Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) in the Netherlands has announced that it has frozen institution-wide collaborations with three Israeli universities, Middle East Monitor reported.

“Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) is immediately freezing its collaborations with Bar-Ilan University, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the University of Haifa,” it said in a statement.

Depending on the advice of the independent Advisory Committee on Sensitive Collaborations (ACGS), the decision will suspend existing programs and will not allow new research collaborations to be initiated.

“Our international collaborations are based on academic freedom and scientific diplomacy. But that freedom has limits when fundamental human rights are at stake. Based on the committee’s investigation, we consider the risk of indirect involvement in human rights violations too high,” Annelien Bredenoord, president of the executive board, noted.

The collaborations with the three universities were suspended due to Bar-Ilan’s “significant risk” of being involved in human rights violations and the other two schools’ relationships with the Israeli occupation military (IOF), based on the committee’s investigation.