Gaza solidarity encampments: We, as educators, need to protect our students
“We educate future generations.”
“We strive to take humanity forward.”
“We want to create a great world.”
“We are committed to the betterment of our global society.”
In the past few months, such university mottos have proven to be nothing other than vapid slogans.
Student-led sit-ins have popped up across US college campuses. Protesting students are demanding that their institutions call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and divest from companies doing business with Israel.
But instead of engaging with their demands in good faith, university presidents set loose the notoriously unrestrained American law enforcement forces on students standing in solidarity with the Palestinian people, who are facing genocide.
The police have entered campuses in riot gear, violently dismantled encampments, brutalised protesters, and arrested hundreds.
Police make an arrest as they face off with pro-Palestinian students after destroying part of the encampment barricade on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in Los Angeles, California, early on May 2
University of Amsterdam staff join pro-Palestine protests
Professor of sociology at the University of Amsterdam, Sarah Bracke, spoke to Al Jazeera about the student and staff protests against Israel’s war on Gaza in the Netherlands.
She said the staff at three higher education institutions in Amsterdam witnessed police “violently” attempting to disperse a peaceful student encampment last Monday.
She said the staff today are protesting as they want to end the university’s complicity in “the ongoing genocide” in Gaza and call out the violent methods that police have used to suppress peaceful protests.
She noted that Jewish staff and student protesters were beaten by police despite the educational institutions’ claim that police were needed to protect the Jewish students on campus.
Police officers remove a pro-Palestinian protester outside the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands, May 8
Israel protests Nobel laureate’s Vatican speech denouncing Gaza genocide
Israel’s Embassy to the Holy See has issued a protest after a Yemeni Nobel Prize winner accused Israel of “genocide” in Gaza during an event hosted by the Vatican.
The embassy expressed “indignation and shock” about the comments made by rights activist Tawakkol Karman on Saturday evening during a conference organised by the Fratelli Tutti Foundation, which Pope Francis created.
Karman, who won the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize for her role in the Arab Spring protests, told an audience in the atrium of St Peter’s Basilica: “The world is silent in front of the genocide and the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people in Gaza.”
After mentioning Gaza, Karman received a loud round of applause from the audience, which included fellow Nobel prize laureates, politicians, and church officials. The pope was not present.
In an open letter posted on X on Monday, the Israeli embassy rejected Karman’s accusations as “lies”.
“The site was contaminated by a flagrantly anti-Semitic speech,” it said. “We regret that such a speech was pronounced without anyone feeling the moral duty to intervene to stop this disgrace,” it added.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Tawakkol Karman