‘Dangerous Isolation’: Academic boycott of Israel persists despite Gaza ceasefire, report finds

A man wears a t-shirt calling for a boycott on Israel in a protest, Paris, 2025

Noa Limone reports in Haaretz on 25 November 2025:

A boycott by European colleges against Israel has intensified in recent months and the cease-fire agreement has neither stopped nor slowed its momentum, a report by Israel’s Association of University Heads found on Monday.

The data indicates that the European academic institutions that severed ties with Israel or ended collaborations with researchers have not reversed the measures.

Out of about 1,000 reported instances of boycotts against Israeli researchers or institutions recorded since the start of the war, a quarter occurred last summer, mostly in Western Europe, data shows. The report adds that Italy has seen a “significant deterioration” in its boycott.

The United States remains Israel’s main research partner, “even if at a slightly lower level than in previous years.” The report states that the election of Donald Trump as president and the measures taken against top research institutions “greatly stemmed cases of the academic boycott there.” The report nonetheless believes that there is a “quiet boycott” movement in the U.S.

Over the past year and a half, measures have changed from boycotts against a few individual researchers to those against entire academic institutions and international programs that invite Israeli participants. Israeli researchers are also explicitly and implicitly removed from European research programs.

“The overall significance of the expansion of the variety of boycotts could send Israeli academe into dangerous isolation, constituting a real strategic risk to Israel’s international standing,” the report says. “International tensions over the conflict in Gaza has a significant impact on scientific cooperation with Israel.”

The report calls for a long-term strategic plan to openly fight backlash and the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement. Such a measure would require coordination between the different components of the higher education system like the Planning and Budgeting Committee or Council for Higher Education of Israel. It also calls for increasing government and ministerial involvement in the matter. “For many, the cease-fire is merely seen as a first stage and not the end of the conflict,” it says.

An association report in February 2025 found 300 cases of academic boycotts against Israeli researchers or difficulties in cooperation with foreign institutions between October 7, 2023 and October 7, 2024. The report also noted that Spain had almost completely halted academic cooperation and that the largest universities in Belgium and the Netherlands announced that they were halting academic cooperation with Israeli institutions.

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