Beyond Complicity

Beyond Complicity:
TU Berlin’s Role in Genocide, Apartheid and Occupation of Palestine

HOME ● MAIN DEMAND ● CIVIL CLAUSE BREACH ● SUPPORTERS ● STATEMENT VOLKER BECK ● STATEMENT AStA ANGRIFF ● BEYOND COMPLICITY

This report presents extensive and documented evidence that TU Berlin is not simply cooperating with institutions engaged in systemic violence and illegality. It is itself embedded in it.

While many European universities have established human rights committees or independent ethics review boards to assess high-risk research and partnerships, German universities, including TU Berlin, have no such mechanisms.

What seems like a failure in the system is actually part of its structural design. The German university system is mostly publicly funded, and remains largely unaccountable. TU Berlin’s leadership must answer to the ministries that fund them, not its students, faculty, or even to its own mission. So long as its work aligns with state interests, legal violations will be tolerated, if not rewarded. No one will be held responsible. And the university knows it.

The goal of this report is not only to expose the projects and partnerships through which TU Berlin directly helps sustain systems of genocide, apartheid and occupation. It is also to show that this complicity is not forced upon us. Every single project described here, whether funded by BMBF or developed with TKMS, Ariel, or Mekorot, were only possible with the participation of students, profs or staff of the university.

We, as members of this university, students, staff, professors and researchers, do and will always have the power to refuse. Therefore, we extend this call to our fellow students, to fellow staff, to professors, to researchers, to those cooperating with our university. We call on everyone:

Firstly and foremost, refuse to participate in projects that serve or legitimize systems of occupation, apartheid, or genocide.
Ask who your collaborators are, and who they harm. In this age of open information, not knowing is a choice. And that choice carries consequences.
Withdraw the most valuable asset - your labor, your signature, your expertise - from complicit structures.

We are not alone in this refusal. More than 250 scientists and academic employees across Germany have already committed to the Uppsala Declaration, stating their refusal to collaborate with Israeli institutions involved in illegal occupation, apartheid, and genocide.

The university may be beyond reform. But its projects still require people. And we can choose to say: Not in our name.

Full Report

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Cases

Case A - Ariel University: Settler Colonialism

Case B - Mekorot: Water Apartheid

Case C - Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems: Genocide

Case D - CAMERA on Campus: Platforming Propaganda

Case E - Decoding Antisemitism: Normalising Anti-Palestinian racism

Legal Violations

International Law
(Multiple UN resolutions, 2024 ICJ Opinion)

EU Research Regulations
(EU Guideline 2013/C 205/05)

German Law
(Supply Chain Act LkSG, Territorial clause)

TU Berlin's code of ethics
(Civil Clause, Principles of Good Research Practice)

SIGN OUR MAIN DEMAND

If you are signing as a group, initiative or individual, please fill in your name and city and further relevant information, such as your field of activism, occupation, etc.

If you are signing as member of university, please fill in your name, city, university, position (student, prof, employe, etc.), field of study/institute/faculty and other relevant information about you

All information (except email) will be made public*

*For students and student employees in Germany:
Due to safety concerns, we will not be publishing your names online. Instead we will list your field of study/faculty/institute and your university, alongside a count of the number of student signatories.