Five Partnerships
Zero Accountability
The University of Konstanz maintains active partnerships with five Israeli universities through exchanges, research cooperations, and joint events. This not only gives Israeli universities access to German and European funding and networks, but also provides them with a platform and gives them legitimiacy.
The Israeli partner universities cooperate with arms companies, various military branches, and intelligence services, and are involved in military research. Some offer academic programs aimed at advancing the careers of military personnel, or provide financial support to them. Some censor critical voices, and one university has buildings on illegally occupied land.
Despite international criticism of such partnerships, the University of Konstanz has never publicly reviewed them.
Five demands to end complicity
Full public
disclosure
of all active agreements, exchange programmes, and joint research projects with Israeli universities.
An independent
review
of each partnership against documented evidence of each institution’s military entanglement.
Immediate
suspension
of new agreements and exchange funding pending the outcome of that review.
A university
senate vote
on the university’s responsibilities regarding institutions that conduct military weapons research.
A binding
civil clause
committing the University of Konstanz to exclusively peaceful and civilian purposes in research, teaching, and cooperation.
Universities across Europe have begun reviewing their partnerships with Israeli institutions. Several European universities have suspended, restricted, or reconsidered partnerships after investigations into military cooperation and human-rights concerns.
University of Geneva // University of Amsterdam // Erasmus University Rotterdam // Trinity College Dublin // Universities of Barcelona // and many more
PARTNER SINCE 1987
Tel Aviv University
Justification of Domicide. The Dahiya Doctrine, Israel’s strategy of massive civilian infrastructure destruction, has been used since the 2006 Lebanon invasion. TAU-affiliated research has been cited as backing the doctrine’s disproportionate destruction.
Strategy for the Israeli Air Force. TAU’s Elrom Center develops air/space strategy directly with the Israeli Air Force – the same air force whose bomb tonnage on Gaza reportedly exceeded WWII Germany’s.
Funding Killer Drones in Gaza. TAU’s venture fund invested in XTEND, maker of AI attack-drone swarms used in Gaza.
Engineering War Room. TAU touts battlefield tech support for troops, including dog-mounted cameras linked to the killing of Muhammad Bhar, a 24-year-old with Down syndrome.
Built on a Destroyed Village. TAU sits on al-Shaykh Muwannis, a Palestinian village depopulated in 1948; its last building is now the faculty club.
Partner since 2012
University of Haifa
Backbone of the Israeli Military. Haifa hosts three military colleges it calls “the backbone of the IDF’s elite training,” and is Israel’s largest military academic institute; graduates include current IDF leadership.
Built as a military outpost. The Mount Carmel campus was founded to advance the “mitspim” hilltop-outpost project tightening control over Palestinian land.
Censoring Historians. Haifa revoked Teddy Katz’s degree over his Tantura massacre research and pushed out Prof. Ilan Pappé for backing an academic boycott.
Cut off across Continents. Universities in Norway, the Netherlands, and Brazil have cut ties with Haifa over IDF links; Konstanz hasn’t.
partner since 2011
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Grooming Weapons Makers. Runs Talpiot, the IDF’s elite cadet program that trains soldiers – in uniform, on campus – for secretive research and development of the military’s weapons systems.
Student-to-spy Pipeline. Hosts Havatzalot, a fenced IDF intelligence base on campus, where armed cadets train for Israel’s military- surveillance apparatus as they earn their degrees.
Underwriting the war effort. Gives special financial and academic support – scholarships, rent aid, tutoring – to students called up to kill in Gaza, easing their path to and from the front.
Built on occupied land. The Mount Scopus campus is partly built on illegally occupied territory in East Jerusalem.
partner since 2015
Ben Gurion University of the Negev
Homeland Security Institute. BGU’s defense institute develops military and surveillance technology (including military robots) with Israel’s arms industry and Defense Ministry.
Military Academic Complex. BGU’s campus is uniting with the neigbhouring IDF base. BGU boasts that it is “intimately tied” to Israel’s military bases.
Training the Bombers. BGU runs a curriculum co-developed by the Air Force awarding pilots with degrees. Classes are held at an active air force base from which the population of Gaza is bombed.
Paid by the Army. BGU runs two elite programs – Lightning and Thunder – funded directly by the Israeli military to train and supply its future recruits, embedding the armed forces in the university’s classrooms.
What you can do
These partnerships are not abstract. They are agreements approved, funded, and maintained by the University of Konstanz. That means they can also be questioned, challenged, and changed.
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