It is made in the context of ASCA’s longstanding support of research critical of oppressive regimes and ASCA’s conviction that research cannot be politically neutral. The statement took shape following consultation of the ASCA Board and the ASCA research community. The statement does not speak for all ASCA researchers. We will continue to facilitate events that provide space for critical engagement with politically sensitive issues from different perspectives and positionalities. 

This statement concerns only the activities that ASCA as a research school finances and/or actively facilitates from its annual operational budget. 

ASCA will not collaborate with Israeli institutions, including academic ones, and with Israeli and international corporations structurally complicit in atrocity crimes in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, 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 the Netherlands 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. 

For many decades, the question of Palestine has been the subject of rich and nuanced knowledge production – by Palestinian, Israeli and international scholars, international institutions, NGOs, as well as ASCA researchers. Since October 2023, ASCA has facilitated a series of academic activities on the longer history and context of the ongoing violence, seeking to bring this knowledge to the wider university audience and ultimately contribute to an informed public opinion. 

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. We recognise the unique positionality of ASCA scholars with Israeli citizenship and the complexities they must navigate. We will take particular care in supporting these scholars. 

In anticipation of the new UvA guidelines for collaborating with third parties (samenwerking met derden), ASCA commits to the following, within its remit as a research school embedded in a larger institution: 

1. ASCA will not enter into any collaborations with or invite to any of its activities Israeli state officials or official representatives of Israel-lobby groups or complicit institutions or corporations. 
2. ASCA will not procure goods and services from any corporations that provide materials for or are complicit in the violence. 
3. ASCA will continue to support initiatives by its research community that foster critical knowledge production, debate, and public education about Palestine and Israel. 
4. ASCA will stand in solidarity with Palestinian scholars as well as all scholars who face threats to their academic freedoms because of their stance on Palestine and advocate for their inclusion in scholars at risk schemes. 
5. ASCA will not discriminate against any individual scholars, including those from Israel, when they apply for positions, fellowships, grants or other funding.  

July 2024

For questions about this statement, please contact ASCA Academic Director ad interim Jaap Kooijman at asca-fgw@uva.nl