The EU continues to grant Israel privileges through the EU-Israel Association Agreement, despite Article 2 of the agreement stipulating “respect for human rights”. Additionally, Israeli academic institutions continue to enjoy a privileged status as partners of European universities, receiving over €2.6 billion in EU research funding since 2007. 75 organizations, and 4500 university staff and students, have signed a petition to the EU demanding that this collaboration MUST END.
There is increased scrutiny of Israel’s participation of in the EU’s framework projects, currently HORIZON Europe, as the genocide, destruction and human suffering in Gaza reach apocalyptic level. The EU’s research funding is oxygen for the Israeli research sector and contributes to the development of cutting-edge dual-use and security technologies that can ultimately be used to kill civilians, destroy civilian infrastructure, and control and repress the Palestinian people in the Occupied Territory.
It is highly probable that 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 Israel’s illegal occupation and the ongoing Gaza genocide. Continued research funding to Israel is not only morally unacceptable but also exposes the EU and European research partners to the risk of being complicit in Israeli crimes of genocide, occupation and apartheid.
The petition demands that the EU should:
- Suspend all ties with Israeli research institutions, and revoke Israel‘s status as a Horizon Europe associated country
- Take the lead in reconstructing Palestinian universities and institutions destroyed by Israel
- Initiate an investigation into the human rights impact of past and future research funding awarded to Israel
Google took down our petition while it was still collecting signatures, and blocked the associated account without prior notice, in violation of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Processing Agreement (DPA). As a result some signatures may have been lost. Nevertheless, the petition was relaunched on another platform and has now been completed.
On Monday 23rd June the petition will be delivered in person at the European Commission via the European External Action Service (EEAS) at 14:00. It is addressed to Ms. Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission; Mr. António Costa, President of the European Council; Ms. Kaja Kallas, High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice President; and Ms. Ekaterina Zahrieva, Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation.
For more information, please contact: ECCP (Europe): eccp.brussels@gmail.com, AFP (Ireland) academicsforpalestine@gmail.com; AURDIP (France) contact@aurdip.fr; BA4P (Belgium) info@bacbi.be; BRICUP (UK) j.rosenhead@lse.ac.uk; Dutch Scholars for Palestine (Netherlands) dutchscholarspalestine@gmail.com; RUXP (Spain) lera@us.es