COPENHAGEN, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- A total of 939 researchers and academic staff from across the Nordic region called for a comprehensive boycott of Israeli academic institutions in a joint statement published Wednesday in Denmark's newspaper Information.
This unprecedented move, calling for a ceasefire and the unhindered passage of emergency aid, came in response to the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
The statement was signed by professors, fellows and students from about 200 Nordic universities or institutes, including the Technical University of Denmark, the University of Copenhagen, Aalborg University and Aarhus University. It responded to the recent call from Palestine's Birzeit University for international academic institutions to address the escalating conflict in Gaza.
"We mourn deeply for all Palestinian and Israeli civilians killed since Oct. 7, and we are horrified by the violent escalations of recent weeks that have had fatal consequences for the lives of so many civilians," the statement said.
Noting the role of Western powers in perpetuating the violence, the co-signatories urged a boycott of collaboration with Israeli academic institutions "until Israel ends its war on Gaza and ends its illegal occupation of and apartheid rule in Palestine," the statement said.
Meanwhile, the statement clarifies that the boycott should exclude individual Israeli scholars who distance themselves from "Israel's settlement colonial occupation, apartheid and the current escalating mass killings of Palestinian civilians."
"As academics and researchers, we are aware of the power of science to legitimize as well as delegitimize violence," it said, stressing the need to halt the current conflicts in Gaza. ■