The decision by Turin university's Academic Senate not to take part in a scientific tender with Israel in protest at the civilian deaths caused by Israel in Gaza after pro-Palestinian leftwing collectives occupied the Senate building is not a form of boycott or an expression of anti-Semitism, Rector Stefano Geuna said Wednesday.
The decision not to participate in a call for scientific cooperation with Israel issued in 2024 "was an action on a very specific call", said Geuen on the sidelines of a meeting of the Universities Against Harassment working group.
"All the agreements currently in force with Israeli universities, and there are many, remain valid," he added.
Earlier Noemi Di Segni, the president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities, sounded the alarm about manifestations of antisemitism at Italian universities amid the war in Gaza sparked by the October 7 massacres by Hamas in Israel, after the decision by the Academic Senate at Turin university and the de-platforming of La Repubblica editor Maurizio Molinari at a Naples university on Friday.
"Every red line has now been crossed and concern about the university situation is overflowing," Di Segni told ANSA.
She called on Premier Giorgia Meloni, University Minister Anna Maria Bernini and the Conference of Italian University Rectors (CRUI) to "ensure that the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of anti-Semitism is fully implemented by all Italian universities, making it abundantly clear that all forms of boycott and demonization are antisemitism.
"The Italian university system cannot give in to incursions and distortions," added di Segni.
For her part, Bernini said the university Senate had been "wrong" in its decision "I do not agree with the University of Turin's decision, even though it was taken within the autonomy of universities," said the minister for universities and research.
"It is sad that such a choice coincides with the first national day of the universities, which is entitled 'Open Doors'.
"And it is frankly disconcerting that one can think of closing them.
"I consider any form of exclusion or boycott to be wrong and alien to the tradition and culture of our universities, which have always been inspired by openness and inclusiveness".
Separately, Premier Giorgia Meloni said she found it "concerning" that Turin university's Senate had apparently given in to the collectives.
She said that "if institutions bend to these methods we risk having many problems".
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