66% surge in academic boycotts targeting Israeli universities, report finds

Israeli universities have experienced a significant rise in academic boycotts over the past few months, according to an analysis by the Association of University Heads’ Task Force to Combat Academic Boycotts.

Specifically, “about 500 incidents of academic boycotts were reported during the last half-year through February 2025, 66 percent more than in the six months following the beginning of the war on October 7, 2023,” The Times of Israel reported.

The boycotts, while sometimes carried out under pressure from students, are decisions made by the institutions themselves, including the cutting of ties between universities and the canceling of speaking events of Israeli academics.

Speaking to The Times of Israel, task force head Emmanuel Nahshon said Israeli universities need to increase their efforts to deal with and combat the increasing frequency of such boycotts.

“Our main conclusion following this report is that these boycotts won’t stop anytime soon, and will likely continue for years to come,” Nahshon said. “Israel needs to learn to adapt to this situation and develop better tools to deal with it.”

He added that “those who are looking to destroy Israel know that our universities need to interact with the broader academic world, and they see this as a weak point.”

Ben-Gurion University President Daniel Haimowitz also spoke out against the boycotts, saying that “academic boycotts violate the basic principles of academic freedom and freedom of scientific research.”

The task force report noted that the highest numbers of boycotts came from the United States, Belgium, Spain, England, the Netherlands, Italy and Canada.