A report by Israel’s Association of University Heads (VERA) warns of a sharp escalation in the global academic boycott of Israel, citing a surge in efforts to oust the country from the European Union’s prestigious Horizon program and a sharp increase in incidents of exclusion targeting Israeli institutions and faculty. University leaders caution that the impact could be irreversible.
The document, published Thursday morning, warns that the academic boycott is becoming a strategic threat. The most alarming figure is a 150% increase in efforts to exclude Israel from Horizon Europe, the EU’s flagship funding program for research and innovation, with a massive budget of more than 95 billion euros.
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A protest at Columbia University in 2025
(Photo: David Dee Delgado / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)
The assumption that collapsed
The report, which covers the period from October 2025 to April 2026, indicates that despite the ceasefire in the Iron Swords War and the shift to Iran, the boycott trend is not fading. "The initial assumption that a ceasefire in Gaza would curb boycott activity has not materialized," the report’s authors wrote. "Monitoring of boycott groups’ rhetoric shows they quickly adjusted to changing circumstances, including the war with Iran and Israeli operations in Lebanon."
VERA's review also found that nearly half of the reported boycott cases involved the explicit suspension of cooperation, about 30% involved the physical disruption of lectures and conferences, and about 10% involved overt antisemitic remarks and harm to research grants.
The report also says boycott groups are exploiting diplomatic and security tensions to intensify Israel’s academic isolation. Its authors argue that the hostile climate in Europe is being driven not only by tensions with Lebanon and Iran, but also by growing unease among European decision-makers over the Trump administration’s foreign policy, with Israel viewed as one of Washington’s closest allies.
Sharp criticism of domestic Israeli measures, such as the death penalty bill for terrorists and remarks by elected officials, compounds that. The report says these developments have prompted the EU to question whether Israel still shares the values required to remain part of the Horizon agreements.
This creates a real threat ahead of the renewal of the agreements in 2027-2028. VERA makes clear that bilateral cooperation with countries in Asia or Europe is not a substitute for a structured and groundbreaking research program like Horizon.
The report also notes that while the phenomenon in 2024-2025 was characterized by a wave of boycotts targeting individual researchers, who accounted for 57% of cases during those years, the new data shows that in recent months most boycott incidents have targeted academic institutions and professional associations.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrations at Columbia University
These figures are part of a broader trend showing a 66% rise in complaints compared with the first year of the war. In all, 1,120 boycott complaints were recorded during the period examined in the report. A breakdown of the types of boycotts shows that 41% of cases involved the suspension of explicit cooperation, 29% involved the physical disruption of lectures and conferences, and 9% involved overt antisemitic remarks and harm to research grants.
Hatred map
Belgium continues to lead the cumulative list of reports, followed by the Netherlands, England, Spain and Italy. Italy has seen a sharp increase influenced by domestic political discourse surrounding the fighting.
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Belgium leads. A pro-Palestinian demonstration in Brussels
(Photo: NICOLAS MAETERLINCK / BELGA / AFP)
VERA's task force continues to use legal tools against specific institutions in Europe, in cooperation with law firms in Brussels, and is continuously monitoring boycott networks to provide real-time information. But the task force warns that without government preparation and sustained investment in public diplomacy and strengthening existing ties, Israel could find itself outside the scientific club considered the most prestigious in the world, causing irreversible damage to its status as the startup nation.
Prof. Daniel Chamovitz, president of Ben-Gurion University and chairman of VERA, said: "The report proves that the academic boycott is not a passing phenomenon, but a long-term campaign threatening the core of Israeli research. Science and academic research should bridge cultural and political gaps, not deepen them. The attempt to exclude Israel from international platforms solely because of our identity constitutes improper discrimination that harms global science as a whole. We must make stopping this erosion a national strategic goal, since Israeli universities are at the forefront of Israeli excellence and pluralism, and their scientific isolation is a tangible threat to the country’s resilience and security."