We write as the Palestinian Federation of Unions of University Professors and Employees (PFUUPE) and Palestine Academy for Science and Technology (PalAST), which represent nearly 10,000 university faculty and staff members at 18 Palestinian universities, in response to the many principled stands by universities around the world on the situation in Gaza and the dire consequences it is having for Palestinians.
In particular, we welcome the many calls from universities around the world for an immediate ceasefire and the steps toward reviewing, suspending and severing collaboration agreements with Israeli universities and research centers that are complicit in Israel’s war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
These are necessary steps to end institutional ties with Israeli academic institutions that have played a key role in Israel’s 76-year settler-colonial apartheid rule oppressing all Palestinians and, now, in what the International Court of Justice has ruled is plausibly genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip.
We thank the dozens of universities around the world that have taken steps to end institutional academic relations with Israeli universities over their complicity in Israel’s grave violations of Palestinian rights and international law and to divest from corporations that enable these violations.
These principled stances come as Israel has killed at least 41,000 Palestinians in Gaza, including many of our academic colleagues and students. A report published in The Lancet indicates the death toll could eventually exceed 186,000. At least 1.9 million Palestinians in Gaza have been forced from their homes, only to be bombed in shelters or burnt alive in their makeshift tents as there is no safe place to go. The level of destruction is unfathomable, creating an estimated 40 million tons of rubble. Israel’s ongoing bombing campaigns have inflicted massive damage on residential buildings, health facilities, roads, sewers and all other critical infrastructure.
As part of Israel’s genocide, it is also committing scholasticide in Gaza, where all Palestinian universities have been damaged or destroyed, along with their labs, archives, and libraries. The heads of 15 Palestinian universities have called for Israeli universities to “face international isolation” over their complicity in Israel’s human rights violations. Palestinian university presidents and administrators in Gaza are calling to oppose Israel’s scholasticide and to work directly with them to rebuild academic institutions there.
Based on ethical considerations and respect for international law, indeed all ties with Israeli academic institutions must be ended, as they have all persistently, structurally, and deeply violated international law, including international humanitarian law, as is well-documented by Palestinian, Israeli and international scholars and human rights experts. In light of the recent International Court of Justice ruling finding Israeli guilty of the crime against humanity of apartheid and its military occupation illegal, international universities have a legal obligation to avoid aiding and assisting Israel’s serious international law breaches, including via institutional cooperation with complicit Israeli universities. Please allow us to elaborate on this complicity.
Israeli universities are built partially or entirely on illegally occupied Palestinian land
Hebrew University’s Mount Scopus campus is partially built on land illegally expropriated from Palestinian owners in Israeli occupied East Jerusalem, in clear violation of international law, and therefore directly serves the ongoing land theft and dispossession of Palestinians.
Ariel University is entirely built in an illegal Israeli settlement on stolen Palestinian land in the occupied Palestinian West Bank in violation of international law. Settlements are considered a war crime in international law.
All Israeli universities agreed to accept Ariel University into the Association of Heads of Israeli Universities, which lists Ariel University on its website as located in Samaria, a term used by Israel to whitewash its illegal military occupation of the occupied Palestinian territory.
Bar Ilan University initially established Ariel University as the “College of Judea and Samaria,” and all Israeli universities regularly cooperate with Ariel University.
Israeli universities maintain strong ties with the Israeli military and weapons industry
This goes well beyond research collaborations to include hosting military bases on campus and partnerships with the same arms manufacturers that are providing the weapons systems and doctrines for Israel’s genocide, domicide and scholasticide in Gaza.
The University of Haifa hosts three Israeli military colleges comprising the Israeli Military Academic Complex, which as the university states "form the backbone of the IDF’s elite training programs." The University of Haifa holds courses at the Israeli military base of Glilot, considered to be an extension of the university.
Hebrew University hosts a military base on campus to offer academic training to Israeli soldiers. Hebrew University has additionally offered its campus buildings to Israeli forces for the oppression of the surrounding Palestinian communities in occupied East Jerusalem.
Tel Aviv University runs joint centers with the Israeli military and Israel’s arms industries. Tel Aviv University also hosts the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), which boasts of having developed the so-called Dahiya Doctrine, or doctrine of disproportionate force. Adopted by the Israeli military, the Dahiya Doctrine calls for “the destruction of the national infrastructure, and intense suffering among the [civilian] population.” This doctrine, which advocates for war crimes and crimes against humanity, is being employed by Israel, and not for the first time, against Palestinians in Gaza.
Bar Ilan University works closely with the Shin Bet, Israel’s notorious security services, which has been condemned by the UN Committee Against Torture for its use of torture and other illegal violent interrogation tactics. Bar Ilan’s Engineering faculty has run “hackathons” in collaboration with the Israeli military and with Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest arms producer. Elbit is notoriously implicated in war crimes.
Ben Gurion University (BGU) hosts the Homeland Security Institute whose partnerships include Israel’s top weapons companies and the Israeli Ministry of Defense. The Israeli military is building a technology campus next to the BGU campus aimed at furthering the ties between the military and BGU. As a brigadier general at the ribbon cutting ceremony put it, it will “reinforce the army's operational capabilities.”
The Weizmann Institute of Science intricately collaborates with Israel's top weapons manufacturers, including Elbit Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries. It also offers an MA program for soldiers and has opened a pre-military academy that will prepare high school seniors for “meaningful military service.”
Technion has multiple partnerships with and scholarships sponsored by Israel’s top weapons manufacturers, including Elbit Systems and Rafael. Technion has developed a course on marketing the Israeli weapons industry to the international market for export. It also has numerous joint academic programs with the Israeli military and developed the remote control capabilities for the Caterpillar D9 armored bulldozer used by the Israeli military to demolish Palestinian homes and whole neighborhoods during the current genocide—considered collective punishment under international law.
The Open University of Israel has run the “Academic Commandos” program with the Israeli military since 1999, boasting of having given “preferential treatment to IDF soldiers: providing 50% scholarships to active combat soldiers.”
Israeli universities have intensified their direct complicity during Israel’s Gaza genocide
Hebrew University has boasted of providing “diverse logistics equipment to several military units” in active duty during the ongoing genocide.
The Weizmann Institute has introduced more than a dozen benefits for student soldiers serving in Israel's Gaza genocide. Hebrew University has also quickly instituted an “Enhanced Financial Package” for student soldiers committing Israel’s genocide in Gaza, in addition to academic benefits.
Technion boasts of a student who enlisted professors and alumni to create an AI-driven army of bots “to massively increase the impact of pro-Israel efforts on social media,” pushing Israeli propaganda to whitewash its Gaza genocide and repress speech on Palestinian rights.
Tel Aviv University has instituted a hasbara (propaganda) course on Israel's Gaza genocide and crowdfunded for “care” packages for soldiers perpetrating it.
Tel Aviv University’s venture capital firm, TAU Ventures, boasts of investing in Xtend, which provides systems to deploy “swarms” of armed drones that have been used in Israel’s Gaza genocide.
The Open University of Israel boasts of being “the only [Israeli] institution of higher education at which soldiers on active duty in the IDF are authorized to study while serving.”
The University of Haifa has provided equipment to soldiers carrying out the genocide in Gaza and established an “emergency” fund to provide stipends to student soldiers.
Israeli universities have long repressed Palestinians students and faculty members
Just in the past months, Adalah, the largest human rights organization defending the rights of Palestinian citizens of Israel, has documented 124 cases of punitive and retaliatory (“disciplinary”) proceedings against Palestinian students at 36 Israeli universities and colleges over posts on their private social media accounts.
Tel Aviv University, Bar Ilan University, the University of Haifa, Ben Gurion University and Technion have also referred student cases to the Israeli police, putting the Palestinian students’ safety and even lives at risk.
Hebrew University has led a months-long public smear campaign against internationally renowned Palestinian feminist scholar Professor Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian for having urged an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and for describing Israel’s military assault against Palestinians in Gaza as genocide. Hebrew University called for Professor Shalhoub-Kevorkian to resign, before shamefully suspending her from all teaching duties. Hebrew University’s actions led to Professor Shalhoub-Kevorkian being arrested by Israeli forces in occupied Jerusalem, where they searched her home, confiscating her mobile phone, laptop, and other personal items.
The University of Haifa arbitrarily suspended eight Palestinian students over social media posts, with no due process.
Ben Gurion University publicly accused Jewish Israeli faculty members who signed a statement against Israel's genocide in Gaza of having "tarnished the reputation of BGU."
The Association of Heads of Israeli Universities has also issued several racist and dangerous statements over the past months, launching dangerous and defamatory accusations against students and faculty members advocating for an end to Israel’s Gaza genocide and an end to the complicity of their own institutions, while urging international university heads to crack down on the mobilizations.
We apologize for the length of this letter, which presents only a sampling of the ways in which all Israeli universities have persistently and systematically played an indispensable role in Israel’s regime of settler-colonialism, apartheid and military occupation. That role categorically refutes any claim by these universities to be committed to peace, academic freedom or upholding international law.
We thank the many universities that have taken principled stands and urge all others to follow suit until the Palestinian people are afforded their inherent and internationally recognized rights, particularly to self-determination and liberation from all oppression.
Palestinian Federation of Unions of University Professors and Employees (PFUUPE)
Palestine Academy for Science and Technology (PalAST)