In a letter addressed to university leaderships, Ivar Ekeland, vice-president of AURDIP, calls on French institutions to join their Belgian counterparts in demanding the suspension of the cooperation agreement between the European Union and Israel. This agreement, which allows Israel to participate in research programs such as Horizon Europe, is supposed to be conditional on respect for human rights — a condition now blatantly violated in light of the situation in Gaza.
While the International Court of Justice has deemed it plausible that a genocide is underway, and humanitarian organizations denounce mass atrocities, Europe’s inaction is becoming morally untenable. French universities, long silent on the tragedy unfolding in Gaza, are now urged to take a stand. It is time for the academic community — so swiftly mobilized for Ukraine — to live up to the principles it claims to uphold.
Ms and Mrs. University Presidents
Esteemed colleagues
For two years now, Israel has been waging a devastating military campaign against the Gaza strip, one of the most desnely populated regions in the world. There is no need to repeat here what everyone knows and which the media report every single day : the death toll is in the tens of thousants, the majority being women and children, the land is systematically devastated in order to make it unhabitable, the population, with tents as its only shelter, is summarily dispatched from one site to another at the whim of the occupation army. At this very moment, the Israeli army shoots to kill family heads, fathers and mothers who are flocking to the food distribution centers, which the humanitarian organisations call « death traps », and prohibits the entry into Gaza of infant formula, while the starving mothers have no more milk. Already in January 2024 the International Court of Justice warned that the Israeli actions in Gaza may result in genocide, and ordered the Israeli government to protect the civilian population and its means of survival, and the other states, parties to the International Convention for the Prevention of Genocide, including France, not to lend support. Since then, the situation has worsened, and the most respected humanitarian organisations, such as Human Rights Watch or Amnesty International, as well as the major experts in the field, such as the Lemkin Institute and Professor Omer Bartov, all agree that a genocide is ongoing in Gaza.
And yet, Israel is still associated to the European Union by an agreement, article 2 of which states that « relations between the Parties, as well as all the provisions of the Agreement itself, shall be based on respect for human rights and democratic principles, which … constitutes an essential element of this Agreement. ». It gives Israel access to European programs, notable research programs, such as Horizon Europe, which reaffirms this principle : article 14 of the model grant agreement states that « The action must be carried out in line with the highest ethical standards and the applicable EU, international and national law on ethical principles » and that « The beneficiaries must commit to and ensure the respect of basic EU values (such as respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and human rights, including the rights of minorities) ». Considering what is happening in Gaza, and in the occupied Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which prey to an unfettered, murderous and illegal colonisation, as the CIJ has reminded us in July 2024, and in Israel, where the Palestinian minority is discriminated against, as situation characterized as apartheid by numerous Israeli and international NGOs, it is inconceivable that the UE has not yet activated article 79 and suspended the cooperation agreement with Israel
The rectors of the Belgian universities have written to the European Commission and to the member states to ask them to suspend the cooperation agreement. We ask you to join this initiative. For too long the French universities, so expansive over Ukraine, have been silent before Gaza : not a word for the women and children killed indiscriminately in Israeli bombings, nor for our colleages targeted in their own homes by missiles. But now public opinion is moving the governments to act, and there is now a chance that Europe does its duty and suspends the cooperation agreement with Israel, thereby forcing it to let humanitarian aid enter Gaza, and saving millions of human lives. There is an ongoing initiative to that effect, and your University would do itself an honour by joining it.
for AURDIP
Ivar Ekeland
Vice-Président, chargé des relations internationales
Ancien Président de l’Université Paris-Dauphine