The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) is a society of leading scientists and calls itself “the forum, voice, and conscience” of Dutch science. This Thursday, the seven-member board posted a statement about Israel and Gaza on its website.

Scholasticide

The board members refer not only to the tens of thousands of civilian deaths, the famine, and the blockades of humanitarian aid, but also to the systematic destruction of hospitals, universities, and schools in Gaza. According to the KNAW, this constitutes “scholasticide.”

Furthermore, researchers at the KNAW institute NIOD (for war, Holocaust, and genocide studies) argue that Israel is committing genocidal violence in Gaza. This is also the position of an international association of genocide researchers.

The KNAW statement reads: “As the scholarly consensus regarding the genocidal nature of Israel's violence increases, the KNAW Board furthermore calls on the Dutch Minister of Education, Culture and Science to actively press for suspension of Israel’s participation in the EU’s Horizon Europe programme for scientific and scholarly cooperation.”

Horizon

The European Commission has proposed suspending cooperation between Israel and the European Innovation Council (EIC). This innovation council is part of the Horizon Europe research program. Israel would therefore remain welcome in other parts of the program, such as the European Research Council (ERC).

The Dutch administration supports this proposal, the new outgoing Minister of Foreign Affairs David van Weel told the House of Representatives on Tuesday. However, according to him, there is not yet a majority among the member states. “There is currently insufficient support to proceed with suspension.”

Autonomy

And in the Netherlands? Gouke Moes, the new outgoing Minister of Education, Culture, and Science, would rather not interfere with universities' cooperation with Israeli institutions, as became clear yesterday during a debate on academic freedom.

Like his predecessors, Moes wants to leave the assessment of such collaborations to the universities and universities of applied sciences themselves. Nor does he want to stifle protests against such collaborations.

Moes is the successor to NSC Minister Eppo Bruins, who resigned on August 22 in the wake of NSC Minister Caspar Veldkamp (Foreign Affairs). Veldkamp said he received too little support for additional measures against Israel.

This article was translated using AI-assisted tools and reviewed by an editor