teacher, ESSB
Anonymous, Arbodienst EMC
Karapet Ghamoyan, Anios Psychiatrie, Erasmus MC
René van Swaaningen, Criminologist, ESL
Hadiye Ozturk, Cardiology resident
Kiki Giese, Secretary
Ahmed al Khanim, HAIO
Elise Maes, Erasmus school of law
Abdessamad Bouabid, Assistant Professor, Criminology, ESL
Anonymous, Postdoc, AIOS interne, EMC
Zeynep Kasli, Assistant Professor, ISS
Seline Westerhof, Junior researcher ESSB
Zamzam Al-Baz, Lecturer, Erasmus School of Law
Anonymous, Senior Lecturer ESSB
Jing Hiah, Assistant Professor, ESL
Mieke Kox, Assistant professor, ESL
Thomas Swerts, Assistant Professor , ESSB
Lieke van Eijk, Marketing & Communication, ESHCC
Rob Willemsen, Em. professor
Geerke Visser, Junior Lecturer ESSB
Lena van de Lande, Teacher, ESSB
Anonymous, Project lead, Academic affairs, EUR
Kay Mars, PhD candidate, ESSB-DPAS
Marlon Valentijn Kruizinga, PhD Candidate
Josien Kamp, PhD candidate, ESSB
Anonymous, ESSB
Majsa Storbeck, Phd Student
Lieke van der Veer, EUR
Tokameh Mahmoudi, Professor, departments of Pathology and Urology, Erasmus MC
Emma Weerd, Phd researcher, ESL
Leanna Cobanovic, Tutor Criminology
Anonymous, PhD student EMC
Amr Marzouk, PhD Candidate, Erasmus School of Law
Anonymous, ABD
Anonymous, PhD Candidate at DPAS
Pieter van Lamoen, PhD candidate at ESSB
Arash Khamooshian, Cardio-thoracic surgeon
Ilias attaye, Aios interne
Anonymous, Research Assistant, ESSB
Sanne Koevoets, Humanities Department Head at EUC, DIT Academic
Anonymous, Staff, RSM
Fiore Geelhoed, Assistant Professor
Anonymous, PhD Candidate, ESL
Daniël van Dijk, Lecturer Educational Sciences
Claartje ter Hoeven, Professor, ESSB
Gresa Gashi, Junior Researcher IDEA center ABD
Anonymous, Erasmus mc
Liset de Vries, PhD candidate Biochemistry
Debbie Varekamp, Professional services ESSB
Isabella Regan, PhD researcher ESL
Anonymous, PhD student and GP trainee
Gergana Boncheva, PhD Candidate, ESPhil
Anonymous, Assistant professor and epidemiologist EMC
Anonymous, PhD student en huisarts in opleiding
Anonymous, Lecturer in Social & Behavioural Sciences
