SW*IP-NL Statement on Collaborations with Israeli Institutions and International Corporations Complicit in Atrocity Crimes

This statement is issued by the Board of SWIP-NL. It concerns the activities that SWIP-NL finances and/or actively facilitates from its own budget. It does not speak for all members of SWIP-NL.

SWIP-NL will not collaborate with Israeli institutions, including academic ones, and with Israeli and international corporations structurally complicit in atrocity crimes in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, as identified by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). This decision follows upon the ruling of the International Court of Justice (ICJ Order of 26 January 2024) that found the risk of the state of Israel committing genocide to be plausible and the situation that Palestinians face to be catastrophic with a risk of irreparable harm. It further comes against the backdrop of a political climate in Europe wherein the advocacy of human rights for Palestinians is increasingly criminalised or trivialised, and of continued military actions by the Israeli Defence Force in Gaza that have led to its entire educational infrastructure being destroyed and thousands of teachers, administrators and students being killed. As advocates of underrepresented groups in academia, we stand against racial hatred in all its forms, including Islamophobia and Antisemitism as defined in the Jerusalem Declaration, and the ongoing scholasticide faced by the Palestinian people.

We uphold the right to academic freedom for all and believe this statement does not conflict with such freedom as it only concerns potential collaborations with the Israeli state, complicit institutions and corporations, and their official representatives. It does not concern individual scholars affiliated with or employed by Israeli academic institutions – it concerns institutional complicity, not identity. In anticipation of a structural commitment by Dutch and Belgian universities to formulate robust human rights policies on international collaborations with third-parties, SWIP-NL commits to the following:

1. We will not enter into any collaborations with or invite to any of our activities Israeli state officials or official representatives of Israel-lobby groups or complicit institutions or corporations.
2. We will not procure goods and services from any corporations that provide materials for or are complicit in the violence.
3. We will support initiatives that foster critical knowledge production, debate, and public education about Palestine and Israel.
4. We will stand in solidarity with Palestinian students and scholars as well as all students and scholars who face threats to their academic freedoms because of their stance on Palestine and advocate for their inclusion in scholars-at-risk schemes.

October 2024