Bengaluru: More than 1,600 people from various universities across India and overseas have written to the Indian Institute of Science, asking it to cancel an India-Israel Business Meet.
The meet has been organised by Think India, Indian Chamber of International Business and Mysore Lancers Heritage Foundation at the IISc’s JN Tata Auditorium. A letter addressed to IISC Director Prof Govindan Rangarajan has called the institute’s participation in the business meet “unconscionable” and highlights that “such cooperation would amount to direct support for Israel’s genocide in Palestine and its aggressive actions against its neighbours”.
Shairik Sengupta, a research scholar from IISc, said that the decision to conduct the event on the campus was not brought to the attention of students in advance and they were notified of it only after the posters were released.
In a petition to the Director of the IISc with over 1,600 Students, faculty members from several universities have said, “As you know, Israel is currently engaged in a brutal war. In this campaign, Israel has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, most of whom are women and children. The International Court of Justice recently ruled that the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories violated international law, and the UN General Assembly recently passed a resolution with an overwhelming majority urging an end to this occupation. We also witness the world academic community and various universities divesting from Israel due to students and faculty members coming out in solidarity with Palestine.”
It said, “In this situation, it is unconscionable for IISc to encourage collaborations between India and Israel. We are especially concerned that one of the planned tracks of discussion is in defence and cyber security. Such cooperation would amount to direct support for Israel’s genocide in Palestine and its aggressive actions against its neighbours. We request you to stop the ‘India Israel Business Summit’ event and not allow the use of the Indian Institute of Science as a platform to legitimise genocide and colonialism.”
