24.06.26
Editorial Note
Israel Academia Monitor often reports on anti-Israel activities at Western universities, including the U.S, the UK, Australia, and others. This time we are focusing on Germany’s Leipzig University.
Germany holds a unique historical context, in particular Germany’s political and academic institutions, which operate within a framework influenced by responsibility for the Holocaust. As a result, controversies involving Israel, Zionism, antisemitism, and academic freedom often receive more scrutiny than in many other European countries. A university dispute in Germany can therefore become a test case for broader debates about the boundaries between criticism of Israel and antisemitism.
Germany’s federal parliament, the Bundestag, passed a 2019 resolution characterizing many BDS activities as antisemitic. As a result, universities have had to navigate the tension between that political position and principles of academic freedom and freedom of expression.
Leipzig is not usually the most prominent case; universities in Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt, and Hamburg have often received more international attention. However, examining Leipzig can help determine whether anti-Israel activism is concentrated in a few highly visible campuses or reflects a broader nationwide trend.
Leipzig has seen student and faculty activism connected to Gaza, Palestinian solidarity campaigns, and debates over cooperation with Israeli institutions. As at other German universities, these controversies have involved disagreements over demonstrations, invited speakers, resolutions, and the use of university facilities.
One of the most significant incidents occurred on 7 May 2024, when approximately 50–60 pro-Palestinian activists occupied Audimax, the university’s main lecture hall, and set up tents on campus. Protesters displayed banners including “University occupation against genocide” and demanded that the university sever ties with Israeli institutions. The university administration called police to remove the occupiers, arguing that teaching and campus safety were being disrupted. Criminal proceedings for trespassing were initiated against some participants.
Following the occupation of the lecture hall, activists established a “Palestine Solidarity Encampment” outside the university. Representatives of the encampment met with university leadership and presented demands concerning Gaza and the university’s relationships with Israeli institutions. University officials described the meeting as constructive but noted substantial disagreements remained.
In May 2026, when the student group “Students for Palestine” campaigned for votes and resolutions concerning Leipzig University’s cooperation with Israeli universities, the university withdrew permission for a planned assembly after concluding that the event was intended to promote a boycott of Israeli academic institutions. According to the university, Rector Professor Eva Inés Obergfell has revoked the permission, citing an intent to restrict academic freedom and promote partisan statements. The university management says it continues to enforce a policy that preserves its institutional relationships with Israeli universities, while also stating a commitment to supporting the small number of Palestinian students currently enrolled on campus.
The Israel–Palestine conflict has also led to controversies over invited speakers and academic events. For example, in December 2024, Leipzig canceled a lecture by Prof. Benny Morris, an Israeli historian from Ben Gurion University. The decision was framed as a security issue. Leipzig professors Gert Pickel and Yemima Hadad wrote a statement canceling the talk: “As a university, we are committed to promoting respectful dialogue and the open and critical exchange of ideas, even when these ideas challenge and contradict our own perspectives… In principle, inviting speakers to the university does not necessarily mean that we agree with their views.” However, recent statements made by Morris “that can be read as offensive and even racist” led to “understandable, but frightening in nature, protests from individual student groups… The above points mean that Prof. Benny Morris’ lecture will not take place.” The statement went on to distance the university from “a culture of cancelations” over ideas.
The university itself has publicly expressed concern about the exclusion or marginalization of Israeli scholars while also defending academic debate.
In a striking contrast, in 2016, Leipzig University’s student council passed a resolution condemning the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement as antisemitic and rejecting BDS-related activities on campus. The resolution was adopted after controversy surrounding a visit by an activist promoting BDS. University of London anthropology professor Lori Allen, an anti-Israel activist, intended to foment support for BDS during a visit to Leipzig University. At the time, the resolution also called the BDS campaign “an existential threat to the Jews,” given the openly stated threats by Hamas, Hezbollah and the Iranian regime against Israel and Jews worldwide.
Worth noting that activist groups at German universities often collaborate with national and international Palestinian solidarity organizations.
One of the anti-Israel activist groups on campus is Aktionsbündnis (Action Alliance) Leipzig, a student and staff coalition at Leipzig University. The group is known for its campus activism, focusing on academic boycotts and protests against institutional cooperation and research partnerships with Israeli universities. Institutional ties campaigns challenge specific research projects and university affiliations. The campus protests include organizing rallies, assemblies, and public campaigns targeting Leipzig University’s administration. The group also published a report on Leipzig University’s cooperation with Israeli institutions.
Leipzig’s anti-Israel activities on campus drew the attention of three media outlets, all of which are anti-Israel. One is Etos Media, a German media outlet that is strongly critical of Israeli state policy. The platform (formerly known as Die Freiheitsliebe) explicitly states its mission is to build a borderless space regardless of origin, religion, or background. The platform frequently publishes left-wing, anti-imperialist, and pro-Palestinian commentary. Its editorial stance includes severe criticism of the war in Gaza. The publication has repeatedly described Israel’s military actions in Gaza as a “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing.” The platform supports academic boycotts and covers and promotes efforts—such as student assemblies in Germany—to sever academic ties with Israeli institutions. The website is deeply critical of Germany’s Staatsräson (the concept that Israel’s security is part of Germany’s core reason for existence), arguing that this policy prioritizes geopolitical interests over Palestinian rights. Not surprisingly, Etos Media has Arab editorial involvement. Its editorial team includes Julius Jamal, the platform’s founder (in 2009), who is of Arab descent, and Jakob Reimann, a core editor who leads the publication’s coverage of wars and conflicts in West Asia and North Africa. The broader writing team and list of contributors feature various Arab journalists, activists, and international guest writers reflecting a pro-Palestinian and anti-imperialist perspective. The second media outlet is Al-Jazeera, and the third is Middle East Eye. All three reported that last week, 700 students signed a petition calling for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions.
Like in many of the previous cases reviewed by Israel Academia Monitor, the Leipzig University case demonstrates the increasing role played by Arab and other Muslim students and their allies on the left. The so-called Green-Red alliance is especially prominent in Germany, where the number of Jews is minuscule.
The cancellation of a lecture by Benny Morris, once a member of the New Historians, an early anti-Israel group of scholars, is also a victory for the Green-Red alliance. By violating free speech and disrupting events to promote anti-Israel causes, they give the university authorities a convenient excuse for revocation.
Israel Academia Monitor will continue to report on further developments.
REFERENCES
- Jule Stein
- 7. Juni 2026
Demand an end to their university’s collaboration with genocide and apartheid enablers: hundreds of students in Leipzig.
Photo: Anton Trexler
Nearly 700 students at Leipzig University voted almost unanimously in favour of six demands, including a call to cut all ties with Israeli universities and publicly condemn the war against the Palestinians in Gaza. In conversation with Jule Stein, Orlando, spokesperson for Students for Palestine Leipzig, explains the rationale behind the resolution, discusses academic boycott campaigns, describes what the group sees as attempts by the university administration to obstruct the vote, and outlines the movement’s next steps.
etos.media: Leipzig University’s General Student Assembly voted in favour of a resolution calling for an academic boycott of Israeli institutions. Before we get into the details, can you tell us about the significance of this vote?
Orlando: The nearly 700 attending students almost unanimously adopted six demands. Among them is the call to acknowledge and publicly condemn the genocidal war on Gaza, including the scholasticide. The students also decided that Leipzig University must cut all ties with Israeli universities and institutions. This is the first time a German-speaking university has held a General Student Assembly on an academic boycott.
etos.media: What was the process behind formulating those demands? Were there any points you wanted to include in the resolution but ultimately decided against?
Orlando: In drafting the demands, we looked at other movements in Germany and around the world, because we are by no means the only students or university staff advocating for an academic boycott. We also drew specifically on the 2004 call by Palestinian civil society, PACBI, which outlines demands and guidelines for meaningful academic boycotts. Building on this extensive work, we formulated a set of proposed demands for the General Student Assembly, including the termination of all ties with Israeli universities.
It was also important for us to include the demand that Leipzig University publicly condemn the genocide in Gaza. Our university has failed to acknowledge this genocide and the scholasticide. Instead, it has repressed groups and students who have become active in solidarity with Palestine. The one cooperation agreement Leipzig University had with a Palestinian university expired last year, and when that university — Birzeit University — was raided by the Israeli military in January, Leipzig University once again remained silent. This has nothing to do with academic neutrality, as you cannot be neutral in a situation of genocide or military occupation.
For us, it became clear that Leipzig University was not living up to its own commitment to “human rights for all.” As students, we therefore wanted to make our voices heard. Every demand could be discussed during the General Student Assembly, and every student present had the opportunity to propose additional demands or amendments. In this way, we made clear that the students of Leipzig who participated in the assembly collectively stand behind these demands.
etos.media: Why do you think academic boycott movements are important with regard to the rights of Palestinians?
Orlando: The boycott movement against South Africa historically demonstrated that organised boycotts can be an effective tool in combating apartheid systems. That is why PACBI (the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel) has been fighting for such a boycott since 2004. As Students for Palestine Leipzig, we published a report in October 2025 that not only documents the ties between Leipzig University and Israeli universities but also extensively demonstrates how these universities function as a vital part of the Israeli state apparatus. We therefore believe that cooperating with these universities is problematic in itself, because the very act of cooperation legitimises and normalises these institutions.
All five Israeli partner universities of Leipzig University are an essential component of the Israeli military complex. They develop weapons, surveillance systems, and recruit students on their campus in order to make them join military units. Students who end up joining the units that carry out the genocide in Gaza get academic credits for that.
Moreover, Israeli universities produce knowledge that helps the state design and maintain the apartheid system. They also contribute to the production of narratives and ideological paradigms that legitimise Israeli policies of ethnic cleansing and present them as acceptable to the international community. One relevant example of this phenomenon is archaeology projects. These projects often seek to support the myth that Palestinians don’t exist and that Palestine was empty before the settlers came. That’s how Israel, for instance, justified ethnically cleansing the Palestinian village Susiya. Leipzig University participates in one such archaeology project together with Ben Gurion University.
Additionally, all Israeli universities stand on occupied land. They were built on the ruins of Palestinian villages that were destroyed during the Nakba and were partially founded in order to speed up the colonisation of Palestine. Leipzig University maintains student exchange programs with four Israeli universities and is therefore actively supporting the ongoing occupation of Palestine.
etos.media: What were the greatest difficulties and challenges to get to this vote?
Orlando: Our biggest challenge was certainly the repression we faced from the rectorate of Leipzig University. We are consistently treated differently from other groups. It starts with smaller things, such as being threatened with fines for unauthorised flyering or having university security present during our lectures to monitor us. To our knowledge, this is the first time in the history of the university that this has happened to any group to such an extent.
The situation further escalated over the last couple of weeks. One major issue was that the university blocked the distribution of the invitation email to all students, which would have invited everyone to the Vollversammlung. According to the law — the Sächsisches Hochschulgesetz — this is illegal.
The university also unilaterally cancelled our room for the Vollversammlung just one day before it was scheduled to take place. We had requested the room on 17 February and received confirmation on 20 March. The university had plenty of time to raise any concerns but decided to cancel the booking at the last minute. It is difficult not to interpret this as an attempt to silence, sabotage, and repress us.
The rectorate also tried to delegitimise our student assembly, claiming that it does not represent the students and is not in accordance with our constitution. Contrary to these claims, the student assembly is perfectly legal and compliant with the constitution of the student council, as the body’s own management confirmed in its statement. The rectorate should know this, since it signed that constitution itself. We manually collected close to 1,300 signatures in order to convene the Vollversammlung. The assembly is therefore not only legitimate; it is also a clear reflection of the students‘ demand and need for discussion on this topic, as evidenced by the high number of signatures and participants in the General Student Assembly. By targeting student self-governance, the rectorate is illegally undermining its own democratic institutions — not based on legitimate concerns, but out of a blatant disregard for student concerns and a fundamental refusal to engage with valid, well-founded criticism.
etos.media: In your opinion, is it true that Leipzig is a centre of “Antideutsche,” and what kind of interactions have you had with them?
Orlando: Leipzig certainly was a centre of the so-called Antideutsche. They definitely had a strong presence right after the start of the genocide in Gaza, as they would at times disrupt our events, going so far as to physically attack us. The hegemony of those people has long since been broken in Leipzig, as the Vollversammlung itself demonstrates. The Vollversammlung was attended by around 800 people, including close to 700 voting students, while the counter-protest consisted of nine Zionists well past their thirties who played techno songs celebrating the genocide.
Among those protesting against us was Juliane Nagel (PdL), which demonstrates that while the Antideutsche have no social base and are rapidly dying out, they still occupy some institutional positions. We are happy to be part of the movement that has transformed Leipzig from a centre of Zionists into a centre of anti-imperialists.
etos.media: What will be the next steps after the vote?
Orlando: The student council will publish the resolutions in an appropriate manner. Given that the resolutions of the Vollversammlung now represent the demands of Leipzig University’s collective student body, it will become progressively harder for the university to publicly ignore or disregard the issue of academic complicity.
However, for Leipzig University to cut all ties with Israeli institutions, a fundamental shift in Germany’s political landscape is required — one that begins with steadily growing public dissent across all spheres of society. On campus, we will continue to organise, advocate, and build support for an academic boycott among both students and university staff. The Vollversammlung is only one of many ways to rally support and channel our discontent through the university’s official democratic mechanisms.
etos.media: How can people in Leipzig and people in Germany support the next steps?
Orlando: We are not alone in our struggle against academic complicity. If you study in Germany, chances are high that there is an academic boycott campaign happening at your university right now. Not only in Leipzig, but across Germany, groups have published or are currently in the process of writing reports that lay bare their universities’ complicity. Every single person can make a difference in these campaigns. We call on everybody to join these groups and help keep the discourse on campus alive. This means not only informing yourself by reading the reports, but also sharing that knowledge and engaging in discussions with friends, fellow students, and university staff.
As for us, we will be holding an open plenary on 10 June at 7 p.m. in front of the Ziegenledersaal on Leipzig University’s main campus.
Jule Stein
Jule Stein studierte Nachhaltige Entwicklungszusammenarbeit und ist ausgebildete Traumapädagogin. Sie arbeitet u. a. für gemeinnützige Initiativen im Bereich Flucht und Migration.
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Historic’ wave of Palestinian solidarity grows at universities in Germany
Calls for universities to cut ties with Israeli institutions are rising in the country that views the BDS movement as extreme.
Published On 9 Jun 20269 Jun 2026
Nearly 700 students from Leipzig University, in Germany, sat down last month on the square outside the college cafeteria, next to the city’s old, ruined fortifications, to vote. A sea of hands rose, holding yellow cards.
The vote was almost unanimous: The student council demanded the university cease all collaboration with Israeli institutions.
“All five [Israeli] partner universities of Leipzig University are an essential component of the Israeli military complex: They develop weapons, surveillance systems and recruit on their campus for military units,” 22-year-old Orlando Becker of Students for Palestine Leipzig told Al Jazeera.
“We therefore think that cooperating with those universities is in and of itself problematic, because one is legitimising and normalising those institutions.”
The Leipzig vote is the latest success for a wave of Palestinian solidarity at German universities that has accelerated since March, in which at least three other student councils – in Berlin and Dusseldorf – have put forward similar motions.
Israeli universities have long been accused of complicity in war crimes and other alleged abuses committed by their government. To argue their case, the students put together a report outlining how academic institutions contribute to the Israeli war machine – for example, in Gaza and the occupation of the West Bank – as well as advancing the government’s narratives.
“One example is archaeology projects,” said Becker. “Those often have the goal to prove that Palestinians do not exist and that Palestine was empty before the settlers came. In the name of science, Israel justified ethnically cleansing the Palestinian village of Susya in order to conduct archaeological research there, and later on twisted the findings to prove that the very same people that were ethnically cleansed never existed in the first place. Leipzig University has one archaeology project with Ben Gurion University.”
After sharing the report around campus, Students for Palestine collected 1,300 signatures to convene a general student assembly. The day before the assembly was due to take place, the university withdrew permission to use a lecture hall.
In response to a query, a Leipzig University spokesperson directed Al Jazeera to a statement that permission was denied on the grounds that the students were making a “partisan statement and the intention to restrict academic freedom”.
Becker described “a historic moment for Germany” as more students across the country are joining campaigns in support of Palestinians.
“We are not naive, though. If the past is any indicator, then the rectorate will care more about Israel than about their own democratic institutions and the collective will of the students … Our fight is not concluded until all of Palestine is free.”
‘Students have organised for years’
In March, at the Hertie School, a private university in Berlin, the student council voted on a resolution supporting BDS – the nonviolent Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions campaign – by cutting ties with Israeli institutions. It was the first German student council to do so.
“Students have organised for years to demand the Hertie School end all collaborations with organisations complicit in human rights violations in the occupied Palestinian territories,” said a member of the Hertie Student Representation (HSR), who requested their name be withheld.Pro-Palestinian activists in May 2024 occupied a courtyard of the Free University in Berlin [Markus Schreiber/AP]
“The university leadership has inadequately responded to these popular student initiatives and ignored many of our demands … Therefore, a coalition of students drafted this resolution to apply the BDS framework to student-administered funds. It was passed by the student council with over 90 percent of votes in favour and none against.”
The Hertie School distanced itself from the HSR, with the Hertie Foundation calling the motion “unacceptable” in a statement. There were mixed reactions among the students, with some reporting a tense atmosphere on campus, and the HSR stepped down after losing a vote of no confidence.
“[The university] used fear tactics like telling students that their job prospects would be damaged by association with BDS, that international students’ visa statuses could be jeopardised, and that the Hertie School’s funding might be cut,” said the HSR member.
“Furthermore, the university leadership implied students in support of the motion were acting outside the bounds of law.”
‘It almost felt like I was back in Russia’
BDS is considered extremist by the Bundestag, Germany’s parliament, although it is not banned.
“I went to a meeting about this situation at the university and was shocked. The entire discussion felt staged,” said Arshak Makichyan, an environmentalist and antiwar activist now in his final year at Hertie.
“It almost felt like I was back in Russia. I feel disappointed that, instead of having an honest discussion at a university where we read academic works about what constitutes genocide and why what Israel is doing is clearly against international law, students cannot even raise these issues … I feel disappointed in Germany and in the other students who did nothing to defend our representatives.”
Support for Israel is considered one of modern Germany’s core national interests, referred to as its Staatsraison, or reason for state.
“Being pro-Israel has always been a way to prove Germany has learned from its past and is amongst the good again,” explained Peter Ullrich, an anti-Semitism researcher at the Technical University (TU) of Berlin, alluding to the legacy of the Holocaust.
“This has resulted in a strange discourse where Israel is nearly sacrosanct in the political establishment, and Palestinian voices and their supporters are treated badly with undifferentiated discourse (and) severe state handling of demonstrations.”
A Jewish student at Hertie, who requested anonymity, said that as a descendant of Holocaust survivors, they have been “alienated”.
“It was insinuated that my commitment to fighting oppression stood in contradiction to my identity, my history, and my love for the Jewish people,” they said. “For many Jews, supporting non-violent political pressure wherever rights are violated is an expression of the moral responsibility thrust upon us by generations of persecution. Levelling accusations of anti-Semitism in this context trivialises a term that should remain reserved for genuine hatred and violence against Jews, and must not be used as a shield against criticism of state power.”
Pro-Palestinian activism at German institutions is suppressed by event cancellations, police interventions and even legal proceedings against students involved.
In response to a query, a Leipzig University spokesperson directed Al Jazeera to a statement that permission was denied on the grounds that the students were making a “partisan statement and the intention to restrict academic freedom”.
In November 2023, a Free University of Berlin (FUB) lecture hall was occupied by students in solidarity with Gaza. Then, in May 2024, Humboldt University’s Institute of Social Sciences was occupied and renamed Jabalia Institute, after a besieged Gaza refugee camp.
Both times, police were called and violently removed the students, dozens of whom were injured. People of colour, including those with Arab identities, were reportedly treated more harshly.
Several were charged with trespassing, and four FUB protesters were expelled from the country.
In April, Heinrich-Heine University Dusseldorf (HHU) pledged to continue its collaboration with Israeli institutions despite a student parliament resolution demanding an academic boycott, while last week, another BDS resolution was voted down at the FUB.
“I think you’ll find pretty strong criticism of the current Israeli government or politics at universities, it’s just that the universities in Germany are state-funded,” said Uffa Jensen of the Center for Research on Antisemitism at TU Berlin.
“The real question in Germany is the political support for Israel, and that comes first. Because in the case of Russian universities after the attack on Ukraine, they were officially ordered to stop all collaborations by the German Education and Science Ministry. And they did this immediately … the treatment is strikingly different, even after two years of intense conflict in the Middle East.”
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Leipzig University withdraws permission for Students for Palestine to use lecture hall
News from 18/05/2026
Leipzig University has today withdrawn permission previously granted to the group Students for Palestine to use a lecture hall. The group had planned to hold a “studentische Vollversammlung” (“student general assembly”) tomorrow, Tuesday, 19 May 2026, which was to include a vote on Leipzig University’s cooperation with Israeli universities. “It became necessary to reassess our decision. This is no longer about academic debate, but about a partisan statement and the intention to restrict academic freedom,” says Professor Eva Inés Obergfell, Rector of Leipzig University.
“The open exchange of ideas is important. That also includes conducting controversial discussions within the University,” the Rector explains. “This is why Students for Palestine, a working group recognised by the Student Council plenary assembly, was recently once again allowed to use rooms at the University for its events. However, over recent days it has emerged that the planned general assembly is intended to support a call for a boycott directed against the University’s stated policy, and that a vote was planned on whether our long-standing cooperation with partner universities in Israel should continue. On social media, the impression was being created that the resolutions adopted at the assembly would reflect the will of Leipzig students as a whole. We reject this characterisation. This would by no means be a general assembly of all students, which the Student Council management would be required to convene in accordance with its statutes. Instead, the event would effectively claim to speak on behalf of all students. There is no place at our university for such an event. It cannot reasonably be expected of our academic community, especially our Jewish students and staff.”
The Rector emphasises that Leipzig University’s relationships with Israel, and particularly with its academic partners in Israel, are of the utmost importance to the institution. “We have made this clear repeatedly, including in public statements. A boycott of Israeli universities is out of the question for us. We remain committed to our partnerships with Israeli universities, which foster this academic exchange,” says Obergfell.
She adds that what she wrote in an internal circular email in November 2025 still applies: “What is needed instead is to strengthen academic cooperation with Israel. This is also a matter of solidarity and of nurturing academic discourse. At the same time, our collaborations allow us to strengthen those who seek dialogue and balance. Calls for boycotts do nothing to help resolve the conflict. By contrast, many scholars in Israel are actively contributing to debate on the peace process in the Middle East.”
Correction note of 20 May 2026: From 2017 to 2025, the DAAD funded cooperation between the German Department at Birzeit University (north of Ramallah) and the Herder Institute under its “German Language, Literature and Culture: Institutional Partnerships Worldwide” (GIP) programme. This funding has ended. The Rector was not aware of this information on 18 May, which is why the relevant quote initially referred to “partnerships with Israeli and Palestinian universities”. We have corrected this.
Created by: Carsten Heckmann
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In German first, Leipzig students vote for academic boycott of Israel
Nearly 700 students at the University of Leipzig have voted almost unanimously to demand the university sever all ties with Israeli academic institutions over the genocide in Gaza
Students at the University of Leipzig attend vote on academic boycott of Israel, 19 May 2026 (Migu Lohmann/MEE)
By Hebh JamalPublished date: 25 May 2026 14:00 BST | Last update: 3 weeks 6 days ago
In a historic first for Germany, nearly 700 students at the University of Leipzig voted almost unanimously on 19 May to demand that their university sever all ties with Israeli academic institutions over the genocide in Gaza.
The location is significant.
For decades, Leipzig has been regarded as one of Germany’s strongest centers of the “Antideutsche” current, a tendency within the radical left defined by militant anti-nationalism and vocal support for Israel under the banner of combating antisemitism. Antideutsche activists also frequently clash with pro-Palestinian activists at demonstrations and events.
The adopted list of demands calls on the university to recognise and condemn the genocidal nature of Israel’s war on Gaza, including the scholasticide taking place there, a term used to describe the systematic destruction of educational institutions, students and staff.
Students demand an end to all cooperation with Israeli universities and institutions, and insist that the University of Leipzig neither participate in, promote, nor publicise collaborations or activities organised or hosted by Israeli universities.
According to a report written by students and staff, the University of Leipzig’s cooperation agreements with Israel aid and assist Israel in genocide and other violations of international law.
The university’s collaborations include extensive student exchange programmes, ongoing direct research projects and partnerships with various institutions within Israel that have been accused of advancing illegal settlement of Palestinian land.
“Leipzig University is very open about its collaboration with institutions that violate international law,” a student and contributor of the report told MEE.
“Cooperations must be ended on three grounds: moral because the cause against genocide is universal and just, ethical because the university must be a place of learning and knowledge production that upholds the value of life and education and rejects human rights violations and scholasticide, and finally legal because the International Court of Justice issued an advisory opinion that confirms the illegality of aiding and abetting violations of erga omnes [universally binding] laws including by Israeli educational institutions.”
University moves to block vote
The University of Leipzig did not welcome the assembly call or the subsequent near-unanimous vote. After an inquiry was sent to the university’s spokesperson, MEE was referred to a statement issued on 18 May, in which the university explained its decision to withdraw the room provided to students to conduct the assembly the following day.
“It became necessary to reassess our decision. This is no longer about academic debate, but about a partisan statement and the intention to restrict academic freedom,” said Professor Eva Ines Obergfell, the universitiy’s rector.
“Yesterday’s assembly, attended by an estimated 1 percent of our students, was not convened by the Student Council management in accordance with its statutes,” the university told MEE.
The Student Council rejected the accusation as unfounded. The student representative body said that under its statutes, a general assembly can be convened through a petition signed by at least 3 percent of the student population. According to the council, students collected around 1,300 signatures, exceeding the required threshold.
“The collected signatures clearly show that we, as a status group of students, want and need to be part of this discourse. The convening of this general assembly as a direct means to this end must be accepted by the university administration,” said Alaska Krakor, a member of the Student Council.
The University of Leipzig is not the only institution in Germany with entrenched ties to Israel. It is difficult to find an educational institution in the country that does not.
The German Rectors’ Conference, the association of state and state-recognised universities in Germany, released a statement in June 2025 calling for the reinforcement and strengthening of academic and research collaborations with Israel.
The statement was in response to calls for the suspension of the EU Association Agreement with Israel, the primary legal framework governing political dialogue and economic trade between the European Union and Israel.
“Israeli universities and the academic community in Israel have always been a strong, liberal and democratic force and a central element of academic and ethical reflection and balance, especially in the Middle East conflict,” the statement read.
‘Think globally, act locally’
Another student at the University of Leipzig told MEE that while this was not the first time a student council had voted in favour of resolutions supporting an academic boycott, this vote was different because it was a general assembly specifically convened around the issue of ending academic complicity, rather than having such resolutions introduced during a broader meeting.
MEE also spoke to representatives from Students for Palestine (SFP) Leipzig, who explained that the foundations for the success of the assembly – which took place outside the university courtyard – started at the beginning of the academic year with the launch of the complicity report.
Although student councils had previously passed similar resolutions, organisers used presentations on the report and on academic boycott strategy to educate as many students as possible prior to the assembly.
“We as students wanted to think globally and act locally,” SPF said.
“Our university is complicit with its direct ties and cooperation with Israeli institutions which helps develop weapons, makes bombs, and increase knowledge production on how to oppress Palestinians, and we want no part in this complicity. We call on the university to respect the will of the student body,” it added.
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End Academic Complicity
We call on Leipzig University to suspend its ties with Israeli institutions
As students and staff of Leipzig University, we take the University’s declaration of commitment to the dignity of all people seriously.
Leipzig University maintains institutional relationships with Israeli universities that are embedded in the Israeli political system and in many cases directly contribute to the illegal occupation of Palestine and genocidal war in Gaza. We call on Leipzig University to honour its ethical commitment to human rights and respect for the dignity of all people by suspending its cooperations with Israeli universities and academic institutions, until these institutions:
- publicly recognise the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, as enshrined in international law. These include: The end of the occupation of all Arab lands, the dismantling of the Apartheid Wall, and full equality for Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel.
- respect, protection and promotion of the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN Resolution 194.
- end all forms of complicity in violating Palestinian rights, including discriminatory practices, justifying Israel’s violations of international law and Palestinian human rights, contributing materially and ideologically to the crimes of apartheid and genocide committed against the Palestinian people.
This report details Leipzig University’s direct and indirect support of Israel in its violations of international law
Contact us
2026 VisdP: Linda Schütz, Willi-Bredel-Straße 16, 04279 Leipzig
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By Zev Stub
5 December 2024, 3:05 pm
When the University of Leipzig in Germany canceled a lecture by Israeli historian Benny Morris planned for Thursday, its professors took pains to frame the decision as a security issue, not a political one.
“As a university, we are committed to promoting respectful dialogue and the open and critical exchange of ideas, even when these ideas challenge and contradict our own perspectives,” wrote Leipzig professors Gert Pickel and Yemima Hadad in a statement last week canceling the talk with Morris, an academic considered controversial on both sides of the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
Morris’s research on the 1948 War of Independence made him an early leader of the “New Historians” post-Zionist movement, as his documentation of expulsions and killings of Arabs during the war challenged Israel’s traditional narrative of its history. However, Morris has also made statements comparing the Palestinian people to “wild animals” and saying that Israel would have been better off committing “ethnic cleansing” than being exterminated by them.
“In principle, inviting speakers to the university does not necessarily mean that we agree with their views,” they wrote. However, recent statements made by Morris “that can be read as offensive and even racist” led to “understandable, but frightening in nature, protests from individual student groups,” they said, without providing details. “The above points mean that Prof. Benny Morris’ lecture will not take place.”
The statement went on to distance the university from “a culture of cancelations” over ideas, but many saw the decision as a capitulation to anti-Israel threats.
“This is just another part of the ongoing story of academic boycotts against Israel,” said Emmanuel Nahshon, a former Israeli diplomat now leading an Association of Israeli Universities task force for combating academic boycotts. “This decision was a bit surprising because Germany is among Israel’s staunchest allies in the academic world. Many university presidents in Germany have spoken out strongly against any calls for boycotts. But sometimes, you have cowardly professors who give in to the pressure of students to avoid fighting.”
Israeli academia has been subjected to boycotts for decades, particularly after the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign made it a central target of its anti-Israel strategy in 2004. But the push for the institutional isolation of Israeli universities and intellectuals has grown substantially since Hamas launched its October 7, 2023, onslaught in Israel, sparking the ongoing war.
An internal document from the Association of Israeli Universities in November shows that more than 300 boycott activities were recorded worldwide during the first year of the war. These included 50 cases where academic publications were barred, 30 lectures that were disrupted or canceled, and dozens of spoiled collaborations and grants. Universities in Belgium were by far the worst offenders, with more than 40 boycott activities.
Israeli academia relies heavily on international cooperation, with some 38 percent of Israeli research conducted in cooperation with European academics, the Innovation, Science and Technology Ministry has said.
“The problem is that boycotts have now come to be seen as legitimate in the academic world,” Nahshon noted. “Until recently, universities placed high value on respecting diverse points of view and shunning politics. They would have been ashamed to take part in boycotts. But now, they have given in to radicals trying to suppress freedom.”
That change came to the fore in August, when the American Association of University Professors, the largest organization of academics in the United States, reversed its decades-old stance against academic boycotts.
The new policy says: “Academic boycotts are not in themselves violations of academic freedom; rather, they can be considered legitimate tactical responses to conditions that are fundamentally incompatible with the mission of higher education.”
While the statement did not explicitly target Israel, many understood the new approach to be a capitulation to BDS as a new tactic to target Israeli academics.
“The hypocrisy of that statement was clear,” Nahshon said. “It’s obvious that the point of this is to give universities greater cover to discriminate against Israel. It’s not an intellectual debate.”
As the specter of boycotts grows, Israel has begun taking steps to fight back. Last summer, the Innovation, Science and Technology Ministry led by Gila Gamliel allocated NIS 90 million ($25 million) to counter academic boycotts through a combination of legal efforts, international collaborations, and programs to promote Israeli academia to foreign students and researchers.
A program called “Scholar Shield” was also launched by the Technion’s Samuel Neaman Institute to track and respond to boycott activities. And efforts are being made to penalize universities that participate in boycotts.
“It’s important to understand why there are not more institutions in Europe boycotting Israel,” Nahshon said. “Schools that receive EU funding through programs like Horizon Europe or Erasmus+ are expected to follow certain principles like promoting academic freedom and cross-border collaboration. That means a formal boycott would endanger the school’s access to billions of euros earmarked for research and development.”
Israel is hopeful that similar regulations will be implemented in the United States during the administration of incoming president Donald Trump, Nahshon noted.
“There are huge federal funds available in the US for research,” Nahshon said. “We would like to promote legislation that would block any university or individual who boycotts Israel from those funds.”
But tracking boycotts isn’t always easy. “There are overt boycotts, where the institution states their intentions clearly, and then there are covert boycotts, where Israelis are not invited to conferences or considered for publication, but there is no official university policy,” Nahshon said. “We are starting to see more of those types of boycotts, and we are working to identify them proactively. This work is critical for the future of Israel’s academia.”
israel-academia-monitor.com 