The university board has received a letter from staff members asking the UG to speak out against ‘educide’ in Gaza.
The petition was originally written by two UG lecturers in response to the damage the Israel-Hamas conflict has caused the educational system in Gaza. Since then, the letter has been signed by around eighty staff members from ten of the faculties.
The petition demands that the university condemn the destruction of the education system in Gaza, to put financial resources aside to support Palestinian students at the UG, to review their ties with Israeli organisations, to establish a working group on educide, and to call for a permanent ceasefire to the conflict.
‘Given the societal responsibility of our institution, we are convinced that the University of Groningen has a meaningful role to play and can make a substantial difference with concrete actions’, says the letter.
Names withheld
The petition was originally shared personally between staff members, but became public when it was leaked on the news blog GeenStijl, before being sent to the university board officially.
The signatures include emeritus professors and lecturers along with visiting professors, but their names are not being revealed to protect them from backlash for taking this stance.
The conflict in Gaza has led to the damage or destruction of every university in the strip and the killing of 95 university professors and deans along with many students and teachers there over the last five months, according to Euro-Med Monitor, a human rights NGO based in Geneva.
‘We recognize that making political statements can be a delicate matter, but the University should above all be objective, and look at the facts and take seriously the reports and findings of international institutions such as the European Union, the United Nations and human rights organizations’, the letter states.
Statement
The university board has not responded to this document specifically, but has referenced receiving letters and petitions in a broader statement they made about the conflict two weeks ago.
In their statement the university said it will assess its partnerships with both Palestinian and Israeli institutions and reconsider them if necessary. This statement was met with a demonstration outside the Academy building last Wednesday by student organisation Groningen for Palestine, who deemed it ‘disappointing’.
The organisers of the petition declined to comment on the matter to UKrant, as talks with the university board are currently ongoing.