HUJI Initiative for Academic Freedom and Dialogue 

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the flagship of higher education in Israel, has established a taskforce that exchanges views and information on academic cooperation and acts to prevent and address attempts to boycott Hebrew University students and faculty members. These calls, targeted at institutions and individuals based solely on their nationality and/or institutional affiliation, are objectionable on both moral and policy grounds. They are also often illegal.

Members:

• Prof. Oron Shagrir, Rector | פרופ' אורון שגריר, רקטור

• Prof. Guy Harpaz, Faculty of Law, VP of International Affairs | פרופ' גיא הרפז
• Prof. Yuval Shany, Faculty of Law, Head of Committee | פרופ' יובל שני, הפקולטה למשפטים
• Prof. Netta Barak-Corren, Faculty of Law | פרופ' נטע ברק-קורן
• Amb. (ret.) Yossi Gal, VP for Advancement and External Relations | סגן הנשיא לקשרי חוץ ופיתוח משאבים יוסי גל
• Alma Lessing, Coordinator | רכזת הצוות אלמה לסינג

Our Academic and Ethical Foundations

A legacy of humanity and excellence. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem was founded in 1925, more than two decades before the founding of the State of Israel, to serve as a safe haven for Jewish students, who were persecuted in Europe and barred from teaching and obtaining degrees, and to create an elite high education institution in the heart of the Holy Land. One hundred years later, we have become Israel’s leading university, with a highly diverse student body and faculty, comprising of Jews and Arabs, as well as international students from 90 countries, studying in more than 14 schools. Our commitment to both humanity and excellence has remained our lodestar.

Our academic excellence manifests itself in multiple ways. We’re part of Israeli academia, which is internationally ranked among research environments in the world in the top 5 per capita and in the top 15 in absolute terms. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem  - established in 1925 – currently ranks 88^th in the global 2025 Shanghai ranking, 14^th in Mathematics and Communication and 42th in Law. Our additional achievements include:
 

• 10 Nobel Prizes have been awarded to scientists and academics associated with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
• 1 Fields Medal
• 2 Turing Awards
• HUJI`s Technology Transfer Company YISSUM is ranked 15th in the world, with 10,000+ registered patents
• 180+ start-up companies were established by our alumni

Independence and academic freedom. The Hebrew University is a public university, autonomous in all academic decisions and independent from the Israeli government. Researchers make their own decisions on what research questions to study and what methods to deploy. Indeed, recent FAU/V-DEM academic freedom indexes place Israeli academia among the world’s most free institutions, higher than or equivalent to many of its Western European and North American counterparts, for instance.

The University fosters free research and discourse, and scholars and students, as well as university administrators, are often harshly critical of governmental policies. Faculty and students over the years, including during the recent war, have engaged academically and publicly with governmental policies and have taken part in anti-war protests.

Diversity of nationalities, religions, views. The Hebrew University is actively and extensively engaged in projects aiming to promote equality between Jews and Arab-Palestinians. About 20% of the students at the university are Arab-Palestinians, approaching their numerical proportion in Israeli society. This state of affairs is the result of extensive efforts and reflects an institutional commitment to equality and to “building bridges” across different population groups, given that we consider higher education as a vehicle for social mobility and peaceful co-existence.

Free speech and ethical standards. Our campuses serve as places of open and constructive dialogue among all factions of Israeli society, primarily between Jews and Arabs. The Hebrew University is fully committed to academic freedom and freedom of speech for all faculty and students. It has adopted in recent years specific policies to ensure stronger protections for freedom of expression, to increase the diversity of its student body and faculty and to ensure that all research and commercial applications of research meet the highest legal and ethical standards, in accordance with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

The ongoing war. October 7, 2023 hit the Hebrew University community badly and tragically. We lost students and other members of our community to the massacre and the ensuing war. Members of our community were taken hostage, and some were tortured and executed by Hamas. Still, we deeply mourn the loss of all innocent life in the horrific conflict in our region, whether they are Israeli, Palestinian, Lebanese, Iranian or citizens of other countries. Amidst the ongoing hostilities, suffering, and tragedy that have impacted so many, and continue to shatter lives around us, we wish for peace and continue to work for a better future for all, in our troubled region and beyond.

We firmly believe that continuing to engage in academic work for the betterment of humanity, to promote peace, freedom, welfare, and safety is the appropriate response to the horrors of war. The response should never be to end academic collaborations and cut ties among researchers. Israeli scientists and students can help elucidate the situation, find solutions, and challenge the worldviews and dogmas that feed the spiral of violence and the region’s permanent situation of crisis.

Rather than cutting ties, it is therefore imperative to reinforce academic collaborations and work together to ensure that all of us in academia live up to our shared aspirations to improve the human condition, expand knowledge, and uncover the truth. Politicizing science is always dangerous; doing so in order to punish scientists who have no control over the internal political situation, also makes for bad politics. 

We welcome a constructive discussion with all academic peers about the situation in our region and on our campus – which is, in many respects, a model for peaceful co-existence and respect for human dignity and equality – and we particularly welcome initiatives to create and encourage meaningful collaborations with Israeli universities, with the aims of understanding the root causes of violent conflicts and decline of the rule of law, and overcoming present and future challenges. What is needed is greater engagement of intellectuals from around the world with Israeli, Palestinian, and other Middle Eastern academics, who can together pave the road to knowledge and peace.

Academic Publications on Why it is Wrong to Boycott Israeli Academia in general, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in particular

1. The Ethics of Academic Boycott, Avner de Shalit.
2. Is it Justified to Boycott Israeli Academia? 
3. Prof. Barak Medina's Review of Maya Wind's Towers of Manipulations.
4. The unspoken purpose of the academic boycott, Kramer, M. (2021). Israel Affairs, 27(1), 27–33. 
5. Prof. Tamir Sheafer – Why it is Morally Wrong to Boycott the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
6. Raphael Cohen-Almagor -  Academic Freedom and the Anti-Israeli BDS Movement ​
7. Barak Medina - Addressing the Academic Boycott as a Wakeup Call for Israeli Academia
8. נטע ברק-קורן - החרם האקדמי הבינ"ל על ישראל מתרחב, אך עדיין ניתן לבלום אותו
9. Netta Barak-Corren - Boycotts: The Legal Remedy, Sapir, Vol.15, Autumn 2024. 
10. Boycotting academics in Israel is counterproductive - By Simone Shamay-Tsoory, Mouna Maroun, Ahmad Abu-Akel, Roi Avraham & Shir Atzil. NATURE, 18.6.2025
11. Europe’s silenced scholars: the forced Gaza genocide ‘consensus’ - The Jewish Chronicle

Materials on the Hebrew University

1. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem: Building Bridges and Promoting Multiculturalism and Excellence >>
2. Haaretz article – Prof. Tamir Sheafer
3. Letter by 5 Israeli university presidents to PM Netanyahu about the current situation in Gaza, 28.7.2025
4. HUJI's Free Speech Policy
5. Declaration of the Hebrew University Senate (05.06.24)
6. Fact Sheet: The Hebrew University’s relations with the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF)
7. Opening of MPC Human Rights, Greetings Prof. Barak Medina
8. Hebrew University Committee on Freedom of Expression and Respectful Discourse
9. In Support of the Struggle Against the Violence and Crime in Arab Society
10. Israeli International Law Scholars on Israel’s New Death Penalty Law, 31.3.2026
11. Declaration of HUJI Faculty Members against acts of violence in Judea and Samaria/the West Bank, April 2026 (English)
12. Declaration of HUJI Faculty Members against acts of violence in Judea and Samaria/the West Bank, April 2026 (Hebrew)
13. Harvard and Hebrew University to collaborate on NeuroAI research, 9.6.2026

Legal and other resources

1. Reply EU Commissioner Ivanova to VERA, 18.7.2025, against academic boycott of Israeli scientists
2. Court ruling against academic boycott of U Valencia, 16.9.2025 (Spanish)
3. Court ruling against academic boycott of U Valencia, 16.9.2025 (English translation)
4. Official apology by the Erasmus University Rotterdam to Prof. Eva Illouz, 21.11.2025
5. Court ruling against academic boycott of U Granada, 16.9.2025 (Spanish)
6. Court ruling against academic boycott of U Granada (English translation)
7. UC Berkeley - Dr. Yael Nativ, Settlement agreement and release of all claims
8. Respect for International Law in Gaza
9. Declaration of Cornell University re: collaboration with the Technion 18.3.2026
10. Reply of Association of Israeli Public Research Universities to Cornell University 19.3.2026
11. Academic Freedom Index 2025
12. Academic Freedom Index Update 2026
13. Resignation Letter of Jonathan Amiel, Chair of the McGill Law Faculty Advisory Board

Media

1. Israeli Academics Find Themselves Isolated Despite Gaza Cease-Fire, NYT 9.11.2025
2. Israel's Beleaguered Academics Are Fighting the Boycott - Despite the Government 
3. Hebrew University and Max Planck Society Launch International Center for Democracy, Security and Human Rights
4. UK university investigates professor’s anti-Israel ‘boycott’
5. Two years after 7 October, The Hebrew University learns to live – and think – through trauma
6. The shoddy work of the UGent Human Rights Commission
7. McGill donor pulls support as law students back Israel boycott, sparking legal challenge
8. Statement from Freie Universität Berlin’s Executive Board on Academic Partnerships with Israeli Institutions