Nearly 5,000 staff, students urge Belgium’s universities to cut Israel ties

Nearly 5,000 staff, students and honorary degree recipients from across Belgian universities are pushing for their institutions to sever all ties with Israel over its genocidal war on Gaza and attacks in the occupied West Bank.

An open letter titled No Honour in Complicity was published on Tuesday by the group of 4,700 signatories – including 1,100 professors and 50 honorary doctorate recipients – urging Belgian universities to “terminate all institutional collaborations with Israeli institutions involved in violations of international law”.

The move comes as near-daily Israeli attacks in Gaza have killed more than 900 Palestinians and injured more than 2,700 others since an October “ceasefire”, according to the Gaza’s Ministry of Health, and as Israeli army raids and settler attacks have intensified across the occupied West Bank since the start of the genocidal war in Gaza.

“Universities can no longer invoke neutrality or institutional complexity while maintaining collaborations with institutions implicated in occupation, apartheid and genocidal violence,” read the letter.

The group has four main demands:

• the termination of all existing collaborations with Israeli institutions and companies involved in violations of international law;
• a moratorium on new collaborations;
• pressure from universities on Belgian and European authorities to comply with international legal obligations;
• structural support for Palestinian higher education through scholarships, research programmes and institutional partnerships.

The list of signatories includes Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory; Amnesty International Secretary-General Agnes Callamard; climate justice activist Greta Thunberg; Nobel Prize-winning author JM Coetzee; and actor and writer Stephen Fry.

The letter claimed the group represents more than 10 percent of the entire Belgian professoriate, making it one of the largest academic mobilisations in Belgian higher education.

“Since the beginning of the genocide, Israel has systematically destroyed Palestinian universities and killed numerous academics, journalists, artists and human rights defenders. European knowledge institutions must recognise that Israel’s violations of international law have consequences and suspend collaborations with institutions implicated in these violations,” stated Brigitte Herremans, a Middle East expert at Ghent University, in the letter.

According to the signatories, the demands by the group are a legal obligation, following the International Court of Justice confirming the illegality of Israel’s occupation.

“The initiators place the Belgian appeal within a broader international movement of academic institutions, researchers and civil society organisations calling for institutional measures against Israeli apartheid and the destruction of Palestinian educational institutions,” the letter stated.

Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023, killing at least 72,000 Palestinians and injuring more than 172,000 others, according to Ministry of Health figures.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces and settlers have killed 1,168 Palestinians, injured 12,666, displaced about 33,000, and detained nearly 23,000 in the occupied West Bank since October 2023, ministry figures state.

Belgian NGO urges arrest of Israeli reservist

Earlier on Tuesday, the Belgium-based Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF) called on Indian authorities to arrest an Israeli army reservist on holiday in northern India over his alleged role in Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.

The Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF) filed a complaint on Saturday with India’s Police Service, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Bureau of Immigration of India to demand “the immediate arrest” of Eitan Gilboa, an Israeli citizen currently holidaying in Himachal Pradesh, according to an article published on Tuesday on the NGO’s website.

“HRF has submitted a detailed investigative report proving that Gilboa, a reservist in the Israeli army, personally carried out and celebrated the systematic demolition of entire residential blocks in Gaza as acts of revenge, constituting war crimes under the Geneva Conventions Act, 1960,” read the website.

The evidence, HRF says, constitutes geolocated videos, social media posts, and chain-of-command documentation.

The NGO gets its name from a five-year-old girl who was killed in a car in Gaza by Israel in January 2024 as she pleaded on the phone for three hours for help, while surrounded by her dead family members and in sight of Palestinian paramedics who were also killed while they tried to reach her.

Formed just months after this incident that shocked the world, the HRF has gathered lawyers and activists from around the world to prepare cases like the one against Gilboa.

The NGO has filed more than 1,000 such cases with the International Criminal Court, primarily based on social media content shared by Israeli soldiers themselves, to seek prosecution under international and domestic law for Israeli soldiers committing potential war crimes in Gaza.

‘Acts of retribution’

Born in Gaza, Gilboa and his family left the enclave after Israel’s withdrawal in September 2005.

Gilboa and several of his siblings returned to Gaza as soldiers after Israel’s genocidal war on the besieged enclave began in October 2023.

“Upon returning, Gilboa staged photographs recreating scenes of his youth, juxtaposing himself against the ruins of Palestinian playgrounds and children’s toys amidst the rubble,” said HRF, imitating the tone of previous videos and stills shared by Israeli soldiers, which included forcing Palestinian men to walk around in their underwear and dressing up in women’s clothing they had pillaged.

Furthermore, “Gilboa documented the destruction of civilian buildings that he carried out, filming himself ordering, executing, and celebrating the demolition of civilian homes in Khan Younis and Rafah,” said HRF.

Gilboa’s mother then shared these videos on various social media platforms.

“The accompanying posts suggest that these demolitions were carried out as acts of retribution and dedicated to fallen [Israeli army] soldiers,” added HRF.

Gilboa’s actions while on duty in Gaza, said HRF, “violate the Fourth Geneva Convention”, which India ratified in November 1950.

“As a signatory to the convention, India is legally obligated under Article 146 of the Geneva Conventions to search for and prosecute individuals alleged to have committed grave breaches, regardless of nationality,” said HRF.

“Furthermore, the presence of Gilboa in India contradicts Article 51(c) of the Indian Constitution, which directs the State to foster respect for international law.”

Dyab Abou Jahjah, general director of HRF, called for India to immediately arrest Gilboa.

“Eitan Gilboa is not a tourist. He is a war criminal currently enjoying the hospitality of India while fleeing the consequences of his crimes. He has publicly documented himself turning entire neighborhoods in Gaza into ash and dust, dedicating these massacres to fallen soldiers as acts of revenge,” said Abou Jahjah in a statement.

“The videos show him triggering explosives that wiped out entire residential buildings in Gaza. India must act immediately to arrest him. It must not allow Indian soil to become a safe haven for those who celebrate the destruction of civilian lives.”

Al Jazeera was not immediately able to get a response from Gilboa during his holiday in the bohemian backpacker north Indian town of Manali.

HRF has “produced over 90 criminal complaints across 30 jurisdictions, including successful procedural outcomes in Brazil, Romania, Peru, Belgium, and Canada”, according to its website.

“HRF will not relent in its pursuit of accountability … India now holds both the suspect and the obligation to act.”