Debatt ● Rose Martin
Florida’s boycott of Norwegian universities reveals a deeper crisis in international higher education
Florida’s decision to boycott Norwegian universities over their positions on Palestine should not intimidate Norwegian academia. It should embolden us.
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When the U.S. state of Florida announced that it would cut ties with several Norwegian universities over their positions on Palestine, it was tempting to dismiss the move as another escalation in the United States of America’s culture wars. But for those of us working for, in, and with Palestinian higher education, Florida’s decision is more than symbolic politics.
It is part of an ongoing and widening struggle over whether universities will defend international law, academic freedom, and the right to education, or capitulate to political pressure that seeks to silence these principles.
Florida’s boycott arrives at a moment when Palestinian higher education has faced and continues to face unprecedented destruction. Universities in Gaza have been levelled, professors and students killed, and those who survive are left without functioning institutions. In the Occupied West Bank scholars confront raids, arrests, and systematic repression.
This is not a temporary disruption; it is the attempted erasure of an entire academic landscape.
Norwegian institutions have overall responded to this crisis with coordination and responsibility. The establishment of the NorPal network earlier this year which brings together universities, student organisations, and SAIH, aims to support the rebuilding and long-term strengthening of Palestinian higher education.
Nord University is part of this effort because, like our peers, we recognise that education forms the foundation of recovery and future self-determination. Florida’s response to such work is to punish it.
Florida’s message is clear: solidarity with Palestinian academic life is to be treated as extremism, while the systematic destruction of that same academic life is to be ignored.
This inversion of moral logic is dangerous. It seeks to make universities afraid to speak, afraid to document, afraid to act.
Yet if anything, Florida’s decision demonstrates why Norwegian academic institutions must hold their ground. That the actions taken by Nord University and others is not only morally sound, but likely to be increasingly legally required.
On 16 September 2025, the UN-commissioned Independent International Commission of Inquiry issued its report concluding that the State of Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, having carried out four of the five prohibited acts under the Genocide Convention. This finding place additional responsibilities on states and institutions, including universities, to ensure they do not become complicit, directly or indirectly, in supporting institutions involved in such violations.
That finding is the strongest legal-factual determination of genocide yet delivered by an UN-mandated inquiry, and it carries implications for international academic engagement. If a state is found to be perpetrating genocide, institutions worldwide must reconsider whether collaboration with that state’s universities constitutes complicity.
These issues are not abstract, and they are already being debated within European academia.
During a 2 December 2025 meeting of the University of Oslo Board, several board members warned that continuing certain research collaborations (including under Horizon Europe) with Israeli institutions may expose the university to legal liability under international and humanitarian law.
Florida’s decision underscores why Norwegian institutions must stay on course with the work to support Palestinian higher education.
First, defending academic freedom means defending all academic freedom – not only academic freedom enjoyed by the powerful. As long as Palestinian scholars cannot safely teach, research, travel or assemble, global academic freedom is compromised. There is no meaningful academic freedom under bombardment, occupation or military rule, and freedom that exists only for some is not freedom but privilege.
Second, supporting Palestinian institutions is a strategic necessity. Higher education is not peripheral to recovery, rather it is its backbone. NorPal was created precisely to mobilise Norwegian expertise and resources for this purpose, whether through partnerships, research collaboration, or capacity building. To retreat now would be to abandon Palestinian academic colleagues at the moment they most need the international community.
Third, attempts to politically police academic engagement should concern all of us, regardless of where we stand on the question of academic boycotts or Palestine. If a U.S. state can blacklist foreign universities for their human-rights positions today, what prevents similar actions tomorrow against climate research, gender studies, or any field that happens to provoke political discomfort for others?
Finally, Florida’s actions inadvertently reveal how impactful collective academic action has become. When Norwegian institutions coordinate to support Palestine, whether through advocacy, exchange, or reconstruction, it has enough moral weight to provoke backlash. That is not a reason to retreat; it is evidence that our choices matter and they have influence.
Florida’s decision should therefore not intimidate Norwegian academia. It should embolden us.
At a time when Palestinians face the collapse of their educational infrastructure, and when pressure campaigns seek to make solidarity costly, our responsibility is not to disengage but to insist more firmly on academic principles: the right to education, the protection of scholars, and the defence of international law.
Future generations will judge whether universities used their positions and privilege to shield themselves from controversy or politics, or to stand with colleagues whose universities have turned to rubble. Norway must continue to choose the latter.
