In the report, the committee writes that a large number of authoritative reports indicate ‘violations of international human rights and international humanitarian rights, as well as indications of genocide’. 

Because the Israeli institutions work closely with the IDF, the Israeli armed forces, the report states that collaborations with these institutions cannot be separated from these human rights violations and may lead to complicity in them. ‘Government partners are institutionally connected to the activities of the IDF, even if they themselves do not contribute to these activities.’

MORAL INTEGRITY

‘Providing material and immaterial support via academic collaboration projects with partners who are associated with violations of human rights or unethical practices is counter to the university’s stated task of adhering to human rights principles and values’, the committee states. Therefore, continuing institutional collaborations would be at odds with the promotion of the university’s core values.

Leiden researchers thus run the risk of ‘contributing, willingly or unwillingly, to violations of human rights or international humanitarian law and committing genocide’.

In addition, the committee advises to work with university umbrella organisation UNL to urge the European Commission to reconsider Israeli participation in research consortia.

A less far-reaching measure than suspension was not possible: ‘The committee believes that minimising, or some other less drastic measure than suspension, is not an effective way to avoid moral harm. Every form of continuation of the collaboration implies indirect involvement in morally problematic practices and therefore impinges on the moral integrity of the university.’

The committee emphasises that individual research contacts and collaborations between Leiden researchers and colleagues at Israeli knowledge institutions may continue, ‘with due observance of the requirements of academic integrity prescribed by the university’.

PHASING OUT

In a statement on the university website, the Executive Board responds to the committee’s advice. In the case of one project where the partner is directly and structurally integrated with the military and defence industry, the Board intends to terminate the collaboration. It is unclear which institution is being referred to: the name has been redacted in the report. 

Other collaborations the Executive Board intends to phase out. ‘In European consortia involving an Israeli partner with a high-risk profile and a number of non-Israeli partners, but where there is no direct contact between Leiden and that partner, the university intends to allow the current contract period to run its course. The university will withdraw if the project is extended.’

The Executive Board has set out its approach to future collaborations in a new document. In it, the Board outlines the basis on which potential new partnerships may or may not be entered into.

The appointment of the committee followed a series of appeals, opinion pieces, protests and occupations by students and staff in recent years. In July 2025, the Committee on Human Rights / Conflict Zones had already advised discontinuing student exchange projects.

Leiden’s decision has come late in comparison with other universities. The Executive Board of Erasmus University Rotterdam had already decided in June 2025 to freeze all its collaborations with Bar-Ilan University, the Hebrew University and the University of Haifa.

Radboud University Nijmegen decided back in October 2025 not to enter into any new collaborations with Israeli knowledge institutions at university, faculty or institute level.