Mathematicians Urge Colleagues to End Collaboration with Israeli Institutions Over Gaza Genocide
Gaza (Quds News Network)- Over 1,000 mathematicians singed an open letter calling their colleagues to cease all scientific collaboration with Israeli institutions that do not explicitly condemn the genocide in Gaza and the illegal colonisation of Palestine.
“Enough is enough. We urge our colleagues to cease all scientific collaboration with Israeli institutions that do not explicitly condemn the genocide in Gaza and the illegal colonisation of Palestine,” the open letter, published by Al Jazeera and singend by 1078 signatories, read.
“We also encourage them to put pressure on our own institutions to terminate agreements with these partners under the same conditions, in accordance with international law.”
“This position obviously does not include individual collaborations with Israeli colleagues, 3,400 of whom have courageously signed a call to the international community, which we wish to support, “to intervene immediately by applying any possible sanctions against Israel to achieve an immediate ceasefire between Israel and its neighbors, for the future of the people living in Israel/Palestine and the region, and to guarantee their right to security and life.”
The signatories also “demand that our institutions scrupulously respect academic freedoms and resolutely uphold freedom of expression in accordance with the law.”
The letter noted that for more than a year now, “the Israeli government and its military forces have been committing the equivalent of a Deir Yassin massacre every day in Gaza, while the scientific community largely remains silent.”
Yet, this community has already strongly opposed attacks on civilians, whether during the Algerian and Vietnam wars or, more recently, in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”
The letter added that scientists, “particularly mathematicians, cannot remain indifferent to the ongoing genocide in Gaza, especially as Western powers appear to support this crime against humanity politically, diplomatically, and militarily.”
The letter said the Israeli occupation government human rights violations extend beyond the Gaza Strip and do not begin in response to Hamas’s October 7 operation. In the West Bank, since October 7, 2023, 79 schoolchildren and 35 students have been killed, with hundreds more injured or arrested. Systematic, widespread human rights violations, such as land confiscation, resource plundering, and racial discrimination, have been well-documented over 57 years of occupation of Palestinian territories and 17 years of Gaza’s blockade.
Israeli forces desecrated hundreds of graves on Monday, exhuming and examining the remains of around 250 Palestinians in an attempt to recover the body of an Israeli soldier held in Gaza, in a blatant violation of the sanctity of the dead.
Israel said on Monday that reopening the Gaza–Egypt Rafah border crossing does not guarantee journalists will be allowed into the Palestinian enclave, as Israel has barred foreign media from entering Gaza since the start of the genocidal war in October 2023.
Recent Israeli reports confirmed that the occupation plans to restrict the number of Palestinians entering Gaza through the Rafah crossing with Egypt, ensuring that more people are allowed out than in, a long-standing objective aimed at expelling Palestinians from their land.