In his recently published book Ivory and steel towers Based on extensive research, Israeli scientist Maya Wind shows that cooperation between Israeli universities and the state, as well as between universities and the arms and security industry, is at a high level. According to him, it is important to emphasize that it is not about individuals but about structures and institutions.
The structures and institutions of the state that committed the apartheid of the indigenous Palestinians, as extensively documented: first by the Palestinians, later by the Jewish-Israelis, and ultimately by international human rights organizations.
These two things together should be reason enough for Dutch universities to cut ties with Israeli universities – as they did in the past with apartheid South African universities.
By the authors
Achraf El Johari is a lawyer and lecturer in law at Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. Robert Soeterik is an anthropologist and chairman of the Netherlands Palestine Committee. Both are alumni of the University of Amsterdam.
Compared to Jewish-Israeli students, Palestinian students at Israeli universities are subject to numerous restrictions: for example, they are not admitted to certain high-tech, often “security-oriented” courses of study; in teaching the history of the region, the Nakba issue – the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians in 1948 – is taboo, and expressions of Palestinian identity are not tolerated in educational institutions.
Therefore: Israeli academic institutions: places where Jewish Israelis and Palestinians meet and collaborate, as Itay Garmy and Boaz Cahn argue in their op-ed (O&D, 10/5)? Factually correct, but on what basis? At least not as equals. That is exactly what the relationship between these two population groups is all about.
Since October 7, relations between Jewish Israelis and Israeli Palestinians have continued to deteriorate and harden. The Israeli daily published in early November Haaretz long article titled: “Systematic Witch Hunt”: How the Persecution of Arab (Palestinian) Israelis Appears in the Context of the Gaza War.
Of course, this witch-hunt does not bypass the Palestinian students. According to the Emergency Coalition of Arab Society – a Palestinian civil rights organization in Israel – (in this period alone
7 October 2023 to mid-February 2024) 108 students faced consequences for statements made by their institutions. 27 of them have been removed from the institution.
Students around the world have now raised the issue of academic cooperation between them and Israeli universities. Accordingly, the University of Amsterdam published last week a list of partnerships with Israeli universities.
It states that the University of Amsterdam organizes student exchanges with three Israeli universities: Tel Aviv University, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Ben Gurion University of Beersheva. Anyone who takes a closer look at the universities mentioned will come across the following:
About this article
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The Tel Aviv University buildings are located on land that belonged to Al-Shaykh Muwannis – a Palestinian village that was destroyed by the Israeli army in 1948 during the Nakba. The Palestinians were ethnically cleansed. Tel Aviv University is not the only Israeli university built on stolen land. The Hebrew University is located in East Jerusalem. Israel annexed this area in 1980 in violation of international law. Ben Gurion University was built in the Naqab/Negev, land owned by the Palestinian Bedouin, who were thus pushed out of the area.
In addition, the aforementioned universities are platforms for growth and growth of the Israeli Armed Forces. For example, Tel Aviv University cooperates with the Israeli army in the Erez program. Soldiers can complete a bachelor’s degree through this program while receiving additional training to enhance their military skills. Tel Aviv University is not unique in this regard. For example, the Hebrew University has a Havatzalot program for potential employees of the Israeli intelligence services. Air Force pilots are taught at Ben Gurion University.
The fact that the University of Amsterdam sees the aforementioned universities as normal partners is unacceptable to the protesting students – in Amsterdam and elsewhere. The board has an urgent task here: to break this relationship. It’s just one a small contribution to the dismantling of Israel’s system of oppression and violence against the Palestinians.
The Palestinians, whose existence is threatened – most clearly in Gaza – can no longer wait for the results of endless roundtables, studies and negotiations.
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