The University of Amsterdam (UvA) has been the scene of pro-Palestinian demonstrations for days. Peter-Paul Verbeek, rector magnificus at the UvA, responds News hour on the events at his university. He says he is constantly talking to protesters, but some of them appear not to know who they are because they are wearing face coverings.
“That is really a handicap in the conversation,” the rector acknowledges. Yet he continues to talk to this group. “It’s also very important that you try to de-escalate.”
Verbeek says that the students he thinks he will be sitting with are involved in action groups. He also talks to a number of UvA lecturers, he says. The rector finds it complicated that not everyone shows their face. “It is difficult for you to understand each other and it is just very important that you know who you are talking to.”
Declaration
Yesterday, the Binnengasthuis site in the city center was cleared by the police after the UvA filed a report. Protesters attacked the police by emptying fire extinguishers and throwing objects. riot police hit demonstrators.
Verbeek says he filed a report because the situation became too unsafe. “Stones were removed from the street, people came with torches who tried to disrupt the demonstration, the barricades made it impossible for emergency services to get there. We couldn’t let that continue.”
Carlos van Eck, who says he is negotiating with the UvA board on behalf of the students, says that the police were deployed while they were still in discussions. “That is of course very bad.” Rector Verbeek calls this patently untrue. “I was there when the report was filed and that happened after the last conversation.”
Letter to teachers
Teachers also participated in the occupation. Today they hit out at the university board in an open letter. The letter states: ‘The board has shown bad faith during negotiations with students and employees. We are shocked by the absolute disregard, disrespect and general indifference shown by the board towards its students and staff.”
“It is very sad to read this,” says Verbeek. “We obviously do not want to ban demonstrations at all. That is part of it and is allowed if you do not intimidate, do not use violence, do not occupy, etc..”
Verbeek says he no longer wants to talk to people who have participated in vandalism. “You only end the conversation in extreme circumstances. But you no longer want to have a conversation with people who have caused such enormous destruction. That shows that you cannot talk to each other in a reasonable manner. But then it is of course important to know who you are sitting with.”
‘Requirements not negotiable’
Verbeek calls the demands that the demonstrators have put on the table, including severing ties with companies and organizations that support Israel, “almost non-negotiable.” It is public information which Israeli universities the UvA collaborates with, he says. “We have neatly listed that. But we do not want to cut ties. We are an institution where you want to agree with each other on the basis of scientific dialogue, or you can disagree in a peaceful manner.”
The UvA does have an ethical framework that determines the boundaries of collaborations, Verbeek explains. “Because you don’t want to do everything. We don’t want to contribute to military projects, we want to work on a sustainable world. What we have agreed with the people is that we would like to see with them to what extent we can formulate our framework in such a way that it is clearly how it can help us in this situation. Not a new framework, but working out what our framework can mean in concrete terms.”
