UM decision on strategic collaboration in Israel and Sudan

In early 2025 we introduced an assessment framework to evaluate strategic collaborations with partner institutions in countries affected by armed conflict and serious human rights violations. Our principles are clear: 

we do not want our education, research or collaborations to contribute to human rights violations or large-scale violence in any way, be it in Gaza, Sudan or elsewhere. This means that we assess whether our institutional partners in relevant countries may directly or indirectly contribute to these abuses.

The Human Rights Advisory Committee recommended terminating the strategic collaboration with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem on several grounds. For the Executive Board, the key reason to adopt this recommendation was that the university in question, through its close and intensive cooperation with the Israeli army, contributes to training a substantial number of military personnel for leadership roles in areas crucial to warfare, such as intelligence gathering and military technology. The Board considers this sufficient grounds to suspend strategic ties as long as there remain well-founded reasons to believe that the Israeli army thereby contributes to international crimes and serious human rights violations. The institutional collaboration with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem concerned a student exchange programme, which will be discontinued.

Our collaboration in Sudan remains unchanged. The Committee’s recommendation to continue the partnership was supported by, among other things, a factual overview showing how the Ahfad University for Women contributes to defending human rights under difficult circumstances.

Our decision on these collaborations is based on the current situation and remains in force. Clearly, future developments may lead to a reassessment of the situation, for example when strategic collaborations with partner institutions in Israel are proposed. While the ceasefire offers some hope, the situation remains precarious and at this point it would be premature to anticipate positive developments. The Executive Board will only decide on new strategic partnerships with Israeli institutions once our conditions have been met and—again—after taking account of the Committee’s recommendations.

Additionally, we endorse the calls by organisations such as the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) for immediate humanitarian action and the restoration of essential infrastructure in Gaza. We also support the appeal to the Dutch government to advocate for the suspension of Israel’s participation in the EU Association Agreement and other forms of academic cooperation for as long as violations of international law continue.

The assessment framework for partnerships assumes that the Executive Board, after receiving the Committee’s recommendations, only decides on strategic (i.e. institution-level) partnerships. This does not curtail collaboration and knowledge exchange between individual UM researchers and their international colleagues. Such academic freedom is essential and naturally comes with a responsibility to consider potential partners carefully. Researchers can seek advice from the advisory committee if they have doubts about the impact of individual collaborations on human rights.

UM places great value on ongoing collaboration between individual researchers, including those affiliated with partner institutions with which we are severing strategic ties at board level. Such collaboration enables individual academics to continue to contribute to defending, protecting and improving human rights as far as possible.

We thank the Human Rights Advisory Committee for its commitment to its task, and all members of our community whose input helped the Committee arrive at its recommendations.

The commitment to human rights worldwide is a shared responsibility. We see, almost every day, that there are many different views on how we as a university community can or should contribute. We remain convinced that an open and respectful exchange of ideas is the best way to strengthen that commitment.