What's Happening at German Universities Over Israel and Gaza

By the middle of 2026, arguments about whether German universities should work with Israeli universities have moved far beyond classroom debates. What started in spring 2024 as student protests has turned into a serious, ongoing effort to push universities to cut ties with Israeli academic institutions. This issue hits differently in Germany than in other countries, because of Germany's particular history and strict laws against antisemitism.

What Started in 2024

In April and May 2024, pro-Palestinian protests spread across university campuses around the world, including in Germany. The moment that drew major attention happened in May 2024 at Berlin's Freie Universität, one of Germany's most respected universities. Several hundred pro-Palestinian activists occupied a courtyard there. German police cleared out the encampment, which itself became controversial, with civil rights groups saying the police response was too heavy-handed. Reuters confirmed the police action, noting that similar standoffs were happening across Europe.

Around the same time, activist groups and some university faculty began asking German universities to end their partnerships with Israeli universities. This included research collaborations, student exchanges, and joint degree programs. While this was happening in other countries too, it created a particular problem in Germany.

Germany's BDS Challenge

To understand why this is complicated in Germany, you need to know about a decision the German parliament (Bundestag) made in May 2019. It formally said that the BDS movement — which stands for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions — counts as antisemitic in character, according to the Bundestag's official record.

This resolution is not technically a law, but it carries real weight. Universities that get government funding have faced political pressure when activists ask them to do BDS-related things. Many university leaders have pointed to this resolution as a reason they cannot divest from Israeli institutions or cancel academic partnerships.

However, the resolution has not completely stopped universities from changing their relationships with Israeli partners. A distinction has emerged: the resolution targets active boycotts, but it says less about universities simply choosing not to renew partnerships when contracts expire. Activist groups have suggested universities use this gap. Meanwhile, university administrators find themselves caught between three pressures: students and faculty demanding action, politicians defending support for Israel, and funders providing money.

The broader context here is important: Germany's commitment to Jewish safety and Israel's security are woven into the country's constitution and political culture in a way they are not in Britain, France, or other European countries. Germany's past creates different political dynamics around this issue.

What's Happening Across Europe

German universities are not facing these pressures alone. The Guardian reported in September 2025 that universities across Europe have been quietly severing ties with Israeli institutions. However, the same reporting noted that very few institutions in the UK, France, and Germany have publicly announced these cuts — even though the broader global trend is moving that direction.

This gap between what universities are saying publicly and what they are actually doing behind the scenes is worth paying attention to. It suggests that change is happening at an administrative level that doesn't always make headlines.

Street-level protests have continued as well. AP News reported in late September 2025 that tens of thousands of people marched through Berlin in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, showing that public pressure on this issue remains strong both outside and inside universities.

Why Germany Is Different

This is not the first time German universities have become political battlegrounds. In the 1960s and 1970s, they were centers of fierce debates about West Germany's past and its relationship with Israel. That history still matters today.

In my view, this creates an inherent tension: German political culture treats support for Israel as a fundamental principle, almost a constitutional obligation. Yet in the international academic world, that consensus is increasingly contested. German university leaders are caught in the middle.

The political lever that gives lawmakers a way to pressure universities — the BDS resolution — only goes so far. It doesn't actually control the small-scale decisions where real change happens: whether a university renews a research partnership, or restructures how it works with Israeli colleagues in EU-funded programs. These decisions happen in offices and administrative meetings, not in parliament.

Who Actually Makes Decisions

Germany's education system is decentralized. Individual states (Länder), not the national government, control universities. This means there is no single national policy on Israeli academic partnerships. Instead, there are sixteen different state governments, each with different political parties in charge and different tolerance for this kind of controversy. A university in a state governed by the conservative CDU party faces different political pressure than one in a state where parties sympathetic to Palestinian rights have more influence.

Two major German organizations that fund international academic collaboration — the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation — have not signaled that they plan to change how they view Israeli partnerships. The DFG operates on the principle of academic freedom, which in theory means keeping politics out of research decisions. But staying neutral is itself controversial when protesters argue that doing nothing means supporting the status quo.

What Has Actually Changed

As of mid-2026, German universities have not announced major, formal cuts to their ties with Israeli institutions. This is different from some other European universities. Police did clear out the protest at Freie Universität in May 2024, signaling that universities were not going to tolerate occupation-style protests.

What has shifted is harder to see in headlines but still real: the conversations happening inside universities have changed. Faculty meetings now include debates about this issue. Researchers are more careful about how they frame grant applications. Departments with both Israeli and Palestinian scholars or students experience different social dynamics. These internal changes don't make the news, but they matter over time.

It's worth noting that German universities are actually resisting formal institutional breaks more than universities in other parts of Europe, according to reporting by The Guardian. The BDS resolution's political weight and the special history between Germany and Israel seem to be holding them in place — even as the broader international consensus shifts around them.

What Could Change Everything

Whether German universities eventually move toward cutting ties with Israeli institutions depends on factors mostly outside their control. The future of the Gaza conflict matters. European Union-level policies on research partnerships will matter. And German domestic politics will matter — if elections bring new parties into power at the state level, the political cost for administrators could shift overnight.

One thing is certain: since 2024, the conversation inside German academia has permanently changed. This is not a question that has been settled. It is a question that has been reopened — and it will likely stay open for years to come.