Utrecht University becomes first in West to boycott Israel over Gaza genocide
The Netherlands’ Utrecht University has become the first Western academic institution to enact a full academic boycott of Israel in response to the regime’s genocide in Gaza, marking a historic step that shatters a long-standing taboo in Western academia.
The decision, confirmed in a statement from Rector Wilco Hazeleger, comes after sustained pressure from “demonstrating students and staff.”
The university has “effectively stopped or suspended all institutional collaborations with Israeli parties and will not start any new collaborations,” establishing a boycott that will remain “until further notice,” the statement said.
In his statement, Hazeleger described the move as a moral necessity. “The situation in the world, and in Gaza in particular, requires us to act with a moral compass. There is great human suffering,” he said.
"A boycott is in place until further notice."
— PACBI - BDS movement (@PACBI) September 2, 2025
Utrecht University becomes first Western academic institution to announce an academic *boycott* of Israel, shattering a taboo.
This is the result of strategic, principled work by students & university staff.https://t.co/CHTO1q8iP8 pic.twitter.com/IMjgSd860G
While emphasizing the academy’s duty to foster open dialogue and research for peace, Hazeleger stated a clear red line had been crossed. “It is also clear when there is genocidal violence and a line has been crossed.”
The move aligns with the goals of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), which considers it the result of strategic, principled work by students and university staff.
The boycott comes amid increasing international condemnation of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza and its decades-long occupation of Palestinian lands.
Across the world, academic communities and students have intensified their demands for institutions to divest and boycott all entities complicit in apartheid and war crimes.
Academic institutions have come under significant pressure from professors and students to sever ties with Israeli entities that play direct or indirect roles in normalizing apartheid, research for military purposes, or sustaining the occupation.
Israel launched a genocidal war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, after Palestinian resistance fighters carried out the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Flood against the regime in response to its decades-long campaign of death and destruction against Palestinians.
According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, at least 63,633 Palestinians have been killed and more than 160,914 injured since the beginning of the war.
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