Italian universities shut down debates on the "Stop Technion" academic boycott campaign
DATE
LOCATION
TARGETED PERSON/INSTITUTION
Organisers of the debate on the "Stop Technion" campaign
DOMAIN/FIELD
RESPONSIBLE FOR BAN
University of Turin management
In late January 2016, several hundred scholars from some fifty Italian universities launched a call to suspend cooperation with the Technion, the Haifa-based Israel Institute of Technology, citing its close ties to the Israeli military and arms manufacturers such as Elbit Systems and Rafael. At least eight Italian universities, including the Polytechnics of Milan and Turin and the universities of Cagliari, Florence, Perugia, Rome and Turin, have agreements with the Technion. In line with the guidelines of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), signatories also pledged to refuse institutional cooperation with Israeli universities while continuing to work with Israeli colleagues individually. In the weeks that followed, attempts to discuss the campaign on Italian campuses ran into refusals from university authorities.
At the University of Turin, a debate on the "Stop Technion" campaign was cancelled in early 2016 after the university authorities refused the organisers permission to use university facilities. Both the University of Turin and the Polytechnic of Turin have agreements with the Technion. In October 2015, students and staff at the two institutions had already protested during a two-day event with the Technion aimed at expanding their collaboration, and the student group Progetto Palestina had argued that Israeli universities are closely involved in state policies towards Palestinians.
On 7 March 2016, Academics for Palestine in Ireland published a letter of solidarity with the signatories of the "Stop Technion" call and the organisers of the cancelled events at Cagliari, Turin, Rome and Catania. The group stated that discussion of the academic boycott had become highly securitised on Italian campuses, and placed these cases alongside earlier ones, including the withdrawal of a venue for Ilan Pappé at Roma Tre in 2015. It urged Italian university authorities to reverse the cancellations, allow the debates to take place on campus and put an end to political interference so that universities remain spaces for free academic debate.