I no longer wish to be an Honorary Fellow at the University of Amsterdam
Emeritus professor of communication science Ed Tan is furious with the University of Amsterdam and the Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR) for collaborating with Israeli universities. He has relinquished his status as Honorary Fellow. “I no longer wish to act as a standard bearer for ASCoR.”
Recently, as professor emeritus of the Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR), I was offered the opportunity to extend my status as Honorary Fellow for another five years. I have declined this offer because I no longer wish to act as a standard-bearer for ASCoR. The reason is that ASCoR is complying with the UvA’s shameful response to the call to immediately suspend cooperation with Israeli universities.
The call was made in May 2024 by UvA employees to all universities, including the UvA. The urgency of suspending collaborations was emphasized once again last December by the strike of the FNV section within the UvA. The reason for the appeal is the well-documented observation that Israeli universities play a role in a variety of ways in a system of human rights violations against the Palestinians, of which the unprecedented brutality in Gaza is a sad low point. Israeli universities facilitate the army, establish settlements and legitimize human rights violations – see Maya Wind’s book Towers of Ivory and Steel.
Delaying tactics
The University of Amsterdam’s response to the call for immediate suspension was to promise a plan for the evaluation and revision of partnerships. I agree with the diagnosis of the plan by fellow UvA scientists Ueli Stäger and Candida Leone: the development of a framework for evaluation seems to be a “delaying tactic that distracts attention from the politicized issue of suspending ties with Israeli institutions”. I share Stäger and Leone’s call to suspend ties with all Israeli institutions.
Self-evaluation
The draft framework, practically the cornerstone of the University of Amsterdam’s response (Assessment Guidelines for External Collaborations, published 6 December 2024), is hopelessly inadequate as a guideline for suspending collaborations. Firstly, any advice to suspend cooperation from the Advisory Committee on External Collaborations (ACEC) is non-binding, because the decision to suspend cooperation or not is reserved for the heads of research institutes. Secondly, it is not clear exactly how the ACEC arrives at its advice. In any case, self-evaluation by the collaborating institute is an important starting point for the advice. It goes without saying that self-evaluation can be influenced by interests – financial, for example – whether consciously or not. Only a structural assessment by independent experts can guarantee that the evaluation is not coloured by the interests of the collaborating UvA institute. However, the involvement of independent parties in the evaluation study is only mentioned as a possibility.
The response of the University of Amsterdam to the call to suspend relations with Israeli universities is an indefinite “maybe later,” and an unfulfilled “provided”. This seems to be looking away from any eventual shared responsibility for the supportive role that Israeli universities play in a system of human rights violations against the Palestinians that witness the Amnesty International report, can be categorised as Apartheid. This attitude is downright shameful for the University of Amsterdam and for ASCoR.
Ed Tan is professor emeritus of communication science at the UvA.
