More than 1,300 lecturers at Israeli academic institutions signed a petition issued today, Tuesday, calling on the Israeli government to end the war on Gaza and work towards the return of the hostages.

The petition stated: “We, male and female members of the academic and administrative corps in academic institutions in Israel, call on the government to end the war in Gaza as soon as possible and to pay attention to the immediate return of the kidnapped. Returning the kidnapped and ending the war is a moral necessity that is consistent with the Israeli interest.”

They added, "War is never a goal in itself. Therefore, in addition to waging it, the government must define a realistic strategic vision for the political reality after it. The horrific Hamas attack on October 7 granted Israel the right to self-defense, within the restrictions of international law."

The petition continued: “However, this goal of the war has been exhausted, especially because the government deliberately refrains from defining a strategic or political vision for the war, and instead seeks an undefined ‘absolute victory’, which according to senior army officers not only cannot “Achieving it will certainly soon lead to the death of the kidnapped.”

The petition stressed that “while the benefit of continuing the war is not clear at all, its harms are serious and certain.”

The war and the way it is managed causes massive targeting of citizens in Gaza, hunger, and unprecedented destruction of infrastructure.

It leads to many Israeli deaths and injuries, a psychological crisis for tens of thousands, economic damage to families, and a severe deterioration in the rule of law in Israel and the territories (occupied in 1967), and does not allow for the settlement of the situation in the north and the return of the displaced.”

According to the petition, the war "caused severe damage to Israel's standing, severe international isolation, legal dilemmas, cultural and academic boycotts, and long-term damage in many other respects. Moreover, the war causes serious harm to Israel's ability to carry out its paramount duty to return the kidnapped."

The petition concluded, "The right to self-defense does not lead to the right to wage war without a realistic goal, or a war whose goal is the political survival of the leadership. Therefore, we call on the government to seek to return the kidnapped people and end the war without delay."