Foreign Researchers Shun Israeli Universities Amidst Growing Boycotts

The international standing of Israeli universities is declining, with a significant drop in foreign postdoctoral researchers, according to a report by Zvi Zerachia in Calcalist. Data from Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics reveals a 10.1% decrease in foreign postdocs in 2024 and an 11.6% drop in 2025, totaling a 20.5% decline over two years. Concurrently, the number of Israeli postdocs increased by 8.7% in 2024 and 8.5% in 2025, altering the composition of research teams. This trend indicates a reduced interest from international researchers in working in Israel and potentially greater difficulty for Israeli researchers in securing postdoctoral positions abroad.

In 2025, there were 3,115 postdoctoral researchers in eight Israeli universities, with less than half being foreign nationals. These researchers came from 73 countries, with India accounting for 52%, followed by China (8.9%), Germany (6.1%), the United States (3.7%), Italy (3.4%), and France (2.9%). The Hebrew University hosted the most postdocs (24.7%), followed by the Weizmann Institute (16.4%), Ben-Gurion University (13.9%), Tel Aviv University, and the Technion (both 11.7%). The Weizmann Institute, where 58.3% of postdocs were foreign in 2025, is particularly affected by this decline, potentially hindering its ability to form new research teams.

The Israeli National Academy of Sciences observed these trends after the Gaza war began, noting that travel difficulties, security concerns, and military reserve duty for researchers also contributed. The report also explores the role of academic boycotts, particularly post-Gaza war. While Israeli data doesn't specify boycott reasons, the rise in boycott activities globally cannot be ignored. Academic boycotts predated the war, with the American Anthropological Association passing a resolution in July 2023 to boycott Israeli academic institutions. Since October 2023, over a thousand boycott-related reports have been filed by Israeli university heads, with about a quarter targeting individuals.

Examples of boycotts include canceled conference invitations and withdrawn collaborations. Ghent University in Belgium halted institutional cooperation with specific Israeli entities in May 2024, and in March 2026, completed its withdrawal from the "OsteoNet" project. The University of Amsterdam froze new cooperation with Israeli partners in June 2025, later expanding the freeze to new institutional partnerships. These actions occurred amidst the Gaza war, during which a UNESCO-partnered assessment found 22 of 38 higher education campuses destroyed and 14 others damaged.

Furthermore, Israeli researchers report rejections of their papers and doubts about the impartiality of scientific peer review. A survey in May 2025 found a 25% decrease in submitted research papers compared to the year before the war. While the overall number of publications and international collaborations has remained relatively stable according to some analyses, the impact of disrupted new partnerships may take time to manifest in publication data. Israel's participation in key European research programs like Horizon is also facing scrutiny, with proposals to potentially exclude Israeli entities based on alleged violations of the Genocide Convention.