Israeli universities are a major, willing and persistent accomplice in Israel’s regime of occupation, settler-colonialism, apartheid and genocide. 

They are involved in the development of the weapon systems and military doctrines used for Israel’s war crimes in Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank. They also systematically discriminate against Palestinian students and justify the ongoing colonization of Palestinian land, rationalize the gradual ethnic cleansing of indigenous Palestinians, and provide moral justification for extra-judicial killings. These universities’ involvement in implicit and explicit violations of human rights and international law is as repulsive as it is destructive and immoral.

During the current genocidal onslaught on Gaza, Israel has destroyed 12 universities and proudly flaunted it online.

OCADU's mission statements vow to "Decolonize and indigenize art and design education and advance equity" How can they claim this after officially partnering with Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, a 110-year-old institution complicit and involved in the violent colonization of Palestine, the human rights violations and the brutal crimes of the Israeli state? 

Israeli universities participate in the ideological infrastructure of oppression and are inaccessible to Palestinians. How can OCAD partner with this institution after Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and even Israel's biggest human rights organization, B'Tselem, have all accused Israel of practicing apartheid?

Moreover, the housing accommodations that OCAD suggests to students on exchange, at Hebrew University, are located in an illegal Israeli settlement where many other ethnicities are denied access. How is OCAD practicing inclusion when this option of exchange is not available for most of its Middle Eastern student population?

If OCAD University truly recognizes and supports decolonization and indigenous peoples, if this institution doesn't want to be complicit in apartheid, oppression and genocide, its exchange program with Bezalel Academy must be shut down. 

 

Resources :

Israel blows up another university in Gaza, Middle East Monitor (2024, January 18) https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240118-israels-military-occupies-and-destroys-israa-university-in-gaza/

Five Norwegian Universities cut ties with Israel (including Bezalel Academy) (2024, February 21) https://bdsmovement.net/news/five-norwegian-universities-cut-ties-with-israel-over-gaza-genocide

Bezalel Academy sewing uniforms for the Israeli army. Times of Israel (2023, October 22)  https://www.timesofisrael.com/designers-sew-for-combat-soldiers-pivoting-from-fashion-to-function/

Israel defying ICJ ruling to prevent genocide by failing to allow adequate humanitarian aid to reach Gaza. Amnesty International (February 26) https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/02/israel-defying-icj-ruling-to-prevent-genocide-by-failing-to-allow-adequate-humanitarian-aid-to-reach-gaza/

‘This is political persecution’: Israel cracks down on internal critics of its Gaza war. +972 Magazine (2023, October 17)  https://www.972mag.com/israel-gaza-war-political-persecution/

Pattern of discriminatory Israeli police violations against Palestinians. Amnesty International. (2022, January 7). Retrieved March 24, 2022, from https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2021/06/israeli-police-targeted-palestinians-with-discriminatory-arrests-torture-and-unlawful-force/

A threshold crossed. Human Rights Watch. (2022, January 24). Retrieved March 24, 2022, from https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/04/27/threshold-crossed/israeli-authorities-and-crimes-apartheid-and-persecution

This Is Apartheid. B'Tselem. (n.d.). Retrieved March 24, 2022, from https://www.btselem.org/topic/apartheid

Adam Ramsay Walid el Houri, Ramsay, A., & Houri, W. el. (2020, August 3). Oxford and other top British universities under fire for sending students to illegal Israeli settlements. openDemocracy. Retrieved March 24, 2022, from https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/exchange-scheme-sends-british-students-occupied-palestinian-territory/

Academic boycott. BDS Movement. (2020, February 9). Retrieved March 24, 2022, from https://bdsmovement.net/academic-boycott