Campus
After moral deliberation

TU Delft suspends collaboration with Israeli institutes: ‘A clear “no, unless”’

TU Delft will not enter into any new partnerships with Israeli universities unless they meet very strict criteria. The current partnerships will be assessed again. In deciding this, the Executive Board is acting on the advice of the specially established moral deliberation chamber.

‘The case of genocide’ posters on the walls of Pulse during the protest on 5 June 2025. (Photo: Thijs van Reeuwijk)

No new partnerships anymore with Israeli universities and other organisations, unless they meet strict criteria. That is what TU Delft announced on Tuesday. Cooperation with Israeli institutions has long been under fire for their involvement in Israel’s war in Gaza.

TU Delft will reassess ongoing research. After 7 October 2023, the day of the Hamas attack on Israel, there have definitely been four new dual-use partnerships between TU Delft and Israeli institutions, the investigative reporters of Follow The Money (in Dutch) reported last week.

That assessment method to make ‘carefully considered choices’ will be finalised in the coming weeks, the Executive Board said. It is also meant to help decide on possible new collaborations in the future.

Institutional partnerships

TU Delft’s decision relates to all Israeli universities. The Executive Board also emphasised that it covers institutional partnerships, and not individual ones. But where the line can be drawn between institutional and individual is not entirely clear.

The TU Delft spokesperson says that the Horizon projects, financed with money from the European Research Fund, is seen as institutional. He names the journey of TU Delft Professor Cees Dekker to Tel Aviv last month, where the physicist received an award, as individual.

No new ties unless it can be demonstrated that they are not related to ‘human rights violations or genocide’ in any way

The decision is a direct reaction to the advice given by the moral deliberation to the Executive Board in May. The moral deliberation’s 30 page advisory report makes a series of recommendations regarding Israeli partnerships. At the top of the list is to not enter into any new collaboration unless it can be demonstrated that they do not involve ‘human rights violations or genocide’ in any way.

The second recommendation is to assess the current partnerships individually. For these the same rules go. The risk of ‘dual use’ – the possibility that civil research results are used for military purposes – should be negligible. It says that research that is directly related to the Israeli army is always a no-go area.

The council also advises the Executive Board to continue conversations with both the pro-Palestine activists on campus and the Israeli Jewish community. The Executive Board also seems to want to follow that advice, according to the press release.

Moral deliberation chamber

The advice issued by the moral deliberation chamber came about from three sessions in which a group of nine highly diverse TU Delft employees met in March and April. The main question on the table was whether TU Delft should work with Israeli organisations. Each of the meetings revolved around one particular partnership, and the participants had to agree on ‘yes’ or ‘no’ in each session. One of them stepped out because of dissatisfaction about the process.

The recommendations of the moral deliberation were not only about Israel.  Lees meer

Following the advice, the Executive Board wishes to be ‘crystal clear’, they write. “As of now, no new collaborations will be entered into with Israeli universities and organisations. Once there is an assessment procedure, very limited exceptions may be made. However, the standard remains a clear “no, unless”.

Surprising turnaround

That the Executive Board is now adopting the two most striking pieces of advice from the moral deliberation is a surprising turnaround. Previously, the Board members did not appear that open for reviewing partnerships with Israel.

In a statement one year ago the Executive Board wrote that a list of partnerships will not be issued because of ‘we are concerned about the social safety of scientists and students involved’. Breaking ties was not an option at all. The TU Delft spokesperson reiterated that point last month, and added that it was pending on the advice of the moral deliberation chamber.

Activists

The position of the Executive Board has not been uncontested all this time. One day after the publication in May 2024, activists built a tented camp between the Aula and the TU Delft Library that was to remain there for three weeks. The demonstration ended with the occupation of the Aula. More actions followed. The demonstrators had discussions with the Executive Board several times without these leading to a change in position.

The last protest is from Thursday afternoon last week when the activists occupied the TU Delft Library, bearing banners stating things like ‘Impact for a dead society by collaborating with Israel’. The occupation was peaceful and the activists left of their own accord after five hours.

Crumbling support

Now the Executive Board has turned around. This comes in a period in which experts describe the events in Gaza as genocide ever more loudly. So far 52,000 Palestinians are confirmed to have died in the war. Those living in Gaza now face starvation and Israel hardly lets any humanitarian help into the area. International support for Israel is crumbling away.

Dutch universities are not taking a joint position as yet

The positions at universities is also shifting. Last week Rotterdam Erasmus University also froze Israeli partnerships. In mid-May, Tilburg University announced that it was suspending partnerships with two Israeli universities, as Radboud University (Nijmegen) has also done. Utrecht University will not enter into any new partnerships with Israeli universities and is partly suspending the existing ones.

Just as at TU Delft, these actions were preceded by organised ethical discussions. Only Wageningen, Groningen and Eindhoven Universities are not considering this. Dutch universities are not taking a joint position as yet.

With collaboration from Saskia Bonger

Correction 11 June 13:00: An earlier version of this article stated that the possibility of dual-use would be negligible according to the morel deliberation chamber. It also said that the names of the participants in the moral deliberation chamber on fossil collaborations were also secret. This was incorrect.

Science editor Kim Bakker

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k.bakker@tudelft.nl

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