As the scholarly consensus regarding the genocidal nature of Israel’s violence increases, the KNAW Board furthermore calls on the Dutch Minister of Education, Culture and Science to actively press for suspension of Israel’s participation in the EU’s Horizon Europe programme for scientific and scholarly cooperation.
The KNAW Board is deeply concerned about the inhumane conditions and violations of international humanitarian law in Gaza. Tens of thousands of civilian deaths, the acute famine caused by Israel, diseases, blockades of humanitarian aid bound for Gaza, and the systematic destruction of hospitals, water and sewage systems, universities and schools (scholasticide) bear witness to catastrophic human suffering [*].
Scholars at the KNAW-NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies established in May of this year that Israel is engaging in genocidal violence [**] in Gaza. On 31 August, the International Association of Genocide Scholars concluded that ‘Israel’s policies and actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide in Article II of the United Nations Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948)’.
The Israeli academic community, including the presidents of five Israeli universities and the president of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, have appealed publicly to the Israeli government to halt the human suffering in Gaza.
In line with the response by the Board of the European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities (ALLEA), the Board of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) endorses the appeal for immediate humanitarian action and the restoration of essential infrastructure.
As the scholarly consensus regarding the genocidal nature of Israel’s violence increases, the KNAW Board furthermore calls on the Dutch Minister of Education, Culture and Science to actively press for suspension of Israel’s participation in the EU’s Horizon Europe programme for scientific and scholarly cooperation.
Notes
[*] Selection of sources: IPC alert dated 29 July 2025, various rulings by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), such as that of 19 July 2024, and reports by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
The KNAW is one of the most senior academic bodies in the Netherlands: “The Academy is the forum, the voice and the conscience of science in the Netherlands. Its institutes lead the way here and abroad with their research and collections. Its activities are based on the conviction that knowledge and creativity are the most important ingredients for well-being and prosperity”