Students in Singapore demand their universities cut ties with Israel

Students pointed out that due to research collaborations with Israeli universities that help develop military technology and training, universities in Singapore are “major accomplices in Israel’s occupation and apartheid”

January 13, 2025 by Abdul Rahman
Students placed 124 pairs of shoes and a white burial shroud in front of CREATE, which houses the Singapore-Hebrew University Alliance for Research and Education — a partnership between NUS, Nanyang Technology University (NTU), and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Photo: SSP

On Monday, January 13, the 465th day of the genocide in Gaza, students and alumni in Singapore staged a memorial to mourn and honour the countless Palestinian students who have been murdered by Israel. The students also demanded an immediate end to all collaborations and relations between universities in Singapore and Israel and breaking of all kinds of relations with the regime in Tel Aviv.

The students and alumni placed 124 pairs of shoes and a white burial shroud in front of CREATE, which houses the Singapore-Hebrew University Alliance for Research and Education — a partnership between NUS, Nanyang Technology University (NTU), and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The organizers with Singapore Students for Palestine (SSP) said in a press release that “each pair of empty shoes represented two lives: one Palestinian student killed in the ongoing genocide in Gaza, and one student/alumnus in Singapore” as a symbol of protest “demanding that local institutions end their complicity in these murders.”

“The burial shroud, atop which rests a graduation cap and scroll, is a grave symbol of the scholasticide in Gaza – all universities and more than 80% of schools in Gaza have been destroyed,” the press release notes.

The students honored several Palestinian students killed by Israel expressing grief and anger at the fact that “Palestinian student martyrs ought to still be alive and attending school in Palestine today.” The SSP noted that “the 124 pairs of shoes displayed today represent” less than 1% of “over 17,400 children killed by Israel in the past 15 months – a horrifying statistic equivalent to one child killed every 30 minutes.”

Israel has been waging a war against Palestinians in Gaza since October 7, 2023. In its relentless and indiscriminate bombings and ground offensives, more than 47,000 people, mostly children and women, have been killed and over almost 110,000 Palestinians have been wounded. Israel has been accused of scholasticide, the mass destruction of educational institutions based on their deliberate targeting schools and universities in Gaza. Most of the educational institutions in Gaza have been destroyed and thousands of students and teachers killed.

Boycott and divest from Israeli universities facilitating genocide

The SSP stated that the Hebrew University, which maintains a partnership with universities in Singapore, is built on occupied lands in East Jerusalem and plays a significant role in sustaining the Israeli occupation of the Palestinians. They state that it operates as “a training facility for the Israeli Occupation Forces” by hosting “specialized academic-military programs that train students to violate Palestinian rights” and collaborating “with the Israeli police to surveil Palestinian neighborhoods” apart from “vocally and financially supports the genocide in Gaza.”

The statement notes that research collaborations exist between NUS, NTU, and several weapon manufacturers in Israel such as Thales and Israel Aerospace Industries, Israel’s second largest weapons company that manufactures weapons and surveillance systems specifically for use in Gaza. Due to these collaborations, universities in Singapore “are major accomplices in Israel’s occupation and apartheid.”

“In line with the global academic boycott movement and international law, we call on our universities to condemn the status quo of mass destruction [in Gaza] and use their long-overdue power to “publicly disclose and divest from all financial investments and partnerships with companies profiting from Israel’s genocide, in particular weapons contractors with Israel,” to “end collaborations and partnerships with Israeli universities complicit with genocide and “cease police surveillance and intimidation of students who have been peacefully voicing their solidarity with Palestine for over a year.”

SSP condemned the Singapore authorities for harassing and intimidating students for expressing their solidarity with the Palestinians and demanded end of all such practices immediately.