Universities pause compliance with query about Jewish ties

JTA 16 February 2022

Fourteen Dutch universities said they are suspending compliance with a freedom of information query from a pro-Palestinian organisation regarding their ties with Israeli and Jewish entities, writes Cnaan Liphshiz for JTA.

The 14 publicly funded institutions, including the University of Amsterdam, Utrecht University and the Delft University of Technology, made the announcement on Tuesday 15 February in a joint statement following an outcry last week over the query by the Rights Forum, which critics say was founded by an anti-semite.

The query has led to “distress and a feeling of insecurity. We regret this,” read the statement by Universities of the Netherlands, an umbrella group representing the country’s public universities. Those institutions have asked for an undisclosed “time extension” in complying with the query, meaning that “currently no further steps are taken to retrieve, collect and-or transmit the information” sought in the query, the statement read. The universities will “balance” the legal requirements of the freedom of information law that gave the query its legal standing with “other legal frameworks, including those guaranteeing the safety” of university staff, the statement also read.
Full report on the Jewish Telegraphic Agency site

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