Despite receiving criticism from more than 1,500 students and faculty members from universities in India and overseas, the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) held an Israel-India summit on its campus in Bengaluru today, Monday, September 23.
At the same time, a group of activists who were holding a press conference to condemn the institute for ‘sponsoring and hosting the event’ were forced to take down Palestinian flags by the police outside the IISc campus.
The press conference was called for by Bangalore for Justice and Peace, a coalition of several human rights organisations in the city.
Aishwarya, General Secretary of People's Union For Civil Liberties (PUCL) Bengaluru, informed EdexLive, “During the press conference, the police snatched the Palestinian flags from our hands. Meanwhile, the Israeli flag was being hoisted inside the campus, right beside the Indian flag. This is really atrocious. The government is changing its entire recourse. The press meeting intended to shame IISc, IIIT-B (International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore), IIM (Indian Institute of Management), and NIAS (National Institute of Advanced Studies) for their participation in this event which is directly making India complicit in the genocide of Palestinians.”
Earlier, in a letter written to Prof Govindan Rangarajan, Director, IISc Bangalore, students and academicians expressed concerns about the event, stating that it is “unconscionable for IISc to encourage collaborations between India and Israel”.
It’s worth noting that the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), regarded as one of the top research institutes globally, organised not just one, but two events related to Israel today, September 23. The second one being Mysore Lancers Heritage Lecture which was scheduled at 5 pm today and was addressed by Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar.
The memorial lecture was aimed to honour the Mysore Lancers, a regiment from Mysuru that played a significant role in the liberation of Haifa (now in Israel) during World War I.
While the IISc is not one of the organisers for both of these events, it rented out its JN Tata Auditorium for these programmes.
“We must ask ourselves, are these institutions about creating knowledge for peace and equitable well-being, or are they promoting war and violence? Hosting such summits aligns them with the genocide taking place in Palestine. IISc claims they just rented the space, but this is far more than that. We have to ask, if a business like Ambani's wanted the space, would they rent it too without considering the consequences?” said Prajval Shastri, a renowned astrophysicist, while speaking at the press meet in Bengaluru today.
The activists also condemned the support by the Karnataka government, especially in light of the recent International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling urging institutions not to support Israel’s actions.
