Freddie Ponton
21st Century Wire
Investigate Europe and Reporters United uncovered a coordinated campaign against European universities seeking to cut ties with Israeli institutions. A letter sent to Brussels shows how future access to European research funding became a source of pressure.
In May 2024, Ghent University decided to end institutional collaborations with Israeli universities and research bodies that its human rights review identified as closely connected to the Israeli government or security services.
Both participated in WHEATWATCHER, an EU-funded agricultural research project coordinated by Ghent. When the Belgian university approached European officials about excluding them or leaving the consortium, the two Israeli institutions instructed Kesher, a Brussels law firm, to intervene on their behalf.
The response came in a 14-page letter sent to the European Research Executive Agency (REA) on November 12, 2024, in which Kesher accused Ghent of discrimination, restricting academic freedom, misusing ethical reviews and violating European financial and competition rules.
The firm asked the European Commission to remind Ghent of a rule allowing organisations responsible for serious failures in publicly funded commitments to be excluded from future EU award procedures. It also argued that the university should be prevented from applying the same policy when forming new research consortiums.
Kesher said its clients would pursue every available remedy “systematically.” If Ghent continued, they would file multiple complaints and begin whatever proceedings they considered necessary. The letter showed how the consequences could extend from the immediate costs of leaving one agricultural project to litigation and possible exclusion from future EU funding.
The Ghent dispute formed part of a wider campaign reconstructed by a six-month investigation from Investigate Europe and Reporters United, using internal records, confidential minutes, freedom of information requests and European research data.
A confidential Kesher interim report from January 2025 called for legal, political and media action to “shape the environment” in which boycott decisions were made. Under the heading “Imposing Costs,” it proposed “targeting funding to impose a disproportionate cost on boycotting bodies.”
At its centre was VERA, the Association of University Heads, which represents Israel’s nine research universities. A spreadsheet found through a link on VERA’s website and examined by Investigate Europe and Reporters United recorded interventions involving 27 universities across nine countries.
The records traced a campaign that moved through law offices, diplomatic missions and university administrations. Legal challenges accompanied political outreach and the monitoring of boycott initiatives. Separate campus disputes became fronts in a much wider European effort.
VERA told the Israeli parliament that it had spent $800,000, around €687,000, on legal services over two years, giving the campaign substantial resources before it acquired a more formal state structure. Minutes from an Israeli government meeting revealed plans for a six-million-shekel office, approximately €1.7 million, to fight academic boycotts in 2026. Rather than merely responding to individual disputes, officials called for “offensive and proactive conduct” focused particularly on Western Europe
Students and academics were demanding an end to institutional cooperation with Israel while universities in Gaza were being destroyed or severely damaged. As those demands moved beyond declarations of solidarity towards ending contracts and research partnerships, the campaign sought to preserve the funding arrangements connecting European institutions to Israeli academia.
Ghent had adopted an ethical policy, but putting it into practice risked existing agreements and future grants. The European research system that funded its Israeli partnerships also made them legally and financially difficult to end.
A companion investigation into Horizon Europe showed how firmly the ties remained in place. Thirty-four universities in Spain, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands entered 38 new projects with Israeli entities possessing defence links or capabilities after announcing restrictions or suspensions. Those European universities received €15 million through the projects.
Yet announcing a boycott did not stop projects already moving through the Horizon system. Once approved, withdrawal could bring substantial costs, legal disputes and reputational damage within the consortium network. Universities could therefore maintain their public policies while collaborations with Israeli institutions continued in practice.
What began as a political and ethical demand on campus entered a funding system in which leaving an approved project could carry serious consequences. Israeli universities faced that pressure with organised representation, specialist lawyers and access to state power, while Palestinian universities were being destroyed.
Investigate Europe and Reporters United revealed with great accuracy what happened when European academics tried to turn that contradiction into institutional policy. Ghent sought to transform solidarity into material action. The response was intended to show Ghent and every university considering the same course how much that decision could cost.
Read the full Investigate Europe and Reporters United investigation here.
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