SUS requests that SU reconsider collaborations with Israeli universities
We stand in solidarity with all our fellow students that can no longer take part in their education and are instead forced to live in inhumane conditions in constant fear of their lives.
On September 19, the SUS Representative Assembly voted to pass a motion urging the Stockholm University Student Union (SUS) to take a stand for the termination of institutional agreements between Stockholm University and Israeli institutions of higher education.
The motion passed after an extensive discussion in the Representative Assembly and the decision was based on, among other things, the statements of international courts (1), human rights organizations and UN agencies that condemn and issue warnings to the global community of the enormous humanitarian catastrophe and the massive political violence that is spreading out all over the Gaza Strip. The situation in Israel/Palestine is further aggravated by the continuing illegal occupation of the West Bank and Eat Jerusalem, the invasion of Lebanon and the firing on UN peacekeepers.
The Stockholm University management has determined that research-based assessments of when and how academic collaboration should be restricted, taking into account geopolitics, security issues and political authoritarian tendencies internationally (2).
As a student union our main responsibility according to law (3) is to monitor and be part of the development of university education and the conditions for studies at the university, which student exchange programs are a part of. Therefore, we want Stockholm University to make a new, transparent assessment of its collaboration with Israeli universities, taking into account the current geopolitical changes. The assessment should give students greater influence than the current opportunity to speak at the university president’s briefing (rektorsföredragning).
We consider it highly unfortunate that the Israeli universities with which SU collaborates support and actively contribute to military operations in the region that violate international law (4). We urge SU and the Swedish government to be consistent in their position concerning how geopolitical changes affect the possibilities and ethics of international collaborations where ties to Russian institutions of higher education were severed due to the invasion of and use of political violence in Ukraine.
1. Summary of the Order of 26 January 2024 | INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE (icj-cij.org)
2. Strategies for Stockholm University 2023-2026 - Staff
3. See 4 c. 9 § of the The Swedish Higher Education Act (Högskolelagen)
4. See M. Wind. Towers of Ivory and Steel: How Israeli Universities Deny Palestinian Freedom. (Verso books, 2024).