University of Utah partners with controversial Israeli-sponsored school in the West Bank​on June 6, 2025 at 12:00 pm

A group of faculty are calling on the University of Utah to immediately terminate a new international partnership leaders signed onto last month with a controversial Israeli-sponsored school.

A group of faculty are calling on the University of Utah to immediately terminate a new international partnership leaders signed onto last month with a controversial Israeli-sponsored school.   

A group of faculty are calling on the University of Utah to immediately terminate a new international partnership leaders signed onto last month with a controversial Israeli-sponsored school.

The academic agreement quietly formalized by U. President Taylor Randall on May 19 is with Ariel University, which is considered the first settlement school established by Israel in the occupied West Bank — land that is internationally recognized as Palestinian territory.

In a letter and accompanying petition to University of Utah leadership Tuesday, 20 current faculty and staff members called it a “mystifying decision” to sign a memorandum of understanding, or MOU, with the Middle Eastern school and urged the U. to back out, particularly as the ongoing Israel-Hamas war has torn up the region since Oct. 7, 2023.

The faculty wrote in their letter that partnering with an Israeli-sponsored school at this time effectively amounts to “taking institutional positions on matters of public controversy,” which Utah state law and higher education policy here prohibits.

Two former professors, eight alumni, three current students and six community members had also signed onto the message as of Thursday. The effort is being led by a group called University of Utah Faculty for Justice in Palestine, which is part of a national network of similar campus organizations.

Marshall Steinbaum, an assistant professor of economics at the U. who has helped lead the effort, said the university is “spinning this as a standard MOU for an academic collaboration.” He sees it as anything but.

In their letter, the faculty note that in December 2023, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox specifically instructed Utah college leaders not to take a political stance on current events, specifically the continued war in the Middle East.

“I do not care what your position is on Israel and Palestine. I don’t,” Cox said at the time. “… We don’t need our institutions to take a position on those things.”

In conjunction, the Utah Board of Higher Education adopted a measure requiring public school leaders remain neutral “on political, social or unsettled issues that do not directly relate to the institution’s mission.”

And the Utah Legislature took it a step further during the 2024 session with HB261 — the bill that banned diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in public higher education — making it law that an institution may not “take, express or assert a position or opinion” on anything to do with race, bias or privilege.

The opposed faculty members argue the U.’s agreement with Ariel University is a violation of those provisions, because the memorandum identifies the location of the school as being in Israel.

“By signing this MOU — which refers to the location of the settlement of Ariel as ‘Israel’ — the University of Utah will have not only taken a position on the Israel-Palestine conflict but will have taken a position that contradicts longstanding U.S. foreign policy, which views Israeli settlements as violations of international law and does not recognize the occupied West Bank as part of Israel,” they write.

Faculty in other U.S. states and across Europe have also called on their institutions not to partner with Ariel University. The U. acknowledged that in an email sent out to employees Wednesday and later shared with The Salt Lake Tribune.

But Provost Mitzi Montoya said the agreement does “not constitute the university taking a position on any political issues, as state law requires institutional neutrality. They are academic agreements to talk about student-faculty mobility, engage in dialogue and build research collaborations and exchanges.”

Sen. Keith Grover, R-Provo, who co-sponsored the anti-DEI bill, agreed.

“I have no reason to believe the University of Utah deviated from any legal or procedural requirements, and I assume applicable statutes and protocols were followed,” he said in a statement.

The author of the bill, Rep. Katy Hall, R-South Ogden, did not respond to requests for comment.

The University of Utah’s spokesperson said the U. has about 100 MOUs with universities worldwide, such as Turkey and India, with plans currently being finalized in Saudi Arabia and Egypt,for example.

When asked if the U. factored in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in this partnership, spokesperson Rebecca Walsh said “as a public institution, the University of Utah will discuss MOUs with any college or university.”

What the agreement says

Details about the MOU came in a news release sent out by the Israeli Consulate to the Pacific Southwest in Los Angeles — which has a coverage area including Utah. Thatsaid the deal between the two schools was brokered by the region’s consul general, Israel Bachar.

The consulate declined to comment to The Tribune on the faculty group’s MOU concerns.

But Bachar met with many Utah leaders in December 2023, including Gov. Cox, Utah Senate President Stuart Adams and Utah House Speaker Mike Schultz, as well as U.S. Congressman Burgess Owens, R-Utah.

Bachar told The Jerusalem Post in a comment last month that the U. and Ariel University are “brave” for engaging in a time when “campuses are being taken over by protesters in keffiyehs calling for a Palestinian state ‘from the river to the sea.’”

The U. did have a large pro-Palestine protest in April 2024. That included hundreds of students who set up an encampment in Presidents’ Circle.

Several hours in, more than 100 police officers in riot gear charged into the protest, violently pushing students off campus and arresting 21 people.

As of this week — more than a year later — none of those arrested at the U. has been charged.

Cox and legislative leaders applauded the U. for how it quickly responded and shut down the demonstration.

But Mark Lewis, the spokesperson for Ariel University, told The Tribune that the point of the MOU is not a response to that or a political statement. It is scholarly.

In the release about the partnership, the consulate said the memorandum is aimed at “fostering academic, scientific and cultural collaboration between the two institutions.”

The main purpose is shared research in the medical sciences, for which the U. is known. Ariel University also has a school of medicine and invites partnership there, as well as with faculty and student exchange programs and joint conferences.

The agreement was signed by Randall, alongside Ehud Grossman, who is the president of Ariel University. Photos show the two smiling and shaking hands.

“This agreement will strengthen Ariel University’s growing global academic network and foster collaborative initiatives in life sciences, engineering, and other fields where both institutions excel,” Grossman said in a statement.

The MOU is for five years, according to a copy provided by the U. to The Tribune. The signatures of Randall and Grossman were redacted.

The agreement states: “Cooperation and development of activities may extend to any fields and subjects in which the two institutions may identify shared interests.”

Each school was directed to appoint a liaison to coordinate the administration of exchange programs and academic collaboration.

Discrimination or misinformation?

The liaison part is a concern for the faculty members who are petitioning.

They worry there could be discrimination in filling those positions — such as not considering Palestinian candidates, they said. They also worry the same would apply to students who want to participate in the partnership.

They argue the U. should “abandon any plans to partner with Ariel University or any other institution of higher education to which not all University of Utah students, faculty, and staff have equal access.”

It has been widely reported, including by BBC News, that Ariel University will not admit Palestinian and some Muslim students

Lewis, the spokesperson for Ariel University, said that is not the case.

“This claim is completely false and unfortunately rooted in misinformation,” he said. “We are a proud Israeli institution whose student body reflects the full diversity of Israeli society. Jews, Muslims, Christians, Druze and Bedouins study together here in an atmosphere of mutual respect. Admission is based solely on academic merit — not ethnicity, religion or political background.”

Lewis also said the university “actively contributes to improving life for all residents of the region, including our Palestinian neighbors.” For instance, he noted, the school has worked with Palestinian researchers to develop ecological charcoal kilns, as traditional kilns in Palestinian villages were found to contribute to air pollution and adverse health risks.

“Our scientists worked side-by-side with community stakeholders to design, test, and implement new clean-burning kilns that dramatically reduce toxins while preserving livelihoods,” he said. “… In other words, Ariel University is part of the solution — not the problem.”

He said the school welcomes anyone from the U., including those opposed to the partnership, to visit and participate.

“We hope it allows faculty and students (including Palestinians and Muslims) from Utah, including those who may have concerns, to visit us and see the truth firsthand,” Lewis said. “… We welcome them too — with open arms, open minds and open data.”

Disputed land

Still, hundreds of academics at schools across the world, including some in Israel, have called on their institutions to not partner with the Israeli-sponsored university and not support research collaborations there. In 2021, three European schools responded by ending their memorandums.

The reason, they said, is that Ariel University sits in occupied territory.

In its news release, the consulate refers to Ariel University as “a rapidly growing institution in Israel.” The MOU also lists the location as Israel.

But both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip have long been considered Palestinian territory by both the United Nations and the United States. That’s even with the United States’ strong allegiance with Israel.

Ariel University was constructed in the West Bank in 1982, first as a college. It was designated as a university in 2012, according to the Jewish News Syndicate.

During his first term, U.S. President Donald Trump opened the door for more partnerships with the school, brushing aside territorial disputes. But scientific cooperation with Ariel University was ended by the U.S. Department of State under former President Joe Biden.

At this point in his second presidential term, Trump hasn’t made any moves to return to his original policy position.

The Utah faculty group also pointed to the University of Utah’s official land acknowledgement statement, arguing that what the U. asserts in regard to supporting Utah tribes and sovereignty runs counter to its agreement with Ariel University.

That land acknowledgement statement says, “The University of Utah recognizes the enduring relationships between many Indigenous peoples and their traditional homelands.”

The U. declined to comment on that criticism.

It appears a handful of American schools had individual partnerships with Ariel University before the U.

Ariel University and Florida Atlantic University, for instance, had a two-year accord in 2019.

Officials from Ariel University also recently met with leaders at the University of California, Irvine, to discuss collaboration, according to a post from Ariel University that shows a picture of President Grossman at the campus.

Ariel University’s website says it has eight MOUs with schools in the United States and four faculty agreements, but it doesn’t list the institutions by name.

For its part, the U. has separate existing “faculty activities” (less formal than partnerships)with academics in the West Bank and Gaza, said Walsh, the school’s spokesperson.

The school collaborates globally, she said, except in Iran or North Korea.

“These memoranda of understanding are generally initiated by faculty as a result of relationships they have developed around the world in their research, teaching and mentorship activities,” Walsh said.

That’s what happened with this partnership, she added. A computer science professor from Ariel University traveled to Utah for an academic conference and started the conversation about a formal collaboration in fall 2023.

There has been no exchange of money between the school for the MOU, Walsh said, and none is explicitly directed under the agreement.

The U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation, which promotes collaboration between Israel and American institutions for research, has previously awarded the U. grant money in 2020 and 2021, for a total of $211,500. But that organization is not directly tied to Ariel University.

A private Israeli citizen has also donated $1,000 each year in 2023 and 2024 to the school, according to annual foreign gift disclosures required of Utah public universities by the state Legislature.

The U. also has a study abroad program in Israel at the University of Haifa. Student protesters have called on the U. to cut ties; the U. has not, but the program was paused during the ongoing war.

Note to readers • This story is available to Salt Lake Tribune subscribers only. Thank you for supporting local journalism.