Manchester students vote to sever ties with Tel Aviv University
Universities and research bodies worldwide are escalating academic boycotts against Israel over its genocide in Gaza
News Desk
OCT 31, 2025
Students at the University of Manchester voted on 30 October to cut all academic ties with Tel Aviv University over its role in Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
The student union said 94 percent supported ending the research partnership, which has been in place since 2021 and allocates up to £5,000 (around $6,600) annually for eight joint projects.
The University of Manchester has spent £89,248 (around $118,700) on the program to date.
The motion, passed during a union assembly, also called for the University of Manchester to establish partnerships with Palestinian universities.
Tel Aviv University maintains extensive links with the Israeli military, including a joint research center with the Israeli Air Force, and cooperates with weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems, which has sponsored programs at the university.
Simultaneously, at the University of Cambridge, students voted to disaffiliate from the National Union of Students (NUS), accusing it of failing to support the Palestinian cause and campus protests against Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
The motion passed with a strong majority and followed growing calls for the NUS to “take a stand on Gaza or face mass disaffiliation.”
Cambridge’s student union also adopted a motion urging the university to end investments and partnerships with arms firms and institutions tied to the Israeli occupation.
The universities of Manchester and Cambridge are the most recent examples of a growing global student movement pushing universities to cut financial and academic ties with institutions complicit in Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Nearly 1,000 scientists signed a petition in late September calling on the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) to suspend cooperation with Israel over its role in the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.
The appeal followed a wave of suspensions earlier that month, as universities and research bodies across Europe and South America cut ties with Israeli institutions.
The campaign has led more than 30 universities in the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Ireland, and Brazil to end cooperation agreements, intensifying pressure on Tel Aviv’s academic sector.
Officials now warn of a growing “brain drain,” as invitations for Israeli researchers are withdrawn and joint projects canceled.
Israeli university presidents have criticized their government’s handling of Gaza, while the state has begun offering scholarships worth up to $200,000 a year to lure expatriate scholars back amid deepening academic isolation.
https://thecradle.co/articles/manchester-students-vote-to-sever-ties-with-tel-aviv-university
