“‘‘Is the University of Leuven complicit in the genocide in Gaza?’’

On January 27, twenty-one EU/ERC grants were awarded to Israeli scientists. These so-called 'Proof of Concept' grants were awarded to researchers from Tel Aviv University, Haifa University, Weizmann Institute of Science, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, and Bar Ilan University.

Research shows that these universities directly or indirectly provide services to the Israeli military apparatus (see Maya Winds, Towers of Ivory and Steel, 2024). Some of these universities are also located illegally in the occupied West Bank.
That is certainly cause for concern.

Let's do the math: one grant amounts to €150,000. In this round, the total budget awarded to Israeli universities is €3,150,000. This is a fairly modest amount in relation to the total EU research budget allocated to Israeli universities under the EU Horizon Agreement (the research chapter of the EU Association Agreement). The total budget flowing from the EU to Israel annually is estimated at €350,000,000.
That gives one pause.

KU Leuven, I call on you. Straighten your back. Stand in your strength. Sharpen your moral compass again.

By comparison: all Flemish universities together have secured eleven of these ‘Proof of Concept’ grants (KU Leuven 5, University of Gent 3, University of  Antwerpen 1, Free University of Brussels -VUB 1, Flemish Institute for Biotechnology-VIB 1).

There is nothing wrong with that. But under the same EU Horizon Agreement, KU Leuven has about fifty research projects involving Israeli partners. KU Leuven does apply a human rights assessment, but these projects pass the Ethics Committee’s review.
That feels, to say the least, uncomfortable.

And there is more. On February 2nd, KU Leuven did not want to provide a platform for an honorary doctorate to Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur for human rights in the Palestinian territories, even though professors had submitted a well-founded request for it.
That is shameful.

Karel Verhoeven, editor-in-chief of De Standaard – one of the leading Belgian newspapers – already criticized the laxity of the Flemish universities (De Standaard, May 27, 2025). Almost a year has passed. Are 70,000 deaths still not enough? Are 2 million displaced people still not enough? When will we finally take a stand? When will we finally shout out ‘stop’? When will we end maintaining institutional research cooperations with Israeli universities? When will there finally be a strong protest against the horrific genocide in Palestine?

KU Leuven, I call on you. Straighten your back. Stand in your strength. Sharpen your moral compass again. Have the courage to openly show support for Francesca Albanese, advocate for the Palestinians.

KU Leuven, you still have the chance, with the awarding of the collective honorary doctorate together with University of Gent, University of  Antwerpen and the Free University of Brussels on April 2. And, to give that gesture some credibility, I suggest you decisively choose to end all research collaborations with Israeli institutions.

The stance of KU Leuven at this moment is sickening. It is a direct mockery of the calls from the International Court of Justice to do everything possible to end the genocide in Gaza. It makes KU Leuven complicit in this mass murder.