Brussels, 18 March 2026
Wednesday early morning activists targetted the VUB university to denounce their partnership with the Israel arms company OIP-Elbit. In their Etterbeek campus they deployed an enourmous banner saying 'VUB helps kill Palestians' and redecorated the campus with portraits of Palestinian freedom fighters.
OIP (Optronic Instruments & Products) is owned by Elbit Systems, the largest private Israeli arms company. Elbit Systems supplies more than 80% of the Israeli military equipment. VUB has a partnership with OIP-Elbit through their B-Phot research centre which the activist demand to end immediately.
"While Palestinians get slaughtered with drones and precision gear developed by OIP. VUB is allowing them to continue to benefit of research partnerships for space missions to Venus. As an educational institution, it should be ashamed of maintaining links with an industry complicit in genocide." Julie Janssens, one of the activists explains.
At the Photonics Innovation Centre in Gooik, the VUB builds precision imagery equipment for exploration on Venus. This equipment uses the same technology that can be useful in military equipment too shoot precisely from long distances.
"Space research is inherenlty dual use. It's used for for drones, surveillance, optical instruments. This research will thus likely serve the development of more surveillance technology and warfare in Palestine, Iran, Lebanon and in our own streets." Jana De Blok one of the activists says.
A petition was launched by students and teachers of the VUB requesting an end to the collaboration, but the university has not responded.
"For us this showes once again the complicity of the Belgian state protecting the actors responsible for the zionist occupation. We stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people under zionist occupation since 1948, and British occupation even before then. Our solidarity extends to all oppressed people and colonized territories. We strongly condemn European and North American imperialism, no land can be freed by droping (american) bombs. No one is free until everyone is free." says Julie Janssens.
