Radboud University: Cut Ties with Israel

This article will be published at https://www.splijtstof.com/ under the title:

"Nijmegen for Palestine: Demands for Radboud University"

Credit: Palestine Solidarity Campaign

Nijmegen for Palestine (NFP) has made the point clear: Radboud must suspend ties with Israeli universities. And yet our university does not listen. In order to give NFP the space to express themselves and provide a detailed and nuanced account of their demands, I interviewed some members, and asked them about their organisation: who is NFP, and what do they want?

There are, in this discussion, a few individuals to introduce:

Jihad is a Palestinian man and student at the HAN University of Applied Sciences in Nijmegen.

Mike is a Jewish activist and student of Medical/Human Biology at Radboud University in Nijmegen.

Gijs is a Dutch activist and student of Philosophy, Politics and Society at Radboud.

Anya Topolski is an associate professor of Philosophical Ethics and Political Philosophy at Radboud. She is also the founder of the NGO Another Jewish Voice (Belgium). She was consulted on these topics.

I am a British man and activist, student also of Philosophy, Politics and Society at Radboud.

On the 17th of November Jihad, Mike, Gijs and I sat down to discuss the ongoing war in Palestine and the aims of NFP. Nijmegen for Palestine is a democratic collective of students and activists united in their shared commitment to activism in solidarity with Palestine. In light of the terrible crimes committed by Israel and Hamas, their operations and membership have expanded.

This article was written in order to publish an exposé on the organisation of NFP in their own words. The demands for Radboud University are not solely formulated by NFP, but rather by the Students for Palestine organisation and aimed at many Dutch universities. NFP has tailored their demands slightly to meet its need from Radboud.

Like Jihad, Mike and Gijs, I too am deeply concerned with the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Genocide is to be defined here as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group” (Segal 2023). Segal’s article, published in Jewish Currents ominously concludes: “Israel’s goal is to destroy the Palestinians of Gaza.” We are therefore united in our aims to question Radboud’s official position and decision to remain silent in the face of genocide. It is important to us all that we engage with the university and to pressure it to act in light of the ongoing war in Palestine.

This article will outline the four key aims of NFP with regards to Radboud University:

- Taking an active stance because there can be no neutrality.

- Transparent disclosure and severance of all official ties with Israeli universities.

- The establishment of direct, institutional, and official ties with Palestinian students and universities.

- To encourage academic freedom and discussion, and an end to the academic censorship.

Non-Neutrality

The first demand of NFP is to take a moral stance and condemn genocide. While academics from various faculties are actively educating students, Radboud as a formal institution makes no comment.

In a statement on 20th October, Radboud claimed to be “concerned about the armed conflict in Israel and the Palestinian Territories” and to “speak out against any violation of human rights.” (Radboud 2023).

Radboud spoke out against Russia following its invasion of Ukraine, actively condemning the war (Radboud 2022). So there is a strong precedent for taking an active stance in relation to politics. “Russian institutions were boycotted and the language used in statements was very direct and unambiguous. But when it's done by allies of the of the Netherlands, it’s not the same,” says Mike.

My first question to the activists was therefore; how do you perceive this “neutral” stance?

Mike: “Neutrality promotes the “idea that the status quo, the state of affairs of the last 75 years, is neutral. Then a lot of colonial violence is just hidden behind a fog of so-called neutrality.”

Gijs: “By aligning themselves with the status quo, Radboud fails to recognise what is happening in Palestine. It implicitly agrees with the frame that Palestinians are the aggressor and that Israel’s actions are legitimate forms of self-defence. This completely ignores the Nakba, 75 years of ethnic cleansing, the ongoing settling of the West Bank, the brutal imprisonment of 2 million people in Gaza, and the fact that Israel’s actions in Gaza right now effectively amounts to genocide.”

Leading academics of the discipline of settler-colonialism (Salamanca et al 2012), academics at Radboud (Topolski 2023) and academics at Israeli universities themselves (Bashīr and Goldberg 2019) all resound with NFP in condemnation of the ongoing genocide in Palestine. The list of academics from Radboud and the wider academic community joining in condemnation is long and loud.

Radboud, however, choses to project impartiality.

Jihad: “This is not neutrality, but inhumanity.”

It’s an alignment with the status quo of slow genocide. This status quo, he added, is that the Netherlands does not recognise Palestinian identity. The Dutch government denies Palestine as a country’s legitimacy. As Radboud has set its own precedent of actively condemning war and human rights violations, neutrality over Palestine actually means to side with this narrative, to stand with the government’s position, which is firmly pro-Israel, and to stand with Israel, in ongoing genocide.

I therefore asked NFP, what exactly do they want in terms of university positioning?

Mike: “Clear official positioning. In line with the calls of other universities in the Netherlands, there must be acknowledgement of the fact that there is a genocide happening. Condemnation of the war. Like they did with Russia.”

Academic Boycott

The second demand of NFP is the disclosure and freezing of all official academic ties with Israeli universities.

Dutch universities in the 1980s boycotted apartheid South Africa, and Radboud effectively boycotted Russia in 2022 (Radboud 2022). This shows, again, that there’s a precedent set.

I therefore asked NFP: Why do you call for the disclosure of ties?

Mike: “There is a lot of information concerning the connections that we just don’t know, because it is it just not available. So we just don't know in which way Radboud is cooperating with Israeli institutions.”

Gijs: “Universities in the Netherlands (Radboud is a little different because of its status as a special university), have democratic elements. We have the student council here, and the point is to have some democratic decision making for students. But that doesn't work if we can’t know anything about the actual policy of the Radboud. If everything is opaque, how are we going to make a decision about something that we don't know about?”

“What exactly does this academic boycott entail?” I asked.

Mike: “Academic boycott in the sense of no cooperation with Israeli academic institutions, even if it isn’t specifically on projects facilitating genocide, that it is still cooperating with institutions whose purpose it is to maintain these settler-colonial relations.”

My next question was: “Why do you want to freeze these ties?”

Gijs: “Israeli universities support their governments, just as Dutch universities are of their government, of course. They support the Israeli military with their research so we find it very problematic that our university, democratic, where we think we should have a say, supports an ongoing genocide.”

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement clearly documents Israeli Universities, partner universities of Radboud, in their complicity with the Israeli state and its actions in Palestine. “Tel Aviv University, for example, has developed tens of weapon systems and the ‘Dahiya doctrine’ of disproportionate force employed by the Israeli military” (see Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, and Khalidi 2014). To sever ties with these institutions means to sever ties with the academic arm of a state that is committing genocide.

Furthermore, NFP argues, as a democratic university Radboud must listen to their scholars and students. In light of the genocide in Gaza, 19 professors at the university organised a teach-in to educate students on the war. Since then, they have created a public seminar series called the Situating Palestine Collective, in which Radboud itself plays no part. The collective is quickly growing and has already hosted two events at the time of writing.

Gijs: “Radboud must listen to the critical scholars they employ: what they say about this, what they understand the war in the context of genocide and settler colonialism. They specifically employ these scholars because they are knowledgeable about these topics. I think it would be a great step for Radboud to take to make use of this knowledge and listen to their employees.”

Build Direct Solidarity with Palestinian Students and Universities

A self-described “emancipatory” university “committed to equal rights for social and cultural minorities” (Radboud Mission), Radboud markets itself as an emancipatory university.

I asked: “How do you propose Radboud builds solidarity with Palestinian universities and students?”

Mike: “Radboud needs to amplify Palestinian voices and involve them more in the academic knowledge production. It must join movements initiated by Palestinian students, as well as offer scholarships, offer funding, initiate programmes that do epistemic justice to Palestinians and build university connections with suitable Palestinian partners.”

Gijs: “[The marginalisation of Palestinian voices] undermines the idea that Radboud is a decolonial university. Because through Israel, it protects colonial interests of the West in in the Middle East area.”

Mike: “Radboud sees itself as a critical university, yet it never makes public statements in opposition to the interests of the Dutch government.”

Academics of the Philosophy faculty seemingly agree; they are providing informative lectures on the Nakba and Shoah. At the second lecture entitled ‘Situating Palestine through the Lens of Settle Colonialism’, Dr Noura Alkhalili (from Palestine) outlined her struggle for higher education at Birzeit University (through her experience during the 2nd Intifada), given how Palestinian universities are constantly targeted and systematically silenced and isolated.

Radboud itself must cooperate with the Situating Palestine Collective, and support Palestinian academics, rather than remaining neutral and upholding the government position. To fulfil the “emancipatory” criteria they set themselves, Radboud and other universities must distance themselves from governments and entrenched Zionism.

Radboud must therefore be willing to take a critical stance and “change perspective” (Radboud’s motto) on the mainstream media/government narrative that Israel is a legitimate actor in this conflict. In order to uphold its projected emancipatory identity, action is needed, not simple marketing campaigns. Radboud should build connections with Palestinian universities, offer scholarships to Palestinian students. This way they can contribute to amplifying Palestinian voices in the West Bank and Gaza.

Jihad: “to do so otherwise constitutes the usual hypocrisy of the Western political community.”

According to Dr. Anya Topolski, what Jihad refers to as hypocrisy and many European liberals refer to as double standards, are “quite simply the true colours of the structural racism of the legal and political system we have built.”

Political institutions have been built for those in what Franz Fanon calls the zone of being, what Dr. Topolski has theorised as the zone of the humanised. This is the zone in which we can speak of a legal framework, appeal to rights and freedoms. It is also the zone of administration and regulation, of material resources and recognition – it is a zone where we can articulate and have individual identities and stories. While most in Europe live in this zone, not all; the undocumented, the homeless, the poor. Those excluded from the zone of being have a very different lived experience, one much closer to those so many other parts of the world – the zone of non-being, the zone of the dammed of the earth, the zone of dehumanisation. In this world there are no rights and no recognition, there are no individual names or stories, just numbers. There is continuous oppression, violence, poverty. This is the world most Palestinians have been living in since the Nakba. While slowly more and more people are willing to see this, for too long many chose not to see it.[1]

Though we might want to see this as double standards, the reality is that this is part of structural racism foundational to the political and legal system we have established in the aftermath of the Shoah. It is tragic that it is now being used to silence academic freedom and Palestinian stories and voices. This, we believe, epitomises the need for Radboud to build direct solidarity with Palestinian universities and individuals.

Encourage Academic Freedom and End Academic Censorship

When our discussion came to the issue of academic freedom, NFP has plenty to say.

Jihad: “We need to make it clear we are not antisemitic. To support Palestinians against Zionism is in no way antisemitic.”

Since the recent rise in violence from October 7th onward, the world has seen tragic rises in both Islamophobia and antisemitism (Yang 2023). This rise in hate entails that activism and education is ever more crucial. Conversation is needed to help not only maintain a brave space for everyone, but to address the systemic problems we’re facing here; both in Islamophobia and antisemitism.

Mike: “As a Jewish person I feel very safe with the Palestinian solidarity movement. Antisemitism is just not part of the movement because people understand that they're fighting against genocide.”

The current silence on campus (except for the demonstrations for NFP) is seen as an issue. NFP’s demands state that:

“We believe the university’s silence as this genocide unfolds has created a socially unsafe atmosphere that implicitly intimidates and suppresses our academic freedom.”

The university must maintain appropriate safe spaces that facilitate dialogue and prevent hatred. They should not leave this in the hands of students and professors but take responsibility for the administration of the campus, as is their prerogative. When this is done, Radboud can support critical discussion on the war in Palestine.

Jihad: “Here in the Netherlands, news from a Palestinian perspective cannot be seen in the Dutch language - no way. You have to go to Al-Jazeera or something like that, to watch the real news, from the other perspective. All the Western media is just one perspective, so I we need to break that illusion, ideally through education.”

Conclusion

In our interview, NFP outlined their four main demands for Radboud University:

- End the neutral stance.

- Support the academic boycott of Israeli universities.

- Build solidarity with Palestinian academia.

- Promote academic freedom over censorship.

I join calls with NFP for our universities as a democratic institution to listen, to change and to act. Radboud cannot continue to stay silent and complicit with Israeli genocide in Palestine.

When I asked Radboud if they would like to comment, they simply referred me back to their statement of the 20th October.

NFP organises regular demonstrations, events and more. Information can be found on Instagram: @NijmegenforPalestine.

Bibliography

Bashīr, Bashīr, and Amos Goldberg. 2019. The Holocaust and the Nakba: A new grammar of trauma and history. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 2019.

BDS. n.d. “Academic Boycott.” Accessed November 17, 2023. https://bdsmovement.net/academic-boycott#impact

Khalidi, Rashid. 2014. “The Dahiya Doctrine, Proportionality, and War Crimes” Institute for Palestine Studies: 44-1 (Autumn). https://www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/186668.

Radboud University. n.d. “Mission”. Radboud University. Accessed November 17, 2023. https://www.ru.nl/en/about-us/mission-and-strategy/mission.

Radboud University. 2022. “Dutch Universities Condemn Russian Invasion of Ukraine.” Radboud University, March 9, 2022. Accessed November 17, 2023. https://www.ru.nl/en/about-us/news/dutch-universities-condemn-russian-invasion-of-ukraine

Radboud University. 2023. “Israel and the Palestinian Territories.” Radboud University, October 20, 2023. Accessed November 17, 2023. https://www.ru.nl/en/about-us/news/israel-and-the-palestinian-territories#:~:text=Radboud%20University%20is%20very%20concerned,any%20violation%20of%20human%20rights.

Salamanca, Omar Jabary, Mezna Qato, Kareem Rabie, and Sobhi Samour. 2012. “Past Is Present: Settler Colonialism in Palestine.” Settler Colonial Studies 2, no. 1 (2012): 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1080/2201473x.2012.10648823.

Segal, Raz. 2023. “A Textbook Case of Genocide.” Jewish Currents, October 13, 2023. https://jewishcurrents.org/a-textbook-case-of-genocide.

Tel Aviv University. 2023. “Updates for TAU Community Following the Security Situation.” Tel Aviv University, November 14, 2023. https://english.tau.ac.il/news/ironswords-updates.

Yang, Maya. 2023. “Islamophobia and antisemitism on rise in US amid Israel-Hamas war” in The Guardian, November 10, 2023. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/10/us-islamophobia-antisemitism-hate-speech-israel-hamas-war-gaza.

[1] (Anya’s full article on this subject is published here: https://www.sampol.be/2023/12/europa-is-medeplichtig-aan-de-genocide-tegen-de-palestijnen).