On Tuesday September 23rd the leadership of the University of Helsinki announced that they will join an appeal, initiated by Belgian universities, that demands the immediate suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, which would result in the exclusion of Israel from the Horizon Europe research and innovation funding framework. The appeal is initiated by 10 universities in Belgium and is at this moment endorsed by 43 universities in Europe. Of universities in Finland, the University of the Arts Helsinki has also joined the appeal so far.
Finally, the University of Helsinki acknowledges that research collaboration with Israeli universities has been problematic. University students, staff and researchers have campaigned tirelessly for two years and demanded the exclusion of Israel from European-level research collaboration. By building widespread pressure within our institution we have pushed for changes in our university’s stance. The Student Union of the University of Helsinki (HYY) joined the demand for academic boycott already in spring 2024 after our succesfull members’ initiative, and recently The Helsinki University Association of Researchers and Teachers has joined the BDS movement and demands academic boycott. The university’s new stance that was published on Tuesday has been the direct result of these developments that have been persistently and determinedly pursued by student and researcher’s organising.
Israel’s exclusion from the Horizon Europe funding program would be a monumental step towards a European academia that firmly stands on the side of human rights and international law, and with concrete actions opposes Israel’s settler colonialism, apartheid and current genocide in Gaza. It is certainly a step in the right direction that the University of Helsinki has decided to join the universities that are actively demanding the exclusion of Israel from Horizon Europe. To ensure the success of its objectives, the University of Helsinki must now resolutely build EU-level pressure through concrete actions within its own operations. The Belgian universities behind the appeal have announced that they will terminate their existing research projects and will refuse to sign new cooperation agreements involving Israeli universities as partners. The University of Helsinki now has a historic opportunity to influence EU-level decision-making, whie at the same time standing behind behind human rights.
In order to follow the Belgian universities’ lead, the University of Helsinki must actively and with determination pursue the exclusion of Israeli universities from its ongoing 15 research projects and make sure that no new research collaborations with Israeli universities are begun. If the exclusion of Israeli universities turns out to be impossible, the University of Helsinki must step away from these projects themselves. The next step for the University of Helsinki is to cut all institutional ties to Israeli universities. The refusal of an increasing number of European universities and researchers to engage in research cooperation is creating genuine pressure at the European Union level, with the result that even the European Commission has no choice but to exclude Israel from the EU’s joint research funding program. The BDS movement has noted that grassroots organizing across Europe over the past years has yielded results. Between 2020 and 2024, Israel received over €1 billion in Horizon Europe research funding. In 2025, the amount of research funding has fallen by 68.5 percent. Although Israel is still involved in the Horizon project, pressure for its isolation from the university community and grassroots organizing has led to a significant change in the amount of money flowing into Israel.
Students, staff, and researchers have tirelessly demanded that the university leadership conduct an ethical assessment of its ties to Israel and sever these problematic institutional relations. Now that the university has finally acknowledged the problematic nature of this cooperation, it is time for us students to increase the pressure. We expect that the University of Helsinki takes concrete steps to sever its ties with Israeli institutions. We remind the university that it does not need to wait for permission from the EU, the Ministry of Education, or the Council of Rectors of Finnish Universities Unifi, but that it has the autonomy to sever its problematic ties to occupation, apartheid, and genocide itself.
“Genocide in Horizon – Let’s change course!”