Hundreds of UvA employees dissatisfied with UvA's stance on Gaza
A letter to the Executive Board regarding the UvA’s response to the crisis in the Gaza Strip has been signed by more than 700 doctoral students, students, and staff. The signatories call the university's response “discouraging” and want the UvA to more strongly condemn Israeli actions against the Palestinians.
The year 2023 will go down in the books as one in which Palestinians resisted colonialism and occupation, hundreds of doctoral students, students, and staff write in an open letter to the Board of Trustees. “And 2023 will also be remembered for the way the University of Amsterdam exhibited bias and complicity in the extermination of Palestinians.”
The letter writers call on the UvA to “urgently take a stand” on the issue and be at the forefront of “condemning what will come to be known as the second Nakba of the Palestinians.” The signatories also want the university to support the boycott of Israel.
“We find alarming the deafening silence of those who refer to themselves as decolonial theorists, those who make money and make a living by researching (and profiting from) marginalized and exploited people,” the letter goes on to say.
According to the letter writers, the UvA is one of the few educational institutions in Europe with a specific master's program on Holocaust and Genocide Studies. “We question the justification for organizing such a program when the UvA is complicit in the unfolding genocide of the Palestinians by remaining silent.”
The UvA could take a leadership role by designing a module focused on studying Palestine and the Palestinian struggle, the signatories said, or by setting up “educational talks” in the coming weeks. “We also hope the university will work with us to find an evening to hold a vigil to remember and mourn the many innocent lives lost this past week, as well as the 75 years of the Palestinian struggle.”
The letter writers invite students, staff, and alumni to “join us in our condemnation” by signing the letter. The letter writers also hope that petitions will be started “to show that the academic community condemns the current course of events.”
The UvA has not yet responded to the letter but plans to do so.
