Palestinians and the Researchers at Risk scheme

This House commends the Researchers at Risk scheme instituted by the British Academy in partnership with the Council for At-Risk Academics and with support from the Academy of Medical Sciences, the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Royal Society; notes that the scheme was funded primarily by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and is currently restricted to Ukrainian academics and their families; observes that every higher education institution in Gaza has been destroyed or severely damaged during the war waged by the Israeli government in the wake of the horrific terror attacks of 7 October 2023; deplores that an estimated 30,000 civilians have been killed in Gaza in this time, including historians, economists, scholars of English literature and language, poets, physicists, gynaecologists, political scientists, psychologists, surgeons and lawyers; believes the academic community in Gaza is currently one of the most at risk in the world; and therefore calls on the UK Government to provide specific protection by renewing the funding for the Researchers at Risk scheme and opening it to Palestinian academics immediately and without delay.