The Erasmus University Rotterdam is immediately freezing collaborations with three universities in Israel. The university fears that it will be indirectly involved in human rights violations.
The decision was made by the executive board, which is adopting the advice of an independent advisory committee. According to the committee, there is a high probability that Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel is involved in human rights violations.
Furthermore, collaborations with The Hebrew University in Jerusalem and the university in Haifa have been halted due to their ties with the Israeli army and their research activities in occupied territories.
“Our international collaborations are based on academic freedom and scientific diplomacy. But that freedom has limits when fundamental human rights are at stake,” says Annelien Bredenoord, chair of the executive board of Erasmus University.
The board says it only wants to cooperate again if the Israeli universities “demonstrably distance themselves from the Israeli army as long as the suspicion of structural violation of human rights and war crimes exists”.
Since the start of the war in Gaza on October 7, 2023, there have been many protests at Dutch universities against ties with Israeli universities. Other universities had previously halted collaborations with Israeli universities.