Protesters dismantle encampment at REC
The UvA protesters who have been occupying a field on the Roeterseiland campus since the beginning of this month are removing their tents today. They say they are doing so as a sign of goodwill towards the UvA, because the UvA announced today that it will not enter into any new European partnerships with Israel.
The tent pegs, large poles and white sheets are carefully packed away. Since 2 June, the pro-Palestinian group Amsterdam Encampment had occupied a field on the Roeterseiland campus, but after three weeks that comes to an end today. Now that the University of Amsterdam has announced that it will not enter into any new partnerships with Israeli institutions, the protesters have opted for “other forms of protest” to press their remaining demands. After all, the call to sever all ties with Israeli institutions remains.
Minimum requirement
At the beginning of June, the protesters walked out of talks with Rector Peter-Paul Verbeek and various UvA deans. According to them, this was not because the UvA did not fully meet their demands, but because they “did not even want to discuss suspending new collaborations”. That was a minimum requirement for talks to take place at all, one of the negotiators said at the time. Now that the UvA has agreed to this, that minimum requirement has been met.
According to a spokesperson for Amsterdam Encampment, there are still several other ties that will be protested against. “Think of ties with companies complicit in genocide, such as Dell and Booking.com, the ongoing collaborations within Horizon Europe and the ties with Tel Aviv University.” Various protests, such as a noise demonstration on Friday afternoon, will be held for this purpose. The spokesperson said: “If the UvA ultimately refuses to talk to us about these demands, a return to the occupation is always an option.”
The UvA has already indicated that it will not report the occupation this summer. As long as the protesters remain peaceful and safety can be guaranteed, they can remain on the UvA grounds with tents.
