Today’s occupation of the Maagdenhuis building indicates once again the failure of the UvA Board
This morning, the Maagdenhuis building was occupied for the umpteenth time. The occupiers are demanding that the Executive Board discloses all institutional ties with Israeli academic institutions, immediately sever these ties and distance itself from companies that profit from the genocide in Palestine. Jef Ausloos, Sruti Bala, Brian Droop and Marina Tulin believe that the UvA Board has ‘once again’ failed.
Since October 2023 encampments and student movements across the world have been demanding universities to cut ties with complicit Israeli universities, institutions and companies. At the UvA, students and staff have been organizing teach-ins and demonstrations, writting letters to the Executive Board and Deans, and collecting signatures for petitions. As staff, we participated in roundtables and consultations for new houserules and an ethical framework for third party collaborations. For several months, we are organizing sit-ins every Thursday 12:30-13:00 at both Roeterseilandcampus and Science Park, to call for an end to our university’s complicity in grave human rights violations and crimes against humanity. In December, over 300 staff members went on an unprecedented four day strike with the labour union FNV, pressuring the Executive Board to end the stalling and delay of the ethical framework evaluations of ties with complicit Israeli universities.
After more than a year of dragging their feet, the Executive Board decided to cut its student exchange program with Hebrew university on grounds of their complicity in grave human rights violations and limiting of academic freedom. This was a minimal step in the right direction but decidedly not enough, since the Executive Board still maintains many other institutional ties.
Renew ties
Recently, the Executive Board also publicly expressed its intention to renew ties with Hebrew University, a university whose campus is built on illegally occupied territory. This is yet another strike on the long list of failures in leadership of the Executive Board. Bad faith negotiations, performative ‘dialogues’, campus repression, and the failure to condemn disproportionate police violence and criminalization of students and staff have eroded our trust in the leadership of this university.
Today’s occupation at Maagdenhuis is a continuation of one and a half years of actions by UvA staff and students against our university’s complicty in the genocide in Palestine. The occupation is a reminder that the Executive Board has done far too little, far too late. The conditions in Gaza are too dire to allow for any further delay. We urge the Executive Board to take responsibility now, and stand on the side of international law by complying with the students’ demand to cut all ties with Israeli institutions immediately.
On behalf of UvA Staff for Palestine: Jef Ausloos assistant professor at the Faculty of Law; Sruti Bala is associate professor at the Faculty of Humanities; Brian Droop is lecturer at the Faculty of Economics and Business and Marina Tulin is assistant professor at the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences.
Co-signatories:
Mikki Stelder, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Humanities
Martijn Dekker, Senior Lecturer, Political Science Department
Eleri Connick, Doctoral Candidate, Amsterdam School of Cultural Analysis (ASCA)
Martijn Lenten, Audiovisual Technician, Facility Services
Aslıhan Öztürk, Junior Lecturer, Sociology
Arjen Noordhof, Assistent Professor, Clinical Psychology
Sneha Gaddam, Lecturer, Faculty of Economics and Business Economics
Paul Raekstad, Associate Professor, Political Science
Andro Rilović, Lecturer, Faculty of Humanities
Gionata Bouché, PhD Candidate, Faculty of Law
Nawal Mustafa, Assistant Professor Faculty of Humanities
Jill Toh, PhD researcher, Faculty of Law
Camille Faber, Projectleader, Faculty of Science
Roos Metselaar, PhD Candidate, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences
Agustin Ferrari Braun, PhD Candidate, Faculty of Humanities
Indy Joosten, PhD Candidate, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences
Avery Franken, PhD Candidate, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences
Johanna Waldenberger, PhD Candidate, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences
Sam Hamer, Junior lecturer, sociology
Valentina Carraro, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences
Rébecca Franco, Postdoctoral Researcher, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences
Martijn Brehm, PhD Candidate, Faculty of Science
Jamil Fiorino-Habib - Lecturer, Media Studies Department
Harry Reddick - Junior Researcher, Heritage, Memory and Material Culture
Mona Hegazy, Lecturer, Faculty of Humanities
Jamila Ghaddar, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Humanities
Mathijs Janssen, Lecturer, Economics Department
Dragana Stojmenovska, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Social and Behavior Sciences
Eloe Kingma, ASCA
Ivo Bosilkov, Lecturer, Faculty of Social and Behavior Sciences
Ronald de Haan, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Science
Michael Thomas, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Humanities
Lars Klute, Lecturer Media Studies, PhD Candidate ASCA
Yolande Jansen, Associate Professor, Philosophy, ASCA
Marija Petrovska, PhD Candidate, European Studies
Mariam Hothout, Junior Lecturer, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences
Aqsa Farooq, Postdoctoral Researcher, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences
Brogan Latil, Junior Lecturer, Faculty of Humanities
Jakub Crcha, PhD Candidate, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences
Jacob Engelberg, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Humanities
Garazi Muguruza, PhD Candidate, Faculty of Science
Sérgio Andrade, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Humanities
Aleksandar Novakovic, PhD candidate, ASCA
Kaan Sert, Teaching Assistant and OC-member, Faculty of Science
Floor Langen, Junior Lecturer, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences
Luc Marraffa, PhD candidate, ASCA
Hao Nguyen, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences
Manuel Llano Martínez, Impact Specialist, University Library
Rena Hänel, PhD candidate, ARTES
Hans Feenstra, lecturer, Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences
Casper Kurpan, Junior Lecturer, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences
Chiara De Cesari, Professor, Faculty of Humanities
Frank de Morrée, PhD Candidate, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences
Sarah Bracke, Professor, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences
Yves Van Leynseele, Senior lecturer, Faculteit of Social and Behavioural Science
Roos Creyghton, Junior Lecturer, Faculty of Law
Erella Grassiani, Associate Professor, Faculty of social and behavioural sciences
Annet Dekker, associate professor, Faculty of Humanities
Jurre Groen, PhD Candidate, Faculty of Science
Charley Boerman, Lecturer, Faculty of Humanities
Hendrik de With, Lecturer, Faculty of Economics and Business
Sasha Al Busaidy, Junior Lecturer, Faculty of Economics and Business
Augusto Heras, PhD Candidate, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences
