The mobilization of students in favor of the Palestinians has spread to several Swiss universities, after starting in Lausanne. Protesters demand that their alma mater cut ties with Israel. What ties do they really have with their Israeli partners?
The University of Lausanne explains in a press release that it maintains links with Israeli universities. It collaborates with Ashkelon Academic College and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
These agreements allow students and teachers to participate in mobility programs in fields such as social sciences or theology.
At the same time, UNIL also carries out six research programs. But the Vaud institution specifies that none of these collaborations has any link with the arms industry. She considers that there is no reason to interrupt these relationships.
UNIL is not a special case
UNIL does not maintain any more links with Israel than other Swiss universities or higher education institutions. Generally speaking, all the institutions contacted by RTS have partnerships with the Jewish state.
This is why UNIL activists invited other universities to join their movement. These activists want the academic world as a whole to take a stand. “We are also waiting for positions from EPFL and other universities,” declares Loïc, a political science student at UNIL, in La Matinale
UNIGE wants to continue on the same path
UNIGE adopts the same position as UNIL. It will not stop these partnerships, research projects in the field of medicine in particular.
“This research can focus on mental health issues, on antibiotic resistance or COVID variants. It has a real impact. It is also funded by the European Commission or the Swiss National Fund, and not by Israeli universities “, explains Marco Cattaneo, communications director at UNIGE. “We remain attentive to respecting the ethical conditions and the purpose of the research that we carry out in the case of countries with which we regularly collaborate, China for example,” he emphasizes again.
Same debate within EPFL
Within EPFL, voices are being raised to denounce the partnership and research programs with the Israeli technological institute Technion.
This trains engineers in multiple fields, including defense. But here again, the Federal Polytechnic also opposes any academic boycott action.
UNIL activists obtained the support of several dozen professors. But none of the universities has come out at this stage in favor of an academic boycott. The activists intend to maintain the pressure.
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