THOUSANDS of university departments and academics around the world have joined the global outcry against Israel’s latest violence  against Palestinians. 

The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) — a group with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement — has described the recent surge of support on campuses for Palestinian rights as an “unprecedented wave of solidarity.” 

The campaign group highlights the action being taken at Cambridge University, where 1,600 faculty members, staff, students and alumni have urged management to “sever formal links and partnerships” with firms complicit in Israeli apartheid. 

Cambridge has almost £2 million worth of investments in firms linked to Israel’s violations of international law, one of the highest of any British university, according to research by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

This includes funds in construction equipment giant Caterpillar, which manufactures bulldozers used to demolish Palestinian homes. 

In the US, more than 3,000 scholars have also called for academic institutions to end “complicity and partnership with military, academic, and legal institutions involved in entrenching Israel’s policies.”

And in Australia, more than 130 anthropologists have called for an end to their government’s “murderous” arms trade with Israel.

Statements were also issued from institutions in Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Canada, Ireland and South Africa. 

A spokeswoman from PACBI said the pledges are significant not just because of the sheer numbers but the fact they are calling for accountability. 

“Scholars are also putting their words into practice,” she said.

“They are calling on governments and their universities to end complicity in Israeli apartheid.”