The University of Liverpool is among institutions facing allegations of blacklisting Israeli academics, amid a growing global movement to sever ties with Israeli academia over the Gaza conflict. According to Gaza's health ministry, over 63,000 people have been killed in the territory, mostly civilians, with UN-backed experts confirming parts of Gaza are experiencing a 'man-made' famine.
Educational bodies from Europe to South America are cutting links with Israeli institutions, citing complicity in Israeli government actions. Last year, Brazil's Federal University of Ceará cancelled an innovation summit with an Israeli university, while universities in Norway, Belgium, and Spain have ended partnerships. Trinity College Dublin followed suit this summer, and the University of Amsterdam terminated a student exchange with Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Stephanie Adam of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel stated that Israeli academic institutions are complicit in 'Israel’s decades-long regime of military occupation, settler colonial apartheid and now genocide,' arguing there is a 'moral and legal obligation for universities to end ties with complicit Israeli universities.'
However, few UK institutions have announced such cuts. Universities UK (UUK) said it does not support an academic boycott, with a spokesperson stating: 'As a representative body, Universities UK has a longstanding public position of being committed to the free exchange of ideas, regardless of nationality or location. As such we do not endorse blanket academic boycotts, as this would represent an infringement of academic freedom.' The Royal Society also opposes boycotts.
Nobel laureate Venki Ramakrishnan expressed mixed feelings, noting that while the Israeli government's approach has been 'hugely disproportionate,' most Israeli academics he knows 'detest Netanyahu and his government' and are sympathetic to Palestinians. Historian Ilan Pappé disputed this, arguing that Israeli academics are 'an organic part of an oppressive system' and that a boycott is a necessary conversation about their responsibility.
British-Palestinian surgeon Ghassan Soleiman Abu-Sittah, rector of the University of Glasgow, said students and academics in the UK have pushed for boycotts but are blocked by university governing bodies, leading researchers to take unofficial action. The University of Liverpool has not commented on the specific claims of blacklisting.
