What is the call for scientific cooperation with Israel and why are there protests in universities?

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First the University of Turin, then the Scuola Normale Superiore. Now the teachers, doctoral students and research fellows at the universities of Florence and Pisa would also like to follow their example: the front calling for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ call for scientific cooperation with Israel to be blocked is growing ever wider. Tomorrow in the early afternoon the time window for the collection of joint research projects for the year 2024 will close, based on the Industrial, Scientific and Technological Cooperation Agreement between Italy and Israel.

Signatures to the national open letter

At the University of Florence, over 200 professors, research fellows, doctoral students and administrative technicians have signed an appeal to ask their representatives not to join the call. They also invite their colleagues to “oppose the approval of any projects drawn up in response to the Maeci tender in their departments”. A request also shared by the University of Pisa, where in a document 25 people, including PhD students and research fellows from the Department of Political Science, ask «the University of Pisa, in line with what has been done by the University of Turin and the Normale, to do not participate in the Maeci tender between Italy and Israel”. The situation is also suspended in Bari where an extraordinary session of the Academic Senate is scheduled to discuss the agreement. The university president also resigned from the Med-Or Foundation. And in the meantime, signatures on the national open letter addressed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs continue to grow, reaching almost 2,500.

The rectorate is occupied in Naples

Appeals, those in the universities, signed on the eve of the garrison at the Farnesina. The students announced it at the end of March: from 3 to 10 April they would mobilize across the country against the Maeci ban. Promise kept. And so, as one of the final acts of this week of unrest, Federico II of Naples woke up with the rectorate occupied to say «enough of the agreements with Israel», as already happened in Rome and Bologna only a few weeks ago. «Today’s protest is not symbolic: we will not leave here until not only the rector has received us but until the agreements concerning Federico II and the Italian embassies in Tel Aviv, the Israeli universities and the authorities Zionists will not be completely rescinded”, said the Student Network for Palestine of Naples. «Today’s occupation makes it clear that our action of 25 and 26 March last year did not arrive overnight, but is part of a context of national mobilization», commented Francesco Sampietro of the Sapienza Collective Coordination. Francesca Lini of Cambiare Rotta is of the same opinion and spoke of “an excellent initiative which also relaunches in Naples what has been done in other cities”.

Protests and sit-ins planned

Meanwhile, the students’ initiatives continue for the day of strike called by Usb University which involves over twenty universities: from flashmobs with Palestinian flags in the faculties to “exhibitions on genocide” to public assemblies together with teachers, researchers and workers. The demonstration in front of the Farnesina at 3pm is scheduled for the day before the deadline for the announcement, which is the 10th. But debates and discussions will begin in the universities in the morning: the meeting is scheduled for 11am on the Sapienza lawn with students, teachers, workers and university associations. There will then be several demonstrations and sit-ins throughout Italy during the general strike.

What is the announcement aimed at?

There are three directions expressly indicated in the Maeci announcement. They range from technologies for “healthy soil” (i.e. new fertilizers, soil systems, soil microbiome) to water technologies, including the treatment of drinking water, industrial water and sewage including desalination processes. Finally with precision optics, electronics and quantum technologies, for frontier applications such as next-generation gravitational wave detectors. Overall, the selection will concern 11 joint projects for a total financing of 1.1 million euros.