1

WHO WE ARE

In May 2024, students and faculty members of ETH protested against complicity in the genocide in Gaza. Under the slogan “No Tech for Genocide,” we made it clear that we do not want our research and knowledge to be used for oppression and genocide.

We students base our demands on two closely interconnected Palestinian initiatives:

The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), launched in 2004, which calls on international academics to boycott Israeli academic institutions.

The BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement, launched in 2005, which calls for boycotts, divestment and sanctions to put pressure on Israel to recognise the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination.

1: https://bdsmovement.net/cultural-boycott
2: https://bdsmovement.net/campaigns

It is well known that Israeli universities actively contribute to the ideological framework of apartheid: Israeli universities promote state-conformist narratives, erase Palestinian history and provide the intellectual justification for the ongoing occupation.
ETH has several research collaborations with Israeli universities, among others with the Weizmann University, the Technion and the University of Haifa.
Israeli universities develop technologies that are actively used for oppression and killing. If ETH therefore maintains cooperations with Israeli universities, it supports settler colonialism, apartheid and the military occupation of the Palestinian people.1

1: www.un.org/unispal/document/anatomy-of-a-genocide-report-of-the-special-rapporteur-on-the-situation-of-human-rights-in-the-palestinian-territory-occupied-since-1967-to-human-rights-council-advance-unedited-version-a-hrc-55/ 25.09.2026

Students at the first Sit-in at ETH, 2024.

We know that there is no “neutrality” and “academic freedom” in dealing with an unlawful occupation and genocide.

After two sit-ins in the ETH main building, ETH decided not only to have us students removed by the police, but also to additionally charge us with trespassing.
We students have been defending ourselves in court for two years. We understand the charge as an attempt to divert from ETH’s complicity and as a deterrent for further initiatives from the student body.

We may perhaps not be able to remain at ETH, but the movement for justice in Palestine lives; on the street, in the lecture halls and also in court.

We firmly reject the accusation of trespassing and are convinced:
Even if the judiciary rules against us, we remain steadfast in our belief in the ethical duty of protest against genocide and oppression.
We are convinced that the struggle for justice takes place on various levels and that ETH must therefore be held accountable.

Neither the Rectorate nor the ETH Board will be able to claim that they knew nothing. In full knowledge of the facts, they decided not only to do nothing against complicity, but to arrest and prosecute those who reminded them to comply with international law.

An End to Complicity!
Free Palestine.

1

→