Academic ties are key to countering boycotts against Israel - opinion

Omar Barghouti, a founder of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, resides in Tel Aviv and has studied at Tel Aviv University. Despite this, he advocates for a boycott of the Israeli economy, especially targeting its renowned universities. 

The BDS movement aims at a single state, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, where Arabs are the majority and Jews a feeble minority: the end of the State of Israel. Evidently, some Italian professors share these views, having invited Barghouti to speak with their students at the universities of Bologna, Padua, and Venice on February 21 and 22. 

Italian professors and faculty strongly opposed the speaking event and BDS messages as a whole

Fortunately, the majority of Italian professors hold different views. Last month, students at the University of Cagliari in Italy presented a motion to the University Senate calling for the boycott of Israeli universities. Distorting reality, these students accused Israel of ethnic cleansing of Palestinians instead of realizing that the only group that recently attempted ethnic cleansing is the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas, against whom Israel is now fighting.

These students also disseminated a controversial movie in which the rector of Cagliari mentioned having met Yasser Arafat, which, in the students’ vision, was a support for their call. On January 30, the students’ motion was unanimously voted down by the rector and the Senate.

Refusing to boycott Israel, the University of Cagliari published a statement affirming that “universities are places of dialogue, discussion, and development of culture and knowledge, based on the reference value of peace and dialogue between peoples to achieve it.”

It is, therefore, imperative “to maintain collaborative relationships and exchanges with Israeli and Palestinian universities that contribute to building bridges and breaking down walls, supporting the achievement of the cessation of hostilities and the achievement of peace.” These words resonate with a recent statement by the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, who highlighted the role of science in fostering constructive international relations between countries.

These kind words were recently translated into action by the two largest funding agencies in Italy and Israel, the Consiglio Nazionale della Ricerca (CNR) and the Israel Science Foundation (ISF), respectively. In their February 20 statement, the CNR and ISF announced dedicated funds to promote the mobility of researchers between Italy and Israel. This marks the ISF’s first new scientific collaboration agreement with a foreign agency since October 7. 

According to ISF director Prof. Daniel Zajfman, other agencies expressed their intention to create similar opportunities for Israeli scientists to visit abroad. 

Strong academic ties are key to Israel’s resilience and thriving, and we are thankful to the Italian CNR for having the courage to express their solidarity in these difficult times.

The writer is an associate professor of physics at Bar-Ilan University and a member of AISSI, the Association of Italian Scholars and Scientists in Israel.