Background: As a result of the EU-Israel Association Agreement (IAI), Israel is one of the view non-EU countries allowed to see its companies and institutions applying for Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) funding. This is a key financing instrument for IAI's and Elbit's joint research with European institutions and therefore Stop the Wall is campaigning against FP7 as per the BDS academic boycott. There is more information on the background of IAI and FP7 here: https://stopthewall.org/activistresources/2545.shtml You can download the following Call with signatories. It has been sent to Swedish academic institutions, the National Swedish Agency for Higher Education, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, media, and international solidarity organizations. Press release 2 October 2011 218 signed Call for a Swedish academic boycott of Israel Swedish universities must not participate in research or any other type of cooperation with Israeli academic institutions. The Swedish government should act for the cessation of EU’s research support to Israel, which will inevitably strengthen the continued occupation of Palestine. This is what 218 Swedish persons demand in a Call for academic boycott of Israel. Twelve of the signatories are professors, while 14 are associate professors, 23 senior lecturers or researchers and 70 are students. The boycott is not aimed at individuals but against institutions. So far no Israeli academic institution has dissociated itself from Israel’s apartheid policy or the discrimination of Palestinians in Israel. Therefore all collaboration with Israeli academic institutions should be stopped, the signatories say. The initiative to the Call was taken by the Action group for boycott of Israel at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm. The group demands that KTH shall cancel its ongoing agreement with Technion, the leading Israeli technical university. Technion has close collaboration with the Israeli military forces. As an example it may be mentioned that Technion is developing new types of drones for the destruction of Palestinian houses (used to kill thousands of people). Researchers of Technion act as advisors to Israel’s military and the university collaborates closely with Israel’s biggest weapons producer Elbit. The demand for academic boycott is getting worldwide support. The biggest student union in Europe – the united union of London’s 20 universities and colleges, comprising 120,000 students – has decided to support boycott. In Norway 100 prominent persons have signed an appeal to the same end. Other examples are the staff association of McGill University in Montreal, the student union in Uppsala and the student union of Berkeley. The University of Johannesburg has broken its cooperation with the Ben Gurion University. Within European Union countries a network for academic and cultural boycott was formed last year. See its website www.epacbi.eu. For further information you may visit the website of the KTH action group https://www.psabi.net/ or contact the persons below. Dick Urban Vestbro, Professor Emeritus, +46706559483 Lina Suleiman, PhD, researcher, +46704231157 Jan-Erik Gustafsson, Assoc Prof, +4687907359
- Refuse participation in academic cooperation, collaboration or joint projects with Israeli universities;
- Refrain from attending or co-sponsoring conferences and other academic activities held at Israeli universities;
- Suspend all forms of funding, subsidies and scholarships to Israeli universities;
- Promote divestment from Israel by academic institutions;
- The Swedish government must act to stop European Union research collaboration with Israel;
- Foster initiatives that directly support Palestinian educational institutions and ensure opportunities for Palestinian students and faculty.