Who we are

Dutch Scholars for Palestine (DSP) is a network of academic and cultural workers committed to solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for liberation and self-determination.

In response to the Palestinian Campaign for the Cultural and Academic Boycott of Israel (PACBI) and the Palestinian civil society call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), we mobilize for the boycott of Israeli cultural and academic institutions complicit in the oppression, exile, dispossesion, and ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people and the colonization of Palestinian lands.

We organize events with scholars, activists, and community members to educate our colleagues, students, and more broadly, members of the Dutch public, on Israel’s occupation, colonization and system of apartheid. 

Principles 

  • We oppose apartheid, racism, and (settler-)colonialism in all its forms.

  • We believe that the struggle for the liberation of palestine is inherently an intersectional struggle, that is, an antiracist, anticolonial, feminist, queer, ecological, and class struggle.

  • We understand that the state of Israel was founded on the violent mass expulsion and dispossession of Palestinians from land and life since 1948. We recognise this history as the history of the Nakba or the “Catastrophe”. We also recognise that the Israeli state, to this day, continues its human rights violations in the form of launching military attacks, ethnic cleansing, racial segregation, colonization of Palestinian people and land.

  • We maintain that Israeli academic and cultural institutions are complicit in enabling the system of oppression imposed upon Palestinians. Israeli universities participate in developing, sustaining, implementing, innovating, and legitimizing Israel’s military occupation, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing policies and practices. The military technology and knowledge produced by Israeli research centers is crucial to maintaining the global military industrial complex. 

  • We abide by the guidelines of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), an international movement that works to end international support for Israel's oppression of Palestinians and pressure Israel to comply with international law. DSP’s 3 core aims: (1) ending Israel’s occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall; (2) recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and (3) respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194. 

  • DSP observes Israel’s refusal to accept UN resolutions or rulings of International Courts, and its persistent suppression of Palestinians in a regime of apartheid.

Our mission

Recognizing that the academic freedom of Palestinians, and some Israelis, is violated in numerous respects, and that Israeli academic and cultural institutions are complicit in the violation of countless human rights and humanitarian laws, our twofold mission is:


1- to support Palestinian universities, staff and students, and artists, and

2- to oppose Israeli apartheid in all its forms, including:

  • a. continued illegal Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands with its concomitant breaches of international human rights and humanitarian law

  • b. Israel’s systemic discrimination against Palestinians with Israeli citizenship and

  • c. Israel’s violations against Palestinian refugees.

Towards these ends, until the aims of the BDS movement are realized, the DSP will:

  • put pressure on the EU and the Dutch government for the exclusion of Israeli state, academic and cultural institutions from the European Research Area; 

  •  urge a suspension of institutional relations, including Dutch government and European Union- financed projects, with Israeli academic and cultural institutions;

  • urge a suspension of the EU-Israeli Association Agreement;

  •  support and encourage individual colleagues to respond to the BNC call by refusing to accept official Israeli sponsorship or participation in academic and cultural activities; and

  • support Palestinian, Israeli, Dutch and other scholars who experience negative repercussions, due to their support for the BDS call, or due to their criticism of Israel and its policies.