The BDS campaign began as an academic and cultural boycott following the decision of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to condemn as illegal Israel’s separation wall (Abu-Laban and Bakan 2009: 40).

Coinciding with the ICJ ruling, the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) issued a call urging the international community to boycott all Israeli academic and cultural institutions as a ‘contribution to the struggle to end Israel’s occupation, colonisation and system of apartheid’ (Barghouti 2011: 55–56). A year later more than 170 Palestinian civil society organisations and unions, including the main political parties, issued the Call for BDS against Israel until it fully complied with international law (Barghouti 2011: 56).

Israeli universities are major accomplices in Israel’s regime of occupation, settler-colonialism and apartheid. Israeli universities are involved in developing weapon systems and military doctrines deployed in Israel’s recent war crimes in Gaza. For example, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology collaborates with the Israeli military, as well as Elbit Systems and Rafael Advanced Defense, which are companies that produce weapons systems used against civilians as well as the surveillance equipment for Israel’s Apartheid Wall. Similarly, Tel Aviv University has developed tens of weapon systems and the “Dahiya doctrine” of disproportionate force employed by the Israeli military in committing war crimes against Palestinian and Lebanese civilians. Moreover, graduates of the Hebrew University’s Talpiot military program, sponsored by the Israeli Air Force and army, pursue higher education while serving in the army, utilizing their expertise to further military research and development.