New Delhi: More than 1,300 people from various universities across India and overseas have written to the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru asking it to cancel an Israel-India summit scheduled to be held on Monday (September 23).‘The India-Israel Business Summit’ is being organised by Think India, the Indian Chamber of International Business and the Mysore Lancers Heritage Foundation.Calling IISc’s participation in the event as ‘unconscionable’, the letter says the event would “amount to direct support for Israel’s genocide in Palestine and its aggressive actions against its neighbours”.The letter highlighted the scale of violence unleashed by Israel in the months since the October 7 Hamas attack last year. “…Israel has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, most of whom are women and children. A report in the Lancet suggested that the true casualties might be four times higher, which would amount to about 10% of Gaza’s total population. Israel has destroyed every University in Gaza. It has also destroyed healthcare facilities, leading to the resurgence of diseases such as polio,” it said, adding that Israel was also responsible for several civilian deaths in Lebanon in the deadly pager explosions.“We request you to stop the ‘India Israel Business Summit’ event on 23rd September and not allow the use of the Indian Institute of Science as a platform to legitimise genocide and colonialism,” the letter addressed to IISc director Govindan Rangarajan read.According to social media posts from the organisers, the summit “aims to bring together business leaders, entrepreneurs, and policymakers from both countries to discuss and explore potential areas of cooperation, foster partnerships, explore synergies, and drive innovation.”It added that discussions will be held on bilateral trade and investments between India and Israel, defence and cybersecurity, startup and venture capital, sustainable technology and water technology.“We are especially concerned that one of the planned tracks of discussion is in defence and cybersecurity,” the letter said.The letter also pointed to the July ruling of the International Court of Justice, which said Israel’s continued presence in the Palestinian territories violates international law and must end “as rapidly as possible”.It added that students and faculty members across the globe have expressed solidarity with Palestine and called for divesting from Israel. In this context, the signatories asked IISc to stop the event and “not allow the use of the Indian Institute of Science as a platform to legitimise genocide and colonialism”.The names of the first few signatories are published below.Sl. No.NameInstitutionPosition1Anurag ChittawarIndian Institute of ScienceStudent2Faizan BhatIndian Institute of Science BangaloreStudent3Shairik SenguptaIIScStudent4Bhavtosh BansalIISER KolkataFaculty5Ronak M SoniChennai Mathematical InstituteFaculty6Madhusudhan RamanUniversity of DelhiFaculty7Varun SahniIUCAAOther8Jinia GhoshIndian Institute of Technology GandhinagarStudent9Saptarshi PaulIIT KanpurStudent10aylamSyracuse UniversityFaculty11SumithraNot affiliated with any at the moment.Other12Nazia hussainIndian institute of scienceStudent13Dr Bindu T DesaiNAOther14Raj SahaiThe Institute for Critical Study of SocietyOther15Anirban RoyNew York UniversityPostdoctoral fellow16Rohit VarmanUniversity of BirminghamFaculty17Mubeena ShaikhIISER-PunePostdoctoral fellow18Ritabrata BhattacharyaUtah State UniversityPostdoctoral fellow19M. V. RamanaUniversity of British ColumbiaFaculty20Anantharaman S VAshoka UniversityStudent21Dr Sylvia KarpagamPublic healthOther22Padmini BaruahNational Law School of India University, BangaloreFaculty23ShivaniUC BerkeleyPostdoctoral fellow24R. ShankarIMSc, ChennaiOther25Anwesha SahaInstitute of Paleobiology, Polish Academy of Sciences, CeNT, University of WarsawStudent26Bharath SambasivamVirginia TechPostdoctoral fellow27Sarbajaya KunduUniversity of Notre DamePostdoctoral fellow28Shrey PrakashIIScStudent29Dibyajyoti ChakravartiUniversity of L’Aquila, ItalyPostdoctoral fellow30Sayid MondalNational Taiwan Normal UniversityPostdoctoral fellow31Ahmadullah ZahedICTPStudent32Arul ShankarUniversity of TorontoFaculty33Syed Yusuf MianHarvard UniversityPostdoctoral fellow34Vidya T N CJNCASRFaculty35Pramod YadavaJNU (superannuated)Faculty36Muthusamy RajaguruLehigh UniversityStudent37Rupam KarmakarISI, KolkataPostdoctoral fellow38Prarit AgarwalAmazonOther39KarimRuhr University, BochumPostdoctoral fellow40Ranga KrishnanMITOther41Ananyo MaitraLPTM, CY Cergy Paris University and CNRSFaculty42Ankita SrivastavaNew York UniversityStudent43Soumangsu ChakrabortyOhio State UniversityPostdoctoral fellow44Dr. Jyotsna JhaCentre for Budget and Policy StudiesOther45Aryaman PatelUniversity of Toulouse IIIPostdoctoral fellow46HalimaIit KharagpurStudent47Suvrat RajuInternational Centre for Theoretical SciencesFaculty48JUAN MANUEL PEREZ PARDOUniversidad Carlos III de MadridFaculty49Parameswaran SankaranChennai Mathematical InstituteOther50Indra BalachandranRetired ProfessorFaculty51M Prashant KrishnanIISER PuneStudent52S. Aslah FaiziChennai Mathematical InstituteOther53Shantanu NamdiICHO PANPostdoctoral fellow54Sankalp ChoudhuriTechnical University of Munich (TUM)Student55A OommenIndependent ResearcherOther56Jyoti punwaniFreelance journalistOther57Jaikumar RadhakrishnanInternational Centre for Theoretical Sciences (ICTS-TIFR)Faculty58Vandana sIIScStudent59Anupam GoraiSatyendra Nath Bose National Centre for Basic SciencesStudent60Alok LaddhaChennai Mathematical InstituteFaculty61Jayasree SubramanianNAFaculty62Debrup ChakrabortyIndian Statistical InstituteFaculty63Aritra ChatterjeeStony Brook UniversityStudent64K SubramaniamRetiredFaculty65Saumya ChakrabartiVisva-Bharati SantiniketanFaculty66Syamal DanaIndian Institute of Chemical Biology KolkataOther67Narjis FatimaIIScStudent68Rajat TandonRetired Professor of University of HyderabadOther69Mohammad Imtiyaj KhanGauhati UniversityFaculty70Ramesh SreekantanIndian Statistical InstituteFaculty71Sagari R RamdasFood Sovereignty AllianceOther72Saurabh PrakashLawyerOther73Sumilan BanerjeeIndian Institute of ScienceFaculty74Ajit MenonMadras Institute of Development StudentsFaculty75Sandeep PandeySocialist Party (India)Other76Arnab Rai ChoudhuriIndian Institute of ScienceFaculty77Vivek Kr. MehtaTezpur University, AssamFaculty78Pamela PhiliposeIndependent journalistOther79Anuj MenonJNCASRStudent80Palash Baran PalIndian Association for the Cultivation of ScienceOther81Ali JawadKannur UniversityOther82Sudeepan DattaIndian Institute of ScienceStudent83Sibasish GhoshThe Institute of Mathematical Sciences, ChennaiFaculty84ArunVIRASAMOther85Jean DrezeDepartment of Economics, Ranchi UniversityOther86Ashik HICTSStudent87GovindarajanIMSCOther88Shiva ShankarProfessor (retired), IITB and CMIOther89Vidyanand NanjundiahCentre for Human GeneticsFaculty90Sumati SuryaRRIFaculty91Simona SawhneyIIT-DelhiFaculty92Mary JohnretiredOther93Supranta Sarma BoruahUniversity of PennsylvaniaPostdoctoral fellow94S.P. RajaguruIndian Institute of AstrophysicsFaculty95Alok LaddhaChennai Mathematical InstituteFaculty96Cynthia StephenIndependent researcherOther97Godwin MartinInternational Centre for Theoretical SciencesStudent98Koel DasIISER KolkataFaculty99Nikhil SIIT Madras (Graduated 2020)Other100Prabhu NottIndian Institute of ScienceFaculty101Abhishek DharICTS-TIFRFaculty102Amit SinghIIT BombayFaculty103Cedric PrakashPRASHANT initiative for Human Rights & PeaceFaculty104Prajval ShastriastrophysicistFaculty105Panchami joseIndian institute of scienceOther106Tanmay DeshpandeTata Institute of Fundamental ResearchFaculty107Kalyani Menon SenIndependent researcherOther108Menhadi HasanIISc BangaloreOther109Shashaank. GIndian Institute of ScienceStudent110Purnima TripathiIndian Institute of ScienceStudent111K. G. ArunChennai Mathematical InstituteFaculty112Zakiyya KMadras Institute of Development StudiesStudent113Ashwin SubramanianHarvard UniversityStudent114Zoya HasanProfessor Emerita, Jawaharlal Nehru UniversityFaculty115TanmaiIndian Institute of ScienceStudent116MAIDUL ISLAMCSSSCFaculty117sharmilaIIT BombayFaculty118Sukla SenIndependent ResearcherOther119Arijit ChakrabartyISI KolkataFaculty120Sachendra Pratap YadavSocialist Students’ UnionStudent