More than 250 Swiss academics have sent an open letter to the government calling for the termination of a research agreement with Israel, citing concerns over the genocidal war against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip.
In the letter to the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI), the signatories denounced the partnership as “complicity with crimes committed in Gaza” and called for closer scrutiny of institutional ties.
The petitioners asked authorities to conduct an “assessment of ongoing projects” at Swiss universities to determine whether any have links to the Israeli army or the “genocidal policy” of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s regime.
They also seek the termination of the agreement between the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Israel Science Foundation.
They argue that this partnership “gives Israel an even more privileged and therefore even more problematic status.”
The mobilization was organized by the Collective for Academic Freedom, Democracy and Solidarity (Clads), founded in 2024 by a number of academics.
The world’s leading genocide scholars have already acknowledged that the Israeli regime’s actions in the besieged Palestinian territory indeed meet the legal definition of genocide.
The International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS), a 500-member academic body, earlier said that Israel’s policies and actions in Gaza, especially since October 2023, violate all five conditions outlined in the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
The International Criminal Court has also issued arrest warrants for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former minister of military affairs Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, authored a number of reports last year asserting that genocide was taking place in Gaza She now faces sanctions from the US government and is not allowed to travel to the occupied Palestinian territories.
In recent months, several forums of scholars have said that Israel’s onslaught on Gaza was “absolutely” a genocide.
Over the past two years, at least 72,000 Palestinians have lost their lives in Gaza, along with 4,400 in southern Lebanon due to Israeli military strikes.
IMAGE CREDIT: in this file picture, an activist holds up a sign reading “Stop Israeli Apartheid” during a protest in solidarity with Palestinians in London, Britain. Photo> Internet
[ SOURCE: PRESS TV ]
