29th of November 2023

We, as students and staff at Radboud (RU), feel outraged, saddened, and socially unsafe as a result of our university’s silence and lack of action in the face of the ongoing genocide in Gaza by Israel. Therefore, today, in solidarity with Palestine and in collaboration with Dutch Scholars for Palestine from all around the Netherlands, we walk out for Palestine and ask our university to hear and fulfill our following demands:

1. Take a moral stance: We ask that RU releases a statement condemning the genocide unfolding on the Palestinians in Gaza by the Israeli state. We demand that RU condemn Israel’s ongoing violence, occupation, and apartheid regime for the last 75 years. We also urge the university to denounce the complicity of both the European Union (EU) and the Netherlands in the ongoing war crimes.

2. Disclose and cut all ties and collaborations: we ask that RU endorse boycotts on Israel (as per the guidelines of the movement for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction) and disclose and sever all ties with companies and institutions complicit in this genocide, apartheid, and occupation. For example, HP is RU’s  main provider for laptops and other hardware for staff and students, while HP plays a key role in Israel’s racial segregation and apartheid. We also demand RU to freeze all collaborations with Israeli Universities, as they are all actively participating in maintaining Israel’s policies of apartheid, settler-colonialism, and occupation. Israeli Universities are also involved in the development of military doctrines and weaponry used in Israel’s current war crimes in Gaza. In this regard, we expect RU to deal with Israeli Universities in a similar way to how it dealt with Russian and Belarusian Universities in 2022.

3. Build direct solidarity with Palestinian students and universities: we demand that RU perform its social responsibility to safeguard academics at risk. Universities have a responsibility to provide structural support; therefore, we ask RU to offer scholarships for Palestinian students and to open an emergency fund to initiate programs, events, and courses that do epistemic justice to the Palestinians. We also urge RU to proactively engage with current Palestinian students and staff to work out how it can create a socially safe environment for them.

4. Encourage academic freedom and end academic censorship: We demand that the university protects the right to openly teach about the Zionist Israeli Settler Colonialism and the illegal military occupation to be able to critically discuss the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestinians without intimidation or academic suppression. We demand that the university provides classrooms, material support, and encouragement to students and staff who want to spread awareness and knowledge on this topic. We believe the university’s silence as this genocide unfolds has created a socially unsafe atmosphere that implicitly intimidates and suppresses our academic freedom.

Finally, today, we are nearing the end of the second month since this genocide began (53 days). Within these days, Israel’s inhumane and criminal bombing of civilians and infrastructure has killed 15,000 Palestinians, including 4,000 women and 6,150 children, and led to the forced displacement of 1.7 million Palestinians amidst the siege imposed by Israel causing the lack of humanitarian aid. We, students and staff, ask RU to hear and fulfill our demands and not to stay silent as these crimes against humanity unfold right in front of us.

*Update (19/01/2024) – After (105) days into the recent genocidal military campaign on Gaza, Israel has killed over 24,448 people, including 10,000 children, and with over 7000 missing under the rubble. They also displaced over 1.9 million Gazans, with 70% of homes destroyed or damaged, while 80% of Gaza’s population face famine due to Israel’s siege. Additionally, Israel has destroyed all of Gaza’s seven universities, and 70% of its schools. 

*Update (29/01/2024) - On January 26th, the International Court of Justice ruled by overwhelming majority that there is a plausible case that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, and that it must take emergency measures now to prevent it. This came after South Africa laid out a wealth of evidence showing how Israeli actions since October 7th intend to bring about ‘the destruction of the population’ of Gaza. This adds urgency to the demands made in this petition. It is a duty of third-state institutions that uphold principles of international law to prevent complicity in acts of genocide. This includes ties with Israeli universities and complicit corporations that are aiding and abetting the Israeli government and military and are profiting from Israel’s illegal siege on Gaza and illegal occupation of Palestinian Territories, and are thus complicit in the current genocide. 

*Update (29/01/2024) - Please check this list of Q&A for further information about the demands.