The UvA should cut ties with not just one but all complicit Israeli institutions
After more than a year of discussion and deliberation, the University of Amsterdam has finally taken a first step towards taking minimal responsibility for its ties with Israeli institutions complicit in genocide. But this is not enough, argue Kanad Bagchi, Yolande Jansen and Arjen Noordhof.
The Executive Board has decided that the student exchange with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI) will “not be continued in its current form”. As UvA staff for Palestine we have been advocating for such action for a long time and hence applaud this small, but significant, step. We have also experienced a lot of misunderstandings in dialogue with colleagues as well as in the media. Here we wish to explain what the basis was for cutting these ties, why we believe such action to be necessary and where we think the UvA should go from here.
What was the basis for ending the student exchange with HUJI?
It was based on the advice of the permanent committee on third party collaborations. They worked within the revised framework for collaboration with third parties, that was published in December 2024. First, they found indications of complicity: “(organizational units of) HUJI may have close ties through research and training programmes including Talpiot, Havatzalot, and Tzameret with the Israeli Defence Industry and Israeli army”. Second, they found several indications of violations of academic freedom: “The Committee has various indications [...] that, under the current circumstances, the academic freedom and the freedom of expression of academic staff and students at HUJI cannot be guaranteed for all members of the academic community.”
Why is cutting ties with Israeli institutions so important?
The Israeli universities are among those forces that provide technical support and legitimization for the enactment of atrocities and genocide. Hence, it is not just a moral but also a legal obligation to cut all ties with these institutions. Under international law, our country has the legally binding responsibility to do everything in its power to prevent and punish genocide. As recently argued by, among others, ex-ministers Pronk, Van Aartsen, Bot, Brinkhorst, and many former diplomats and ambassadors, our government openly violates this responsibility and on the contrary keeps contributing to and supporting Israel’s gross and indiscriminate violence against civilians.
The International Court of Justice, in its provisional measures in South Africa vs Israel, clearly found that Palestinians in Gaza have the right to be protected from acts of Genocide, the violation of which by Israel are at least “plausible”. In addition, it has been convincingly argued that when our government fails to act, it is still, or even all the more, the responsibility of all public institutions - the UvA included - to avoid any risk of complicity, that is of indirectly supporting the activities contributing to the erasure and physical destruction of Palestinians. Finally, when institutions like the UvA fail to do this, it is our responsibility as civilians, staff and scholars to stand up against the violation of international law and protest.
Where should we go from here?
Unsurprisingly, some groups have reacted with strong emotions to this decision of the UvA. What is often lacking from these reactions is a clear understanding of international law, of the way the committee has come to its advice, or of the actual situation at HUJI or other Israeli universities. People also tend to think it is about boycotting individual scholars, but this is not the case. We hope that pointing to these facts, and helping colleagues and others to find more information, may convince some of them. We sincerely hope that our board, deans and senior management stand by their decision, listen to their own scholars, experts and ethical committee. Moreover, HUJI is just one example out of many. In fact, the current situation in Gaza is so urgent that we believe any delay of action is completely irresponsible. Immediately cutting all ties with complicit Israeli universities and international companies (such as HP where the UvA still buys nearly all its IT-equipment) is a bare minimum legal obligation.
This is not the first genocide we have to witness in our lifetimes. It is not the first genocide that happens while the world stays silent and does not act. But the level of Dutch complicity is unprecedented in recent history. Through scientific and military cooperation the Netherlands, and the Dutch universities as important institutions within it, facilitate the crimes. Through open support for those who systematically violate international law, our authorities are actively undermining the international order that should prevent genocide and other atrocity crimes. Under these frightful circumstances we need our universities to stand firmly on the side of international law and end complicity. UvA staff for Palestine, together with many others, will go on struggling for that.
Kanad Bagchi is postdoc bij het Amsterdam Center for International Law van de UvA, Yolande Jansen is Socrates professor Humanism in relation to religion and secularity at the VU and associate professor political and social philosophy at the UvA and Arjen Noordhof is assistant professor at the programme group clinical psychology of the UvA.
