#BDS: Palestinian Federation of Unions of University Professors and Employee: Statement of Position

"The Palestinian Federation of Unions of University Professors and Employees (PFUUPE) wishes to reiterate its firm opposition to any bilateral or multilateral relationships between Palestinian and Israeli academic institutions. In reference to the decision by the University of Johannesburg Senate in September 2010 to review the University's Memorandum of Understanding with Ben-Gurion University, and particularly regarding the condition of partnering with a Palestinian university, PFUUPE, representing Palestinian academics at virtually all Palestinian universities in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip stands firmly behind the position of the Palestinian Council for Higher Education (CHE) rejecting cooperation with Israeli universities.  The CHE, representing all higher education institutions and the Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MoEHE), has rejected, since the early 1990s, any form of cooperation by Palestinian institutions of higher education with Israeli academic institutions until the Israeli occupation ends.[1] This position was reiterated again with particular reference to the Memorandum of Understanding between Ben-Gurion and Johannesburg Universities during one of its meetings  in October 2010. Members of the CHE reaffirmed their rejection to any form of cooperation with Israeli universities, be it direct cooperation, or through third parties.   

PFUUPE fully endorses the Palestinian civil society call for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel until it fulfils its obligations under international law [2] and, as part of it, the Call by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI).[3] Within the framework of this non-violent form of resistance to the occupation and dispossession of the Palestinians, the boycott must be applied to Israeli institutions, including all universities that are complicit in the state's violations of international law and human rights until they end their direct and indirect collusion in the state's colonial and apartheid policies.[4] "

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