Belgian universities renew call to suspend Israel from Horizon Europe

Belgian university rectors have repeated their call to suspend Israel from the EU’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme. 

In its war in Gaza, Israel has failed to honour its association agreement with the EU, the rectors argue, which states that both parties must respect human rights. 

“If this foundation is systematically undermined, consequences must follow. Otherwise, our European values risk becoming hollow words,” they said in a statement on August 9. 

On August 18, the University of Ljubljana also called on the EU to suspend Israel from the programme, citing “reports of genocidal acts against the population” in Gaza. It said it would not join Horizon Europe project consortia with Israeli institutions. 

Europe is currently mulling whether to launch scientific sanctions against Israel in response to the country’s war on and blockade of Gaza. The EU-Israel association agreement underpins Israel’s association to Horizon Europe, from which the country has received €856 million so far. 

The World Health Organization has warned that starvation is unfolding in Gaza, and has documented 21 children under five dying of hunger so far this year. Israel is blocking food trucks from entering the territory, the UN said earlier this month and, since May, at least 1,373 Palestinians have been killed while seeking food, largely by Israeli forces. 

While EU leaders have upped their condemnation of Israel in recent months, this has not yet translated into any scientific sanctions, one tool the bloc can use to pressure Israel to change course.

Last month, the European Commission proposed excluding Israeli entities from receiving new European Innovation Council Accelerator grants, which typically fund start-ups. Israeli firms have already received €170 million in Accelerator grants, including for work in dual-use fields such as drones. 

But in discussions before the August break some EU countries, including Germany, still blocked the proposed sanctions. 

This latest call by Belgian rectors will increase pressure on EU states to act when officials return from their holidays next week. 

“We cannot remain silent in the face of the inhumane conditions and deep humanitarian crisis in Gaza,” say the rectors in their statement. 

“What has been unfolding in Gaza over the past months violates every principle of human dignity: more than 60,000 civilian casualties, the blocking of humanitarian aid, and a worsening famine,” they say.

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Some European governments have started airdrops to alleviate hunger in the territory. But the UN has said they will not reverse the unfolding famine. For that to happen, Israel must allow more aid in by land. 

Airdrops, including by Belgium, “should not distract from the immense scale of this food and health crisis, which can only be alleviated through a complete ceasefire and unconditional humanitarian aid delivered by land,” say the rectors. 

ALLEA, an umbrella body for scientific academies across Europe, also put out a statement earlier this month in which it said that allowing unimpeded aid into Gaza was a “strategic necessity for Israel’s future international cooperation in science and research.” 

While the ALLEA statement stops short of calling for Israel to be suspended from Horizon Europe, the body said it gave “full support” to comments made in July by David Harel, president of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, who said that Israel’s conduct in Gaza risks “its economic and scientific standing, and the future of its regional and international cooperation.”