The State Board of Administration, Florida’s principal independent investment management organization, is required by law to prohibit investments in companies and other entities that boycott Israel.

Recent legislation expanded these anti-boycott provisions to include educational institutions and nonprofits to prevent antisemitic discrimination and boycotts of Israel.

Several universities in Belgium, but also in other European countries, have been put on a blacklist by Florida’s State Board of Administration (SBA) for their boycott of the State of, Israel.

The State Board of Administration, Florida’s principal independent investment management organization, is required by law to prohibit investments in companies and other entities that boycott Israel.

Recent legislation expanded these anti-boycott provisions to include educational institutions and nonprofits to prevent antisemitic discrimination and boycotts of Israel.

In Belgium, the University of Ghent (UGent), the Brussels’ French-speaking  Free University (ULB),  the University of Liège (ULiège) and the University of Antwerp (UAntwerp) are on the blacklist, as well as the city of Ghent and the Brussels municipality of Ixelles.

The decision prohibits public institutions in Florida from cooperating with or investing in organisations “that engage in discriminatory or anti-Semitic boycott campaigns against Israel or territories under Israeli control”.

This also affects student exchange programmes, joint scientific work and academic cooperation between universities.

The Florida law defines “boycott Israel” as refusing to deal, terminating business activities, or limiting commercial relations with Israel or entities doing business in Israel in a discriminatory manner.

The list was updated on 30 September and also includes universities in France, Ireland, the Netherlands and Spain.

This listing follows a recent report issued by B’nai B’rith International, titled “A climate of fear and exclusion: Antisemitism at European universities”. The report describes a rise of antisemitism after 7 October in university spaces in connection with protest encampments. It covers eight countries in the EU – Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden, as well as UK.

According to the report, a pattern of antisemitic or otherwise harmful behaviors emerged, including threats and physical violence directed toward individual Jewish students or staff, solidarity with terrorist organizations and calls for the destruction of Israel.

The protests also affected academic freedom. Some universities gave in to demands for cancelling research cooperation for civilian purposes with Israeli universities in the framework of EU’s  R&D programme Horizon Europe. The report ended with a number of recommendations concerning the definition and fight against antisemitism and enforcing rules for campus protests.

Professor Cary Nelson, a former president of the American Association of University Professors who has studied hate speech and academic freedom, describes a common pattern in the campus demonstrations and their spread from the U.S. to Europe and other continents. “From the river to the sea” became a worldwide slogan, leaving no room for the two-state solution or contacts with Israeli civil society.

“When humanitarian concern is politically biased or naive, its persuasiveness is undercut,” he said. He foresees that the demonstrations at the universities will phase out after the ceasefire in Gaza as part of the implementation of the Trump plan but that hostility toward Israel will remain.

“The fact that these universities only target Israeli institutions, while having no qualms partnering with those in countries with a proven record of serious human rights abuses, is a double standard that makes their true motivation clear,” according to Michael Freilich, the only Jewish member of the Belgian Federal Parliament.

MP Freilich has advised Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot against imposing sanctions on Israel. “I have told him that if Belgium takes unilateral action, it may soon become the target of American wrath. Any sanctions must take place within a European consensus. Now when there is a ceasefire, it is beyond me why Belgium continues to push for sanctions.”

The minister said last week that ‘’at this stage, it is far too early to lift the sanctions. . Some of them are going to be implemented and will begin to be implemented. Just yesterday, for example, I was pleased to see that the loopholes that existed for the transit of potential weapons to Israel have finally been closed. No more transit of any kind, no more dual-use goods that could be sent to Israel for military purposes.’’ .

‘’I think we must maintain this pressure because the urgent priority ains, first and foremost, access to humanitarian aid in Gaza, which must be guaranteed,’’ Prévot said.

Here is a link to the B’nai B’rith International report:

https://www.bnaibrith.org/our-focus/israel/combating-anti-semitism/report-antisemitism-at-european-universities/