The participational bodies support the Executive Board's intention to freeze ties with two Israeli institutions. But they also advise the university board to further curtail collaborations.

It will come as no surprise to those who have been following university politics for the past 1.5 years: the university participational bodies are advising positively on the Executive Board’s proposed decision to suspend ties with Tel Aviv University and Hebrew University.

Yesterday, the Executive Board (CvB) announced that it will be adopting the recommendation of the International Partnerships Advisory Committee. The Executive Board’s proposed decision states that Radboud University will discontinue institution-wide and faculty-wide collaborations with the two Israeli educational institutions. Individual partnerships and collaborations in larger consortia may be continued.

Criticism

Before the decision is finally adopted, the participational bodies, consisting of the Works Council (OR) and the University Student Council (USC), may still issue advice on it. At yesterday’s plenary session, it became clear that they did not feel that the Executive Board’s proposal went far enough. In particular, they criticised the possibility of maintaining individual ties as well as collaborations within consortia.

‘Changes in collaborations may hurt when you break them’

‘If, in line with the investigation committee, you can only conclude that human rights violations are taking place and that ties should therefore be severed, then you can surely only conclude that all ties should be severed,’ says Works Council member Lau Schulpen (FNV). ‘We are all part of Radboud University, so none of us want to collude with human rights violations, do we?’

‘If you maintain ties, that means that university money will also go to partnerships with Israeli institutions that contribute to human rights violations,’ Schulpen continued. ‘By definition, that already goes against the decision.’

Advice to staff

Works Council member Mathijs van de Sande (FNV) would also like to see the advice go a little further. ‘Shouldn’t there at least be advice to individual staff members to stop or cease collaborations? If you adopt a position but don’t even ask all staff members to comply with that position, how serious is that position?’

Inge Bleijenbergh (AOb) also shared her reservations. ‘If ties within collaborations like Horizon Europe do not need to be suspended because of economic and ethical consequences, aren’t you then basically saying that any financial consequences and reputational damage to Radboud University as a collaboration partner have also been taken into account in this advice?’

Schulpen added: ‘Changes in collaborations may hurt when you break them. Also in an international context. However, it now seems as if we are unwilling to hurt ourselves with this decision.’