Cautious welcome of ACSC advice on EUR-Israeli university collaborations

In its advice, the committee recommends that the EB implement a three-month ‘minimisation of collaborations’ period for the University of Haifa and Hebrew University, rather than calling for an immediate suspension, like for Bar-Ilan. It is hard to see the rationale for such a waiting period, especially since the Committee provides clear indications of these institutions’ involvement in violations of human rights and humanitarian law.

Given the clear and resolute institutional and legal consensus, and the intolerable further worsening of the humanitarian conditions in Palestine, we urge the EB to act swiftly and decisively and to sever these institutional linkages based on the serious and proven involvement in structural violations of human rights and/or international humanitarian law, including war crimes by these three universities.

While we welcome the announcement to cut ties, either conditionally or with immediate effect, we note with concern the limited contextual analysis accompanying the advice.

The violence since October 2023 has a context, in particular a decades-long process of ethnic cleansing and forced displacement that started in the lead-up to 1948 (known as the Nakba). In 1948, Israel claimed independence, predicated on the expulsion of more than 750,000 Palestinians, who were prevented from returning to their lands and livelihoods.

Tensions between Israel and its neighbouring countries intensified in 1967 with Israel’s occupation of Gaza, West Bank, Jerusalem and Golan. In the decades that followed, Palestinians experienced extensive settler violence, while Gaza has been continually occupied by Israel since 1967. Gaza has been the site of many wars, particularly since 2005. The Golan was annexed by Israel in 1981. East Jerusalem was partially annexed in the 1990s.

The International Court of Justice (re)affirmed in 2024 that there is a responsibility, not just of Israel, but of all states to respond to these violations of fundamental rules of international law, to end their complicity and to hold Israel accountable. The Court further concluded in three orders of provisional measures, issued in the South Africa v. Israel case, that there was a ‘plausible risk’ of Palestinian rights being violated in Gaza in terms of the Genocide Convention.

We must not ignore this context to the genocidal violence and destruction in Gaza, including the destruction of humanitarian and medical infrastructure (out of the original 36 hospitals, only four are partially operational). We also must not ignore the killing of dozens of humanitarian workers, professors, hundreds of students and the destruction of university buildings and infrastructure: a ‘scholasticide’, aimed at the total destruction of higher educational capacity in Gaza. Accordingly, students and staff at the Erasmus University Rotterdam have demanded that our university take action.

At the EUR, calls for solidarity with Palestine have taken different forms. Students have organised protests, encampments, sit-ins, film screenings, lectures, awareness campaigns, and teach-ins. They renamed the space by the food court as Shireen Abu Akleh square, to honour the Al Jazeera journalist killed by the Israeli military in 2022. The square has become a focal point for peaceful demonstration.

As staff, we have supported students’ right to protest and have organised teach-ins at all four of our campuses and shared our expertise with the media.

We have checked in on each other; in particular on those we personally know from Israel, Palestine and Lebanon, including students and colleagues at the Erasmus University who lost dozens of members of their extended family in Gaza. At campus-based events, we have centred Palestinians, whose voices are barely heard in the media, within the academy and by governments.

Throughout this time, we have closely followed the work of the ACSC. We attended its workshops; responded to its call for information and eagerly awaited its reports, while urging the Committee to avoid moral equivalence and ‘both-siding’ the conflict.

We cautiously welcome the ACSC’s recommendations as an important step, though our work is far from done. The decision to suspend ties must be transparently implemented and closely monitored. Moreover, the university must consider its ties to corporations and other institutions implicated in Israel’s violations of international law. We draw courage from our academic colleagues and students, and their families, who have been directly affected by this violence. Their steadfastness inspires us to keep this issue on the EUR agenda and to uphold our commitment to justice, human rights, and academic integrity.

All authors are members of faculties at the Erasmus University and are writing in their individual capacities.