Dear prof.dr. Bruno Ehrler, prof.dr.ir. Sander Tans, dr. Paula van Tijn, and prof.dr. Pieter Rein ten Wolde

We were shocked to learn that AMOLF is to be officially involved in NANO.IL.2026, a conference that features Elbit as a "silver sponsor" and has representatives of other large Israeli arms companies such as Rafael and Israeli Aerospace Industries (IAI).

Elbit is the largest arms company in Israel and boasts the Israeli army as its single most important customer [1], providing 80% of the weapons and equipment for Israel’s land forces [2]. Since the beginning of Israel's genocide in Gaza [3,4,5,6,7], where over 72000 Palestinians have been killed [8], Elbit drones, such as the Hermes 450 and 900, and the LANIUS-X drone, have been helping the Israeli army in its innumerable war crimes [9, 10]. Munitions developed by Elbit including the MPR series of bombs, Spike missile, and bullets, have been documented in numerous unlawful killings [11]. Elbit is also an important contractor for the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency [13] and has built surveillance towers on the US/Mexico border. We also want to point to the fact that IAI, another large arms company in Israel, sold its "Searcher" surveillance drone to Russia during its involvement in the Syrian civil war, during which its intelligence was crucial to Russian airstrikes. 20000 civilians are believed to have been killed by Russian strikes on Syria in 2015-2019. [14]

Contributing to an Israeli conference, exchanging knowledge with Israeli research institutes and especially with these companies, involved in gross human rights violations and complicit with genocide in Palestine, cannot in any way be "acceptable", and makes the physicists and other scientists at AMOLF complicit. Like how European research institutes joined in the historical global boycott against South Africa, which played an important role in bringing South African apartheid to an end, AMOLF should bocott this conference. [15]

For AMOLF as a research institute, it is both an ethical imperative and a social responsibility, particularly in consideration of the the positions taken by prominent legal and international organizations, such as the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the International Criminal Court (ICC), and the United Nations (UN) (see the summary in [16], to actively prevent any form of complicity in occupation and genocide.

Therefore, we strongly urge you to reconsider any involvement from AMOLF in this conference.

For further reference, please see the report ‘Where academia meets arms consortia' [16], or listen to this conversation on how Horizon partners are in parallel consortia with Israeli arms companies, thus transferring European knowledge to the Israeli military industry: mixcloud.com/RARARADIO_EHV/spotlight-the-wave-3004...

Finally, we recommend to watch this recent conversation on how the tech sector contributes to violations of human rights: 'Brainport & international law' https://www.facebook.com/reel/865417156063863

References

[1] Database of Israeli Military and Security Export (DIMSE) https://dimse.info/elbit-systems/

[2] Shir Hever (The Real News Network) therealnews.com/israeli-military-strangles-its-own...

[3] Report by Amsnesty International amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/12/amnesty-interna...

[4] Report by Human Rights Watch hrw.org/news/2024/12/19/israels-crime-exterminatio...

[5] Report by B’Tselem – The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories btselem.org/publications/202507_our_genocide...

[6] Report by Physicians for Human Rights – Israel (PHRI) https://www.phr.org.il/en/genocide-in-gaza-eng/

[7] Report by UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/09/israel-has-com...

[8] "WHO Health Cluster Dashboard – West Bank and Gaza". World Health Organization – Eastern Mediterranean Region (Occupied Palestinian Territory). World Health Organization. 6 April 2026. Retrieved 8 May 2026 – via WHO Health Cluster Dashboard – West and Gaza.

[9] https://diem25.org/elbit-genocide-proven-systems/

[10] Can Emir. Israel’s Elbit Systems unveils its tiny but powerful search and attack drone. 2022. url: interestingengineering.com/transportation/lanius-s...

[11] University of British Columbia: cdn.ubcdivest.org/static/elbit_systems_dossier.pdf...

[12] reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/israel-sign...

[13] "The Palestine Laboratory" by Antony Loewenstein antonyloewenstein.com/books/the-palestine-laborato...

[14] haaretz.com/israel-news/licensed-to-kill-how-russi...

[15] aamarchives.org/history/boycott-movement.html...

[16] ‘Where academia meets arms consortia': static1.squarespace.com/static/6231c0ab39d6533832f...