Thousands of Belgian academics urge universities to cut ties with Israeli institutions in expanding boycott drive

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BDS

Earlier this year, three Belgian universities sparked outrage within the local Jewish community after awarding honorary doctorates to the antisemitic UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese.

By Ailin Vilches Arguello, The Algemeiner

More than 4,500 students and university professors have signed an open letter urging Belgian universities and colleges to cut academic ties with Israeli institutions, in one of the latest efforts in a growing international push to boycott and politically isolate the Jewish state on the international stage.

On Wednesday, thousands of academics, students, and public figures issued a joint appeal urging Belgian higher education institutions to end formal cooperation with Israeli universities and move beyond symbolic statements toward concrete action, amid mounting pressure within academic circles across Europe.

With this appeal, the signatories are not only demanding an immediate suspension of existing academic collaborations with Israeli institutions but also seeking to block new partnerships and terminate contracts with major companies such as Dell, Teva, and Microsoft.

“The demands are not new,” the letter reads. “The urgency has only increased.”

The appeal also asks universities to use their influence to encourage Belgium to meet its international legal responsibilities and to help advance a Europe-wide framework for governing future research and innovation.

Earlier this year, three Belgian universities sparked outrage within the local Jewish community after awarding honorary doctorates to UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, who has an extensive history of using her role to denigrate Israel and seemingly rationalize Hamas attacks against the Jewish state.

Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Ghent University, and the University of Antwerp — three of Belgium’s top-ranked institutions — awarded Albanese honorary doctorates in recognition of her “exceptional commitment to the protection of human rights and the strengthening of international law.”

Now, leading academics and students are calling for the implications of such honors to be reflected in university policies, arguing that they should translate into clearer institutional positions and commitments.

“With this, the universities signal their commitment to international law, human rights, and institutional responsibility,” the letter reads.

Across Europe, advocates of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement have intensified efforts to sever academic and institutional ties with Israeli universities, seeking to deepen Israel’s isolation on the international stage as pressure and momentum for such campaigns continue to escalate.

According to a recent report by Israel’s Association of University Heads (VERA) Task Force to Combat Academic Boycotts, there has been a documented surge in “academic BDS” activity across Europe and other Western countries, including the United States, since the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

In May 2024, Ghent University in Belgium went on to ban partnerships with Israeli universities altogether.

The VERA report argued that the growing wave of academic boycott initiatives reflects a broader rise in antisemitism and anti-Zionist activism across Europe following the Oct. 7 atrocities.

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IN the summer of 2019, I was seated in the wine cellar of a walled Medieval town high above the Dordogne Valley of France, not far from Sarlat-la-Canéda, making phone calls, writing reports. I have given this story in other places and it appears as though you’re about to hear it again. Rob Skiba is a name you that you might be familiar with. Though he had made a name for himself as a Nephilim researcher, more recently Rob had taken a dive into the deep end of the pool via flat earth research. The recorded interviews I conducted between he and Rick Hummer, a fellow flat earth investigator and close friend of his, was published while still occupying that very wine cellar. Read all about it. Chicago Is Not a Mirage.

Word quickly spread. Within a few short weeks, dozens of flat earth researchers began accepting my invite for a private interview, if not a series of interviews. From a 17th-century tower built by King Louis XIV, and with a stunning view of the Alps, I sat down with Robbie Davidson, founder of the Flat Earth International Conferences, conducting multiple sessions. While staying in Dumfries, Scotland, David Weiss agreed to take part in the interviews, as did Bob Knodel of Globebusters. There were others. But when I asked the interviewees to discuss the moments that shaped their lives, among the many PSYOPs, false flag attacks, and hoaxes that were discussed, only these men committed commentary to the false 9/11 narrative.

The resulting recordings ballooned into The Unexpected Cosmology, a book which became a website and was even intended as an anthology. And of course, the following discourse was originally a chapter. It was Walt Disney who stated, “Disneyland will never be completed. It will continue to grow as long as there is imagination left in the world.” Those sentiments remain applicable here as well. American Sensationalism: The 9/11 Interviews was always intended to be expanded upon with the inclusion of new researchers. So I’m sorry to say the project became stagnant during the Covid-19 psychodrama. I took a break to tackle other projects. We lost Rob Skiba. Rob offered hours of private conversation regarding his life but we never got around to the big one. 9/11. It was in the cards. Sadly, Bob Knodel died soon afterwards. Voices are being squeezed from an entire generation. Gnosis passes with them.

In the aftermath, the FE community became fractured. People began going their separate ways. Robbie Davidson, among a noted few others who were interviewed for the project, got up and left the movement altogether. It is not my intent to erase his or the contributions of others if only brief. They came, they went, their testimonies remain.

The original vision may have hit roadblocks but it is not forgotten. I expanded this paper a few years later to include testimony from author Pauly Hart, a dear friend of mine. I had wanted to continue that trend every year thereafter but you know how it goes. For the 25th anniversary of the attack I have redirected my efforts to its first large scale expansion, including Andrew Hoy and Darrin Geisinger into the mix. Perhaps others will lend their experiences to the recorder in time.

The following is their report.

Read the 9/11 Interviews

Watch the Interviews