Despite protests, India-Israel Business Summit held on IISc campus

Activists and students protest outside the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru on Monday.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

A group of students and activists held a protest in front of Indian Institute of Science (IISc) for hosting the India-Israel Business Summit 2024, on Monday. The city police disrupted the protest and snatched the Palestinian flag that the protesters were waving in solidarity with the Palestinian people who have been a target of attacks by Israel following a terror attack on Israel by Hamas in October 2023. 

A group of students and faculty of the institute had also written an open letter calling upon the director, IISc, to call off the summit and not allow the premises of IISc to be used to “legitimise genocide and colonialism”. 

However, the India-Israel Business Summit was held undisturbed at the J.N. Tata Auditorium. The summit among other areas focused on defence and cybersecurity, start-up, and venture capital and sustainable energy and water technology. 

Speaking at the protest outside IISc gate, Clifton D’Rozario, general secretary of All India Lawyers Association for Justice, said that while we are witnessing genocide in Palestine with women and children being killed, our institutions are partnering with Israel for business. “Israel has been indicted by the International Court of Justice as well and it is deeply troubling that IISC continues to facilitate such events,” he pointed out. 

Prajval Shastri, astrophysicist, questioned the institution’s ethics: “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,” he said.

All India Students’ Association (AISA) said that the Registrar, IISc, responded to their letter late in the night on September 22, hours before the summit and claimed that “IISc had no idea about the event and it was just rented out”. Terming it a “clear lie”, AISA said in its statement that in the past IISc administration had stopped events like discussions on democracy by activists like Teesta Setalvad, just two hours prior to the event. “In fact, IISc scrutinises every event that takes place on the campus,” it said. AISA also condemned the huge police presence on the campus on Monday.