Israeli universities that have for decades played a key role in planning, implementing, justifying and whitewashing racist and colonial policies of the Israeli regime of occupation, settler-colonialism and apartheid, are once again exposing their complicity

The recent success of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement in deterring leading academics from participating in Israeli conferences is a marked move forward towards removing academic respectability from Israeli institutions, and persuading more academics to refrain from collaborating with the Israeli occupation and apartheid regime.

The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), a member of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) National Committee (BNC) in Palestine, wishes to clarify that the YaLa – Young Leaders Group is a normalization initiative [1] that conflicts with the BDS guidelines related to the cultural boycott of Israel [2].  The Group intends to hold an online conference on Sunday May 25^th [3] in which young people from across