Erasmus University in Rotterdam has hit the brakes on its academic ties with three Israeli universities: Bar-Ilan near Tel Aviv, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the University of Haifa.
The reason? A report by the Advisory Committee on Sensitive Partnerships has flagged the three Israeli universities for working closely with the IDF and conducting research in the occupied Palestinian territory.
Not exactly the kind of research Erasmus wants its name attached to. 👀)
“The risk that we are now indirectly involved in human rights violations is too high,” the university tells the NOS.
Unfortunately, it’s not a full breakup
Although exchange programmes are currently frozen, it’s not a complete academic break-up.
Joint work by independent researchers in the Netherlands and Israel can still go ahead, so there is still room for cooperation, just not on an institutional level.
The university plans to send an official “it’s not you, it’s your policies” letter within two weeks. And if those Israeli institutions want to get back together? They’ll need to clearly show they’re distancing themselves from any involvement in human rights violations.
And this decision hasn’t come out of nowhere.
Protests against academic ties with Israel have been popping up in Rotterdam and at other universities across the Netherlands since the war in Gaza began.
READ MORE | Listen up! There will be another “Red Line” demonstration for Palestine in The Hague this month
Erasmus is now joining universities in Tilburg, Nijmegen, and Utrecht, which have already pulled back from similar collaborations.
The IDF might be using Dutch research
According to the investigative journalism platform Follow the Money, Israel has received over €3 billion from Horizon Europe, the EU’s funding programme for civilian science.
Some of this funding has been used to research “dual-use” technologies, which have both civilian and military applications. Worryingly, this means that some of the tech may end up in the hands of the IDF. 👇
At present, nine universities in the Netherlands are working on 28 Dutch-Israeli projects that have military importance. One of the universities named (TU Delft) is currently collaborating with Israel Aerospace Industries, which wants to use the results “as soon as possible”.
Brave students at @tudelft are disrupting the career day at the university, which allows military companies who supply weapons to Israel, and therefore to genocide, to be present. Dutch universities must end ties to genocide now, and TU Delft is top of the complicity list. pic.twitter.com/oo9qhGD0T0
— Harry Pettit 🇱🇧🇵🇸 (@HarrygPettit) February 18, 2025
But TU Delft isn’t the only well-known name on the list.
The other universities involved include TU Eindhoven, the University of Groningen, the University of Amsterdam, VU Amsterdam, Radboud University, Wageningen University, the University of Twente, Leiden University, and the research institute TNO.
Walking away isn’t easy. Dropping out of a project could lead to major financial penalties, so some scientists are stuck conducting work they no longer support.
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