Statement approved in HUART additional general meeting on Sep 2 2025.
The current situation in Palestine is critical and demands action from all sectors. Since October 2023, tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed, hundreds of thousands injured, and vast swaths of Gaza’s infrastructure have been destroyed. Israel has blocked humanitarian aid and basic goods distribution to the Gaza Strip, creating a man-made famine.
We believe the University of Helsinki has both the responsibility and opportunity to meaningfully contribute to diplomatic efforts to force the Israeli government to end the war now, and bring an end to the genocide, blockade and occupation of Palestine, by joining the rapidly growing calls at an EU level for an academic boycott of Israeli academic institutions. Moreover, it is the responsibility of the University to uphold and implement its own ethical guidelines, rather than shifting responsibility to individual researchers.
The situation facing academics and universities in Palestine
In recent months, every university and college in the Gaza Strip has been demolished by Israeli airstrikes. Most academic staff and students have been displaced, and many have been killed. The UN has described this as “scholasticide” – an intentional effort to comprehensively destroy the Palestinian education system.
In the West Bank, universities operate under a constant state of siege, facing closures and military raids. Entry for international students and staff is strictly controlled by Israeli authorities, and the ability of Palestinian academics to travel abroad or participate in international collaborations is subject to Israeli approval.
Israeli academic institution’s involvement in war
Israeli institutions of higher education have long been complicit in sustaining the occupation and enabling war crimes. Many maintain close ties with the Israeli military, contributing to the development of weapons, legal frameworks, and strategic doctrines that support the ongoing colonization and violence. Several universities offer special programs for active-duty soldiers and collaborate directly with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). For detailed documentation on this point, we refer to the work of scholar Maya Wind, author of the book Towers of Ivory and Steel: How Israeli Universities Deny Palestinian Freedom.
University of Helsinki’s Ethical Guidelines and academic freedom
As members of the University of Helsinki community, we all commit to the University’s Ethical Guidelines, which emphasise the promotion of universal human rights and the defense of academic freedom in all university operations. On the basis of these guidelines, certain aspects of work with institutions from Russia and China have been restricted.
The University of Helsinki has numerous connections to Israeli universities that are deeply and inextricably embedded in Israel’s acts of war in Gaza. Maintaining such links amounts to being complicit in the ongoing genocide and innumerable war crimes in Gaza.
We believe the higher education sector has a moral responsibility to abstain from and actively reject complicity in such abuses. In line with this ethical obligation, HUART calls on the University of Helsinki to support the BDS 1-led academic boycott campaign, which seeks an institutional boycott of Israeli universities..
Support for staff members and researchers at University of Helsinki
Recently, 740 staff members and researchers at the University of Helsinki signed a petition in support of an academic boycott of Israeli institutions. We believe there is an even greater number of staff at the University who support such action, and as a trade union representing over 1600 members of our staff community, we are adding our voice to the campaign.
The university leadership’s response failed to take the demands seriously and avoids any responsibility or commitment to action. Moreover, it is worrying how university leaders have responded to members of the university community (both staff and students) who have raised this issue during the past year and a half. As a trade union, we are concerned by the claims that those who share information about the academic boycott or the situation in Palestine have faced threats and intimidation, and that requests to meet and engage in dialogue have been ignored, and peaceful protests have been shut down. Even more worrying are the reports that staff members’ attempts to communicate information about the boycott have been met with invitations to disciplinary hearings under the threat of a written warning, and the leadership has attempted to isolate the employees by aggressively scheduling the hearings and by limiting the representation the employee is allowed to bring with them. This pattern of repression is deeply troubling and undermines the values of academic freedom, open discussion, and democratic participation within the university.
Therefore, we reiterate that the University of Helsinki should:
- Immediately revoke the two existing exchange agreements with Tel Aviv University and Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and not establish others;
- Cease research cooperation with Israeli universities, including:
- Suspend cooperation in future projects. New Horizon Europe projects that include Israeli institutions should not be started 2;
- Review ongoing projects case-by-case. The priority would be to exclude the Israeli institution rather than ending or leaving the project, and UH should bear the responsibility of the costs that changing/editing projects might imply and compensate for researchers’ losses. See an example of this from Ghent University;
- Develop clear guidelines discouraging cooperation, in support of a fair transition, and urge the European Commission to exclude Israeli partners from EU-funded programmes and projects. In line with this, UH should endorse the Belgian universities’ call for the suspension of the Association Agreement between Israel and the European Union.
- Create clear guidelines banning UH investments in companies that are complicit in human rights violations (currently in Palestine, as well as in any other territory or conflict). These guidelines should also cover indirect investments made through equity funds.
- Facilitate and advocate the freedom movement of Palestinian students and academics between the Palestinian territories (Gaza, West Bank) and the University of Helsinki.
As a trade union, we view it as a moral, political, and professional obligation to stand in full solidarity with fellow academic workers and the Palestinian people who are victims of genocide. In calling for an institutional academic boycott, we join other unions who have taken a stand, including the Teachers’ Union of Ireland, the University and College Union (UCU) in the UK, and NTL at the University of Oslo.
In supporting an academic boycott, we join the calls already made by the Student Union of the University of Helsinki (HYY) and the National Union of University Students (SYL) in 2024 for implementing academic boycotts of Israeli institutions.
We emphasize that this boycott targets institutions, not individuals. Academic collaboration with individuals who openly oppose Israel’s occupation and war policies will not be affected. However, individuals acting in official institutional capacities, such as rectors and deans, may still fall under the scope of the boycott.
HUART Commitments
While calling on the University of Helsinki to take steps to undertake an academic boycott of Israeli institutions, HUART also commits to ensuring our own operations meet the standards we demand from the University.
Therefore, HUART is undertaking the following steps:
- Undertake a review of our investment portfolio to ensure we are not currently investing money in companies that are complicit in human rights violations. As a guide, we refer to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights database. A first review of our investments has found no investments in companies listed in the OHCHR’s database.
- We will create guidelines for the investment of our funds that prohibit investment in companies complicit in human rights violations and support ethical and sustainable investment.
- We will encourage other unions and local associations to undertake similar processes with their own investments.
Finally, HUART reaffirms its opposition to all forms of discrimination, including antisemitism and Islamophobia. Criticism of the State of Israel is not antisemitism.
1 The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement is a Palestinian-led global campaign that seeks to apply non-violent pressure on Israel to comply with international law and respect Palestinian rights. It calls for the end of Israeli occupation, equal rights for Palestinian citizens of Israel, and the right of return for Palestinian refugees. Inspired by the South African anti-apartheid movement, BDS advocates for institutional boycotts, divestment from companies complicit in human rights abuses, and sanctions against the Israeli state.
2 Recently, the European Commission voted on a proposal for the partial suspension of Israel’s participation in Horizon Europe, specifically under the Accelerator program of the European Innovation Council (EIC). The EIC Accelerator is a funding programme aimed at start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This partial suspension targets start-ups and small businesses working on disruptive innovations and emerging technologies with potential dual-use applications. It would not impact the participation of Israeli universities and researchers in collaborative projects and research activities under Horizon Europe. Therefore, the proposal appears insufficient, and it would not even affect UH-related Horizon projects directly. However, to the date (2nd Sep) the proposal has not yet been approved.