Ties between Eindhoven University of Technology and Israeli organisations

Find the full report of Ties of Eindhoven University of Technology with the Israeli industry and academia here.

The resources below accompany a conversation in the RaraRadio studio in Eindhoven, with people who are working on a report about the ties between Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) and Israeli institutions.

By listening to this conversation, people can get an idea of the most important parts of this report (for those who have reasons to prefer listening above reading). In this way, members of ethical committees and anyone who has questions on the complicity of universities in the occupation of Palestine can inform themselves.

‘Documenting Academic Complicity’ lists publicly available information on projects of Eindhoven University of Technology with Israeli partners or companies arming Israel: https://academiccomplicity.nl/

Overview consortia (Report: ‘Ties of the TU Eindhoven with Israeli universities, companies and institutes’, 2025):

Table 4.1: Israel Innovation Authority (IIA) Consortia on Quantum Technology

Table 4.2: Israel Innovation Authority (IIA) Consortia within the MAGNET Program

On the ethical impacts of quantum technologies in defence (Nature Comment, October 2024)

“We recommend setting up an independent oversight body for quantum technologies in the defence domain, similar to the International Atomic Energy Agency. As with AI, such measures need to be taken well before the wide-spread adoption of quantum technologies.”

”[Q]uantum sensing poses known known risks for privacy and mass surveillance”

“Quantum technologies hold great promise for aiding national defence, by sharpening how countries collect data, analyse intelligence, communicate and develop materials and weapons. For instance, quantum sensors — which use quantum behaviours to measure forces and radiation — can detect objects with precision and sensitivity, even underground or underwater. Quantum communications systems that are resistant to jamming can revolutionize command and control.”

“However, as well as promises, these uses come with ethical risks (see ‘Key risks of using quantum technologies in defence’). For example, powerful quantum computers could enable the creation of new molecules and forms of chemical or biological weapons. They might break cryptographic measures that underpin secure online communications, with catastrophic consequences for digitally based societies. Quantum sensors could be used to enhance surveillance, breaching rights to privacy, anonymity and freedom of communication.”

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-03376-4.epdf?sharing_token=K8q1bm1Ax3nXax2iIRykGNRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0MDI5tBS7ahfCjgKZmaUWPydNGmn2cvripxT0rFDT2iq6_y_ELcsDcR9tY9-fXifGXWzgVzeGF81h8TxRWyF4URCCQt01RDjw5kqbv7tXLxRWJ5z4senmavRaFmJKs-qqU%3D

“By embracing the enigmatic principles of quantum mechanics, Elbit Systems is paving the way for resilient battle communications and pioneering new Electronic Warfare and intelligence-gathering measures.” https://elbitsystems.com/blog/schrodingers-cats-two-way-radio/

On AI: “Nozomi Takahashi, a member of the board of directors of the European Coordination of Committees and Associations for Palestine, told Anadolu they are aware of allegations about EU funds aiding AI technologies targeting civilians.” [-]

Noting that identifying which EU-funded project underpins those used by the Israeli army is impossible due to confidentiality and secrecy, she said "the potential high risk associated with such technology in the hands of a government that has a record of human rights violations should raise an alarm.” (January 2025) https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/eu-funding-for-israeli-tech-raises-fresh-concerns-of-complicity-in-genocide/3444314

On 6G: 6G will transform military-industrial applications: impact on military, geopolitics and cybersecurity

“The introduction of 6G technology in the military will significantly impact war formation, equipment development, and battlefield communications, transforming security-based systems and management.”

The 6G will redefine areas in Aerial and Space communication, Autonomous military systems, 3D Connected Intelligence in Cybersecurity, Electromagnetic, Microelectronics and Photonics.

[I]nnovations like the situational awareness module for the army (SAMA) and advanced pattern recognition software for satellite imagery analysis are notable outcomes that will radically change the high-stake intelligence, Surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities. The application lies in extending super coverage through the geostationary satellites (GEO), low earth orbit satellites (LEO) and high-altitude pseudo satellite (HAPS) in mapping and covering ISR across mountainous areas, sea and space and other remote areas with precision which is not possible using the current frequency. Already the software to read the Enemy's Electronic Order of Battle (ORBAT) and pattern recognition, are functional now and are based on the 5G.  https://archive.li/4AUJ5#selection-829.0-829.50

‘Towers of Ivory and Steel: How Israeli Universities Deny Palestinian Freedom’ by Maya Wind: https://www.versobooks.com/products/3009-towers-of-ivory-and-steel

Recordings of Maya Wind’s talk on her book (Erasmus university Rotterdam): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bG7nquuro9Y

‘Towers of Ivory and Steel: How Israeli Universities Deny Palestinian Freedom’, by Maya Wind, documents how Israeli universities directly constrain Palestinian rights by supporting and even developing the policies of occupation and apartheid used by the Israeli state. “In the West, Israeli universities are considered bastions of pluralism and democracy. But in fact … they are a central pillar of Israel’s regime of oppression against Palestinians,” says Wind. She also discusses Israel’s “scholasticide" in Gaza, the "intentional destruction of Palestinian education,” and the movement of conscientious objectors to Israel’s mandatory conscription, in which she took part when she refused to enlist in the army at age 18 and served 40 days in a military prison. (7:53 min) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p3uyX3jmPI

‘The [book] of Maya Wind, Towers of Ivory and Steel: How Israeli Universities Deny Palestinian Freedom, demonstrates how Israeli universities have, from their inception, contributed to the structural oppression of Palestinians. The most diverse academic disciplines - ranging from Computer Science and Civil Engineering, Law faculties, Archeology and Middle Eastern Studies - are involved in facilitating and legitimizing persecution, occupation, apartheid and genocide. All Israeli universities contribute to discrimination against non-Jewish students and staff and to the production of propaganda (hasbara) that serves to delegitimize criticism of the Israeli state.’

‘There are a great number of reasons why having a partnership with Bar-Ilan University is problematic, not least for its role in carrying out research for the Israeli military and security services. Together with Technion and Ben-Gurion, Bar-Ilan also runs the Bareket master’s program -in data engineering, which trains soldiers in data science, coding and programming for military application. {p. 102}  Its engineering faculty has run ‘hackathons’ together with the Israeli military and with Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest arms producer. Bar-Ilan University also has played a key role in supporting and expanding illegal settlements, including the founding of what is now called Ariel University on illegally occupied West Bank land, with the explicit goal of promoting ‘Judaization.’ {p. 80}  And in similar fashion to the activities of other Israeli universities later discussed, Bar-Ilan’s Archeology department holds strong linkages with Israeli settler movements. Dehumanizing settler-colonial tropes are used as justification for archeological excavations there, such as claiming Palestinian land in the village of Susiya to be ‘totally empty,’ {pp. 31-32}. Similar collaboration between Bar-Ilan archeologists and settlers has transpired at the Khirbet al-Mazra’a excavation and on Palestinian village lands in the occupied West Bank at Khirbet Jib’it and Khirbet Marajim in 2020, and in Kirbet Tibnah in 2022. There are also ongoing collaborations with the Israeli settler organization Elad in joint courses, excavations, and research. {pp. 36-38} There are several examples of Bar-Ilan faculty and leadership promoting violence against the Palestinian people: In the wake of Israel’s Gaza offensive in 2014, Bar-Ilan Middle East Studies professor and former Lt. Col. Mordechai Keidar argued on Israeli radio that a Palestinian insurgent could only be deterred if ‘his sister or mother will be raped.’ {p. 51} In 2017, Bar-Ilan’s Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies put out an advertisement on Facebook arguing for generating ‘hopelessness’ among Palestinians for this would result in a decline in terror: ‘When hopeful, Terrorism increases.’ https://networkcultures.org/tactical-media-room/wp-content/uploads/sites/69/2024/05/Mapping-Leiden-Ties_final-.pdf

The Weizmann Institute of Science is one of the three universities first established by the Zionist movement, prior to the founding of Israel, together with the Hebrew University and Technion in Haifa, with the goal of advancing technological and scientific developments of Israel as a Jewish state in historic Palestine. At their three campuses, the leading Zionist militia, the Haganah, established a Science corps, to research and refine military capabilities and to develop and manufacture weapons. Rafael and IAI – Israeli Aerospace Industries – two of Israel’s largest weapons producers, known for selling their weapons abroad as ‘battle proven’, were developed out of the infrastructures laid out by Technion and Weizmann Institute of Science. {pp. 13-15} 

Senior administrators and faculty have advocated for Israeli science as the basis of Israeli military power by developing experimental and particularly harmful advanced weaponry. {p. 91}

Weizmann operates a high-tech science park – Kiryat Weizmann – where it facilitates Israel’s weapon companies Rafael, Elbit, Elbit’s subsidiary El-OP, etc. Its National Laboratory for the Development of Space Cameras works on technology for detecting targets photographed by drones developed by the Weizmann Institute and Ben-Gurion University. {p. 109}

In 2021, The Weizmann Institute together with Tel Aviv University collaborated with the Israeli Antiquity Authority to conduct research on scrolls excavated and illegally seized from the Occupied Palestinian Territory. {pp. 30-31}

The Weizmann Institute and the Technion both have joint research programs with weapons and drones’ manufacturers Rafael and Elbit. The Technion also works closely with Israel Aerospace Industries, IAI.

from:  How Israeli Universities Deny Palestinian Freedom and What Dutch Universities Should Do https://www.dutchscholarsforpalestine.nl/factsheets

- A review of how Israeli universities deny Palestinian freedom (Wind: ‘Towers of Ivory and Steel’, Part I)

- More information on how to hold Israeli universities accountable (Part II)>

The Technion-Israel Institute of Technology

According to the Industry Guide to the Technion, the university maintains close ties with prominent defense companies such as Elbit Systems, Rafael, Advanced Defense Systems, and Israel Aerospace Industries. These collaborations focus on research and the development of technologies relevant to military applications, including weapons systems, artificial intelligence, and drones.

As Maya Wind notes in her book Towers of Ivory and Steel, the Technion has gone “so far as to explicitly offer courses on arms and security marketing and export.”

Its close links to Israel’s top weapons maker Elbit System was recognized in the recent past when Bezalel Machlis, the firm’s CEO, was awarded the title “guardian of the Technion.” https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/david-cronin/war-criminal-gadi-eisenkot-nabs-1-million-eu-funding

The Technion works with Israel’s arms industry, including its top weapons manufacturer Elbit systems, has joint programs with the Israeli military, and develops technology used in Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians. As highlighted by Dr Maya Wind, Technion even offers “courses on arms and security marketing and export.” This is a central part of the Technion’s history and ongoing identity. Before, during, and since the forced displacement and expulsion of three-quarters of the Palestinian people in the 1948 Nakba (catastrophe), the Technion was part of the original group of universities that became “the military-scientific center of the Israeli state” and “led the development of Israeli military industries.” The Technion helped create both Rafael, “one of Israel’s leading state-owned weapons corporations,” which is a major supplier of missiles to its military, and Israel Aerospace Industries, another of the country’s major arms manufacturers, which supplies the Israeli military with jets, drones, and weapons systems. The extent of military research, laboratories, and partnerships are such that Israel’s military industries are “embedded in the Technion and are often difficult to distinguish from the university.” This is reflective of the sector as a whole: while there is, as Wind puts it, sometimes a misunderstanding in the West that Israeli universities are liberal and progressive spaces that are independent of the Israeli security state, “they are actually central to sustaining it.” Entering into major joint institutional projects with Israeli universities such as the Technion grants significant legitimacy to this complicity, at a time when our duty as members of the international academic community compels us to do precisely the opposite. https://academicsforpalestine.org/2025/02/19/call-for-the-university-of-galway-to-fully-withdraw-from-partnership-with-israels-technion/

“Tel Aviv University is running an “engineering war room” developing technology for the Israeli army including a live-streaming facility for a dog-mounted camera used by a canine unit linked to deadly attacks on Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

In a video posted by the university, a graduate describes how they "take care of fighters".

The Israeli canine unit has been linked to brutal attacks on civilians in Gaza, including the mauling of a man with Down's syndrome who was left to die in July 2024.” https://www.instagram.com/reel/DDNIwN3AQfq/?igsh=dHpjazJpdm44ZWhu

“Lavender, together with another AI tool called Where’s Daddy, placed unprecedented numbers of Palestinians on Israel’s target list and then targeted them and their families in their homes, resulting in significant acceleration of the genocide in Gaza. [-]

Tech [-] contributes significantly to the Israel budget. Tech employs 12% of the Israeli workforce but contributed 20% of the Israeli GDP (US$91B) in 2023 and 36% of income tax in 2021 (24% of all tax revenue). Without tech’s R&D centers, the financial support for the apartheid and genocide would be significantly more difficult.”

https://updates.techforpalestine.org/israel-and-big-tech/

Tech For Palestine report (Feb 2025): ‘Israel and Big Tech’

‘The Israeli startup ecosystem is famed for its connection to the military with a great many startups being founded and staffed by former soldiers. As Israeli VC Roi Carthy says: “Due to mandatory army service, the tech industry and the army in Israel are intertwined. They can’t be separated. [-]

As a result of these policies and contracts, we believe that the tech industry—Big Tech in particular—should be considered a direct participant in the occupation in Palestine and the genocide in Gaza.’ https://updates.techforpalestine.org/israel-and-big-tech/

Overview of IIA consortia (translated from Hebrew).