Tilburg University should no longer collaborate with Israeli universities. This is recommended by a committee of four university professors, NOS reports. According to the committee, no Tilburg students and employees should be sent to Israeli universities.
The committee believes that there should still be room to receive students from the Israeli partners in Tilburg.
At the request of the Executive Board, the four professors spent five months researching the ties between Tilburg University and seven Israeli partner universities in the field of research and education.
The conclusion is that the university cannot remain passive and must take action. The advisory committee bases its conclusion on human rights violations in Gaza and the involvement of the Israeli army in those violations. And ‘the high degree of interconnectedness between the researched partner universities of Tilburg University and the Israeli defense’.
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‘We’ve been saying this for years’
“This is groundbreaking. We are extremely happy with this advice,” Michiel Bot said NOS. Bot is a senior lecturer at Tilburg University and affiliated with Dutch Scholars for Palestine, an organization that calls for a nationwide boycott of Israeli universities. “The committee is clear: human rights are being violated. We have been saying this for years and now it is finally being heard.”
According to Bot, it is the first time that a committee has recommended breaking all ties with Israeli universities. Previously, several universities, including the University of Amsterdam, University of Utrecht and Erasmus University, advised to limit collaboration.
Tilburg University as a bystander
The professors also state in their report that the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court have issued alarming signals about possible genocide and crimes against humanity in Gaza. Because Tilburg University has a relationship with the Israeli universities, it is also a bystander, according to the professors.
The university board wants to first study the advice before making a decision about the future of the collaboration.
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