Back to 6 May | Palestinian PhD candidate Omar Barghouti: “Non-violent protest is met with oppression”
This week marks exactly one year since the pro-Palestinian protests at the UvA got completely out of hand. In this series, Folia talks to various people involved about their experiences. Today, part 5: Palestinian human rights activist and PhD student at the UvA Omar Barghouti.
“On 6 May, I spoke at the first UvA encampment on Roetersweiland in solidarity with the Palestinian liberation and against the genocide in Gaza. I was giving a small media workshop in one of the tents when the camp was suddenly attacked by rioters with fireworks, which almost set our tent on fire. The police stood by and let the hooligans enter and leave the camp without making any attempt to stop them, let alone arrest them.”
Complicit
“And this while a continuous genocide is taking place against 2.3 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Surely this should touch the conscience of every human being to exert even more peaceful pressure on the UvA to end its complicity in Israel’s serious human rights violations. Think of the ongoing financial ties that the UvA maintains with companies that are closely involved in the genocide. Or the academic ties between the UvA and various Israeli universities that have not only supported this genocide, but have been an indispensable pillar in the design, implementation, justification and whitewashing of Israel’s regime of oppression for decades.”
“Students and staff at the UvA who have been campaigning for months to end this, deserve praise for their moral courage and principled solidarity, and should not be slandered, oppressed and violently arrested. These activists have repeatedly disrupted the business-as-usual at the university by peacefully defending the rights of the Palestinian people. However, the establishment has responded to this non-violent protest with repression, suppression of freedom of expression, intimidation and terrible violence that has left dozens of our fellow students and staff injured.”
Repression
“In my opinion, this despicable, illegal repression has two main objectives: firstly, the university is trying to divert attention from the actual demands of the activists, who argue that the UvA’s indirect complicity in Israel’s genocide and apartheid must be ended. Secondly, the university is also trying to intimidate the protesters and create a sense of fear, insecurity and despair.”
“If the university succeeds in silencing such calls for justice through this form of repression, any movement for racial, economic, gender or climate justice, for example, could be next. That is why we must continue to defy repression while fighting oppression and fight to end the complicity of Dutch universities in Israel’s crimes. Not only because of the struggle against genocide, but also to support all other forms of social justice struggles. The only response to the UvA’s disregard for its own principles is to build more democratic power for the people, in order to force it to respect these values and principles.”
