Radboud University wants to freeze all university and faculty ties with Tel Aviv University and Hebrew University. So writes the Executive Board in a proposed decision. Too little, too late, say the Nijmegen activists in response.

Radboud University wants to suspend university partnerships with two Israeli universities: Tel Aviv University and Hebrew University. That is the tenor of the Executive Board’s (CvB) proposed decision, published this afternoon on the university website.

In doing so, the Executive Board is following the recommendation of the International Partnerships Committee, which was announced in early April. In the light of ‘serious and systematic human rights violations’ by Israeli universities, the Committee recommended that ties be frozen until certain conditions were met.

Not extended

‘The Executive Board recognises the Committee’s analysis of the human rights situation in Israel and the Palestinian territories, as well as its conclusions regarding Tel Aviv University and Hebrew University,’ the report states. The Executive Board also adopts the Committee’s recommendation regarding suspending university-wide partnerships with both universities. Both partnerships are due to expire this year, and will not be renewed. Faculty collaborations with both universities will also be frozen.

Suspension of cooperation means, among other things, that researchers can no longer carry out joint projects and students can no longer go on exchanges to these universities.

Where Radboud University collaborates more broadly with both universities, for example in the context of the Horizon Europe research programme, the collaboration need not be suspended. Indeed, according to the Executive Board, terminating such collaborations leads to ‘breach of contract and other financial and ethical consequences’ and may ‘affect Radboud University’s reputation as a reliable partner.’

Individual collaborations between researchers from Radboud University and Israeli universities also remain possible. ‘Individual scientists are expected to use their own judgment in deciding on whether to initiate or proceed with collaborations,’ the report states. The Executive Board will, however, ask the Advisory Committee to draw up frameworks for individual collaborations so that these can also be assessed in the future.

In dialogue

The International Partnerships Committee recommended severing ties because Hebrew University, among other things, trains students for the Israeli military intelligence service and collaborates with IDF to train students to become experts in military technology. Tel Aviv University, in turn, contributes to the war through investments in defence companies, according to the Committee.

Following the Committee’s advice, the Executive Board spoke to the administrators of the universities concerned, but they were unable to change the Nijmegen Executive Board’s mind. ‘This dialogue did not lead to a different conclusion than that expressed in the Committee’s advice,’ the report states.

Members of the University’s participational bodies – the Works Council and the University Student Council – may still give their opinions on the University’s proposed decision. That may happen today. After that, the Executive Board will reach a final decision.

Police dog

The Executive Board’s decision comes approximately one year after pro-Palestine demonstrators set up a tent camp next to the Maria Montessori building. At the time, the activists demanded that the Executive Board cut ties with Israeli institutions.

Even after the evacuation of the tent camp by the police in June 2024, dozens of protests took place on the campus. A month ago, the ME put an end to the occupation of a footbridge on Erasmusplein. An attempt by protesters to break into the Berchmanianum last week resulted in a large-scale police action on campus. In the process, one of the protesters was bitten in the leg by a police dog. Three activists were arrested, two of them on suspicion of assault.

Response from the Nijmegen Student Encampment

‘We consider the proposed decision to cut ties with Israeli universities to be too little, too late. Radboud University has contracts with both universities until the summer of 2025; these will simply not be renewed.

‘It is also ridiculous that individual collaborations and collaborations in the context of consortia such as Horizon2020 are allowed to continue. These partnerships also require contracts signed by the University. According to Radboud University, it is ‘too complicated’ to stop such collaborations. That is nonsense, as the University of Barcelona already discontinued such collaborations previously. And following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, all financial transactions and data exchanges with Russia stopped. Why can’t this be done in the case of Israel?

‘Moreover, we believe it is incredibly harmful that only the university-wide links with Tel Aviv and Hebrew University are addressed in this proposed decision. Radboud University also has a partnership with Tecnhion: a university that has ties with IDF and even manufactures weapons on campus. Ties with the Weizmann Institute of Science and Haifa University are also not broken, or even mentioned.

‘So we are definitely not satisfied. The decision is not far-reaching enough and comes far too late. We have been calling for all ties to be severed since October 2023. Radboud University has not even condemned Israel’s war crimes. Much more action is needed from our university than this decision. We demand that Radboud University take action against the genocide in Gaza and against the colonisation of Palestine, and we will continue to campaign until all ties are severed with Israel and Zionism, including HP (because it supplies hardware to Israel, eds.).’