Stop European Funding for Israeli Institutions
Stop Complicity in Occupation, Apartheid and Genocide
To Ms. Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission
To Mr. António Costa, President of the European Council
To Ms. Kaja Kallas, High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice President,
To Ms. Ekaterina Zahrieva, Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation
Israel's genocidal war on Gaza has raged for over 19 months. It turned Gaza into a wasteland, reflecting the obliteration of our collective conscience and humanity. Since Israel imposed a total blockade on March 2 and unilaterally resumed its offensive in violation of the ceasefire agreement, over 2 million people have been facing the worst level of hunger, starvation and disability imaginable, amidst relentless bombings.
The level of death, destruction and human suffering is apocalyptic. The trickle of aid Israel allowed to enter on May 23 is just a camouflage to avert further international pressure. Ethnic cleansing looms behind the intensified attacks. The Palestinians, already suffering from decades of occupation, colonization and apartheid, are experiencing their darkest hour, as settler violence, forced displacement and home demolitions engulf the West Bank.
A plausible case of genocide has been found by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for Israel to answer, and arrest warrants were issued against the prime minister and former defence minister by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The ICJ further unequivocally ruled in its advisory opinion that Israel’s continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is illegal. The UN General Assembly resolution further determined that the Occupation and all illegal activities should be ended by September 2025.
While Israel blatantly ignores the orders of the ICJ and countless UN resolutions, no action has been undertaken by the EU in line with these moral and legal obligations. On the contrary, the EU continues to grant Israel privileges through the EU-Israel Association Agreement and to shield Israel from accountability, despite Article 2 of the agreement stipulating “respect for human rights” as an essential element. Only very recently has a review of the Association Agreement been initiated. In the meantime, weapons made in Europe are still flowing into Israel, killing civilians in Gaza.
The past 19 months of your inaction have cost thousands of lives, with a likely death toll of 100,000 civilians. While Palestinian universities are being deliberately annihilated by the Israeli military, Israeli academic institutions continue to enjoy a privileged status as partners of European science under the framework of the Association Agreement, receiving over €2.6 billion in EU research funding since 2007. This includes projects in the dual-use and security research area involving Israeli academia and arms companies, some even explicitly mentioning future military applications. Israeli universities, far from being stalwarts of “academic freedom”, have been an integral part of the Israeli settler-colonial project since their inception. They produce scholarship that seeks to normalize and legitimize crimes committed by the State of Israel, they develop technology and strategies that are deployed by the Israeli military against Palestinians, and they undermine academic freedom by repressing critical Jewish and Arab voices in their own institutions.
It is highly probable that the EU funding to the Israeli military-security complex involving academia and industry over the past 18 years has played a role in the maintenance of occupation, colonization and apartheid, given the central role of the security technologies in controlling, subjugating and repressing the occupied population. Continued research funding to Israel is not only morally unacceptable but also exposes the EU to the risk of being complicit in Israeli crimes of genocide, occupation and apartheid. The risk is particularly high given that no adequate monitoring mechanism is in place to prevent misuse of the outcomes of EU- funded research in the implementation phase after projects have formally ended, leading to possible violations of international law.
We therefore demand that the EU:
1. Suspend all ties with Israeli research institutions, and revoke Israel's status as a Horizon Europe associated country
2. Take the lead in reconstructing Palestinian universities and institutions destroyed by Israel
3. Initiate an investigation into the human rights impact of past and future research funding awarded to Israel
Beyond these specific demands we join the call of millions of people around the globe to end this genocide. We call on you to mobilize all diplomatic, economic and political leverage, including an arms embargo and economic sanctions, to pressure Israel to comply with international law. As Israel’s largest trading partner and a crucial partner for its research and innovation sector, you have real leverage, and according to the rulings of the ICJ you have a responsibility to act. Your failure to do so betrays the core values of the EU, namely respect for human rights and the rule of law, and undermines the EU’s standing in the global community.
See ANNEX: Genocide, ongoing Israeli crimes and European complicity
This petition was organized by a coalition of European academic organisations - AURDIP (France), BACBI (Belgium), RUxP (Spain), Academics for Palestine (Ireland) and BRICUP (UK), and ECCP.
