Published April 2025 As signatories of this pledge, we form a collective of staff and research students at the University of Oxford and its constituent Colleges who individually commit to the terms of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement. We do so in response to calls from Palestinian trade union, education, and civil society organizations – including the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) and the Palestine Academy for Science and Technology – for international solidarity to end Israel’s regime of occupation, settler colonialism, apartheid, and now genocide in Gaza.(1) We expect this call to be unchanged by any ceasefire agreement in Gaza: Israel has a documented history of violating and indeed nullifying ceasefire agreements, including that signed in January 2025, which in any case did not address the occupation in the West Bank or the wider apartheid regime.(2) Such egregious breaches of international law demand institutional action. Indeed, as legal observers have made clear, public institutions around the world, including universities, have a duty to respond to Israel’s actions to avoid institutional complicity. In assuming this responsibility, we urge members of the university to follow the lead of Oxford City Council, which on 24 March 2025 passed a motion precluding investment and trade with entities implicated in grave violations of human rights, citing its obligations to avoid complicity in Israel’s violations of international law. Support for BDS is especially urgent for people of conscience working in higher education. In the year following October 2023, at least 117 university staff members and 681 university students were killed by Israeli forces in Gaza, and all 12 universities in Gaza were damaged or destroyed, along with 90% of school buildings, cultural centres, archives, libraries, and museums. A vocabulary of educide and scholasticide has emerged to describe these crimes committed by Israel in Palestine.(3) And as the BDS movement has long shown, Israeli higher education institutions play a central role in supporting the Israeli occupation of Palestine and upholding apartheid.(4) This includes systematically discriminating against Palestinian students and staff, as well as developing military systems, doctrines, and moral and legal rationales for Israeli crimes against Palestinians. These issues are of direct importance at the University of Oxford, which is complicit through its current and historic institutional, financial, and academic relationships with companies and institutions implicated in Israeli crimes. These relationships, strengthened through years of collaboration, include, but are not limited to: documented ties to companies supplying the Israeli military, operating in illegal settlements, and sustaining the apartheid regime (e.g., by providing products or services that maintain the Apartheid Wall and checkpoints)(5); investments in companies implicated in Israeli crimes (through the endowments of the University and its Colleges, which stand at £8.1bn, the largest of any UK university); and relationships with Israeli universities that legitimise and implement occupation and apartheid policies while maintaining close ties to the military. A comprehensive report detailing these connections has been compiled by the Oxford BDS Coalition and was submitted to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR); its publication is expected to be forthcoming. The following information provides an indicative overview of institutional complicity at Oxford as of March 2025: The University of Oxford sustains relationships with arms companies whose products are used by Israel to commit war crimes against Palestinians. Between 2019 and 2024, The University received at least £10.6 million in donations and research funding from Rolls Royce plc, a supplier of power systems for Israeli armoured vehicles and a partner in the F-35 fighter jet programme.(6) These jets, armed with 2,000-lb bombs, have been deployed in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip since October 2023, contributing to the systematic destruction of life and infrastructure. Historically, the University has partnered with RTX (Raytheon Technologies) and BAE Systems, both key suppliers of weapons to Israel and former collaborators through the Oxford-based quantum computing hub (2014-2019). Freedom of Information requests have identified at least £29 million in direct and indirect investment by the University and its Colleges into companies involved in Israel’s crimes.(7)(8) These include firms providing cloud computing, surveillance and AI technologies to the Israeli military (Microsoft, Cisco Systems, Palantir), arms and dual use companies supplying the Israeli military (Caterpillar, Toyota Motor, Elbit Systems, General Electric), and businesses operating in illegal settlements in the West Bank (AirBnB, Expedia Group, Booking.com). The University fosters academic partnerships with Israeli institutions complicit in settler-colonialism, apartheid, and occupation. Notably, it maintains a student exchange partnership with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, an institution which trains intelligence officers for the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) and partly operates on land expropriated from the Palestinian village of al-Issawiya in East Jerusalem. We, staff and research students at the University of Oxford and its constituent Colleges, pledge our commitment to the BDS movement as part of our broader solidarity with Palestinians against Israeli occupation, apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and genocide. Specifically, we commit to the following actions: 1. Refusing to participate in any formal or informal engagement with Israeli higher education institutions. Following the PACBI guidelines, Israeli higher education institutions are assumed to be complicit in Israel’s crimes unless proven otherwise. The boycott does not apply to scholars at Israeli universities acting in their individual capacity. 2. Refusing to participate in any formal or informal engagement with any corporation involved in supporting Israeli occupation, apartheid, ethnic cleansing, or genocide in Palestine. We note that the national policies of UCU, Unite and Unison support members’ rights to refuse complicity in Israeli apartheid and occupation through support of boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaigns. 3. Working to provide direct support for higher education institutions, academics, educators, and students in Palestine and specifically in Gaza. The PACBI guidelines make clear the importance of supporting Palestinian academic institutions without requiring them to partner with Israeli counterparts. 4. Speaking out against all attempts to silence Palestine solidarity action and speech on our campus and beyond. Since October 2023, the University has issued police action and disciplinary procedures against students acting in solidarity with Palestine, as well as indirect threats to organizers of solidarity events. Signatories affirm the right of students to speech and assembly in solidarity with Palestine. 5. Calling on the Vice-Chancellor and Council, as well as Governing Bodies in the Colleges, to end without delay the university’s investments in, and procurement contracts with, companies supplying weapons to the Israeli military. All other investments of the University and its Colleges must be made transparent and a divestment plan covering both direct and indirect connections to Israeli state crimes must be formulated. 6. Supporting a wider BDS campaign at the University of Oxford and across the city of Oxford. Signatories commit to supporting the ongoing work of monitoring complicity, organizing colleagues, and supporting solidarity actions within and beyond the university. We call on leaders from across the Collegiate University to join us in committing to these principles, to ensure that Oxford, as a world-leading university, takes a firm stand against occupation, apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and genocide, whenever and wherever these may occur. NOTES:Our Pledge: University of Oxford Staff and Research Students Commit to the BDS Movement for Palestine
The BDS pledge has been put together by a group of staff and research students affiliated with Oxford University UCU. It has been written in consultation with members of Unite, Unison, Oxford Worker Justice, OA4P and the Oxford BDS Coalition, as well as with UCU members at UCL, whose BDS Campaign has provided a model for this pledge. The pledge is part of a wider movement of BDS organizing at the University of Oxford, as represented by the Oxford BDS Coalition. If you have any questions about the pledge, please email us at oxfordstaffbds@gmail.com.About Us
All staff are invited to sign the pledge committing to the BDS movement for Palestine. We understand staff to mean anyone working at the university or its colleges, in any capacity, including postgraduate researchers* and (emeritus) professors. *As per UCU’s national policy, we recognise those who are enrolled on postgraduate research programmes as members of staff (notwithstanding their legal status in relation to industrial action). This includes all DPhil students and Master’s students on research programmes, but not Master’s students enrolled on taught courses.FAQs
Who can sign the pledge?
How are you planning to use the pledge and list of signatures?
As made clear by the PACBI guidelines, the academic boycott applies to Israeli institutions and institutional activities, rather than individual scholars acting in their individual capacity at Israeli universities. The pledge also directly calls for us to support Palestinian academics, educators, and students (action 3). Decisions on whom to collaborate with at an Israeli institution and in what capacity may be complex and the BDS movement website gives the following recommendations to boycott individuals where “an individual academic is an official representative of, not merely affiliated to, her/his complicit Israeli academic institution.” Furthermore, an individual academic (Palestinian, Israeli or otherwise) “cannot be exempt from being subject to ‘common sense’ boycotts (beyond the scope of the PACBI institutional boycott criteria) that conscientious citizens around the world may call for in response to egregious individual complicity in, responsibility for, or advocacy of war crimes or other grave human rights violations; incitement to violence; etc. At this level, Israeli academics should be treated like all other offenders in the same category, not better or worse.”I work with Palestinian scholars/colleagues in Israeli universities. What would an academic boycott mean for them?
Although the document is open access and can be shared more widely, the pledge calls specifically for commitment from staff and research students at the University of Oxford and its colleges. As such, it is not relevant to external signatories. As noted in the pledge, the extent of Israel’s scholasticide means it is especially important for those working in higher education institutions to commit to BDS. The pledge also makes clear the need for ongoing support of Palestine solidarity campaigns beyond the university.Can I share the pledge form with people outside the university?
Why have you given the option to sign anonymously?
Why doesn’t the text acknowledge the events of 7 October 2023?
The call for an international BDS campaign was issued by Palestinian civil society organisations in 2004. Committing to BDS is not like choosing to give to one charity over another; rather, it is about joining a collective response to this call for solidarity. The pledge also refers to the ICJ’s Advisory Opinion of 19 July 2024, which found Israel’s presence in occupied Palestinian territory to be unlawful, as well its interim ruling of 26 January 2024, which issued Israel provisional measures to prevent genocide. Public institutions must not be complicit in such grave violations of international law. Finally, the pledge includes a commitment to resist genocide, apartheid, occupation, and settler colonialism, wherever and whenever these may occur. No university should sustain links with companies or institutions involved in such crimes.Why does the pledge single out Israel? Should we not be boycotting other states / institutions engaged or complicit in human rights abuses?
Palestinian civil society organisations have identified BDS as a key tenet of their struggle for freedom: there is no good reason to second-guess this judgement. Also, the pledge is a commitment to ongoing, practical work, including in supporting the Palestinian higher education sector, especially in Gaza, and in contributing to organizing in solidarity with Palestine across the university and the city.Does BDS achieve anything or is it just more clicktivism?
As of April 2025, the UK government continues to permit the export of parts for the manufacture of F-35 fighter jets, which are used by Israel to commit genocide in Gaza, as well as a range of arms that are used to sustain occupation and apartheid. On 2 September 2024, the UK government identified 361 extant arms export licences to Israel, of which 34 were assessed as potentially implicated in the military assault on Gaza. However, only 29 of these 34 licences were suspended or amended. The outstanding 5 licences are related to the manufacture of components for F-35 fighter jets, while 327 arms export licences to Israel remain intact. This decision has been rightly subject to legal action. BDS is a further tool that can be used to disrupt the provision of arms to the Israeli military. In any case, the BDS pledge is not limited to arms manufacturers: it covers all institutions and companies involved in Israeli state crimes.Isn’t this a matter for the UK government, which has put restrictions on arms export licences to Israel?
I have been told it is a conflict of interest to sign the pledge. Is that true?
Other UK University Pledges Open Letter on Palestine, Boycott Divestment and Sanctions for Birkbeck Staff LSE Divest: Staff and Faculty Petition University of Leeds workers’ pledge University of Leicester Staff BDS Pledge University of Nottingham BDS Pledge To inform us of a BDS pledge at your university, please email oxfordstaffbds@gmail.com Other Academic BDS Campaigns Diversifying and Decolonising Economics (D-Econ) BDS Pledge Sydney Staff for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions University and College Workers for Palestine (UK) 2015 Commitment for Palestine by UK Academics 2009 Open Letter by UK Academics supporting BDS Successful University Campaigns Universities across the world are coming under unprecedented pressure to respond to BDS demands. For an up-to-date list of universities that have cut ties with, or divested from, Israel, see the latest impact reports at the PACBI website.Other BDS Campaigns in Higher Education
The PACBI website features a range of resources including calls from Palestinian academic bodies and students; examples of complicity of Israeli universities; information on scholasticide; advice from legal scholars; impact reports; and information on political strategy. The Emergency Committee of Universities in Gaza mobilizes and identifies priorities for international assistance in rebuilding higher education in Gaza. Detailed reports on complicity at the University of Oxford and its colleges can be accessed through the Oxford BDS Coalition. The British Society for Middle Eastern Studies produces toolkits in support of Palestine solidarity on UK campuses as well as resources and bibliographies in support of anticolonial and decolonial approaches to Palestine/Israel. University and College Workers for Palestine publish toolkits, organizing resources, and information on campaigns for Palestine in the UK. Palestine Solidarity Campaign coordinates Palestine solidarity actions across the UK, including national marches, as well as local actions, including through its Oxford branch.Further resources