Solidarity: The Student Intifada, Nov 14-27
Occupation in the UK, censorship in Belgium, protest art in Japan, and much more from The Student Intifada.
Welcome and welcome back.
Today, November 29th, is the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. Zionist propaganda maintains a focus on October 7th, 2023, as the defining day — the beginning — of its attacks on Palestine. That could not be further from the truth. Nothing started on October 7th.
The first International Day of Solidarity was in 1977, thirty years after the UN’s adoption of the resolution on the partition of Palestine. Already, Palestinians had faced decades of atrocities, including the Nakba in 1968. The posters below call for International Solidarity with the Palestinian People on today’s date in 1980 and in 1984. Nothing started on October 7th.
It is the 47th International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. Nothing started on October 7th.
What did we miss?
Canada
On Monday, November 11th, a coalition of McGill and Concordia student clubs raised over 11,000 CAD for Gaza through the Canadian Palestinian Foundation of Quebec. They aim to raise 30,000 CAD by the end of the academic year.
Anything else we’ve missed? Let us know!
Updates from the intifada, Nov 14-27
Japan
From Friday 22nd to Sunday 24th, students at the University of Tokyo organized Voices of Palestine, a participatory exhibition project that amplified the voices of Palestinians by sharing their novels, poems, speeches, and social media posts. They also had visitors who wrote down and pinned up their favorite works to “bring those voices closer to themselves”.
United States
On Sunday 17th, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Coalition Against Apartheid released a petition protesting MIT’s censorship of pro-Palestinian activism on campus. It calls attention to student activists being banned from campus and faculty being denied pay raises, as well as a professor being prohibited from teaching a course on Palestine.
On Wednesday 20th, the first of the pre-trial hearings for four students who participated in a Gaza solidarity encampment at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign was held. The students face up to three years of incarceration on felony “mob action” charges for their activism.
On Thursday 21st, an autonomous group of students at Sarah Lawrence College occupied their campus lawn, calling on the institution to disclose and divest. As of Wednesday 27th, the occupation is going strong.
That same Thursday, students at City University of New York Law School occupied the administrative floor of the law school's building as part of the International University Strike Against Genocide, War, and Imperialism, renaming it “Fatima's Floor” in honor of Fatima Bernawi, Palestinian political prisoner.
On the same day, students at New York University held a vigil honoring the martyrs, setting up candles and banners reading “Arms Embargo Now”, “Free Palestine”, and “Honor the Martyrs of Palestine”.
On Wednesday 27th, Occidental College SJP and Jewish Voices for Peace put out a statement “reject[ing] the weaponization of Jewish identity on behalf of the genocidal invasion of Occupied Palestine and Lebanon.” This was in response to the institution adopting the IHRA definition of antisemitism in response to a Title VI complaint filed by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and Brandeis Center.
Cyprus
On Monday 18th, students in Nicosia protested in the city center. The event served as a commemoration of the protests in Athens on 17th November 1973 against the military dictatorship in Greece, imperialism, and NATO’s influence; reflecting on these struggles for freedom and justice and tying them to the ongoing genocide in Palestine. 51 years on, student activism continues to challenge the state’s coercive apparatus and demand an end to these oppressive systems.
Canada
On Sunday 17th, students from McGill University held a Haudenosaunee Peace Ceremony. The Haudenosaunee people are the titleholders of the land on which the University stands. A white pine tree, which has “great significance among the Haudenosaunee Confederacy as the Tree of Peace”, was planted where the McGill student encampment once was. In an act of clear disrespect to the Kanien’kehà:ka women who planted the tree, the University uprooted it overnight.
On Thursday 21st and Friday 22nd, over 85,000 students from universities across Canada joined a nationwide strike protesting their universities’ and government’s complicity in israeli genocide.
On Wednesday 27th, students from Dalhousie University gathered on campus during the University’s board meeting about divestment. After the board voted down the divestment motion, students launched an occupation of the Henry Hicks building, renaming it Handala Hall.
Belgium
On Thursday 14th, students from the University of Liège blocked the entrance to the rectorate to denounce the University's links with israeli institutions. They had a meeting that afternoon with the rectorate and the mayor of Liège, Willy Demeyer. The students demanded three things: the non-renewal of the agreement with israel for the horizon project, the withdrawal of partnerships including israeli institutions, and support for the cause by displaying a Palestinian flag.
On Sunday 24th, students from the University of Ghent joined the Ghent Coalition for Palestine at a solidarity march to demand that their University be transparent about its collaborations, implement a total academic boycott, and play a role in suspending israeli participation in European research programs.
On Wednesday 27th, medical students from the University of Leuven (KUL) organized a conference featuring testimonies from Palestinian doctors and activists.
On the same day, Mohammed Khatib's planned appearance during Palestine Solidarity Week was banned by Annemie Schaus, the rector of the Université Libre de Bruxelles. Ironically, he was slated to speak at a conference on the pressure and mechanisms of censorship exerted on activists and organizations in solidarity with Palestine. Schauss however accepted the appearance of Elie Barnavi, former israeli ambassador.
Also on Wednesday 27th, students from the University of Antwerp organized a panel discussion to talk about the University's academic complicity.
United Kingdom
On Friday 15th, students at UCL disrupted an event with the foreign minister of the Czech Republic, Jan Lipavsky, who spoke about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Czech Republic maintains strong relationships with the zionist entity. The students were met with verbal and physical harassment by staff, and security and police officers were called.
On Sunday 17th, students at Edinburgh University occupied the Girdan Aikman lecture theatre, renaming it Kanafani Hall. EUJPS stated that “this reclamation is the latest of the many acts of solidarity with the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples”. Shortly after the occupation, the University stated that “they will cease to engage with the group”.
On Thursday 21st, students at Glasgow University occupied the balcony of their reading room calling for a rally to disrupt a University Court meeting after those involved refused to vote to divest, despite acknowledging that the majority of students and staff are in support of divestment from arms.
On Wednesday 14th, students at the University of Leicester occupied Attenborough Tower. Shortly afterwards, students were arrested and assaulted by police officers who were called by the University. The students continue to reiterate their demands for full divestment from weapon manufacturers and the protection of students' right to protest on campus.
On Wednesday 27th, students at the University of Cambridge launched an occupation on the University’s Senate House Lawn. This encampment comes after Cambridge students also occupied Greenwich House on Friday 22nd, and renamed it Kanafani House. The students have reiterated their demands and stated that they have “no option other than principled escalation” after the University has stalled on negotiations.
Australia
On Friday 15th, students from RMIT University held a film screening of “Two Kids a Day”, which describes the use of minors' arrests to control and repress Palestinian society. It was followed by a Q&A with producer Mohamad Babai. They raised over 5000 AUD for a refugee camp in the West Bank.
On Friday 22nd, many Australian student protesters arrested for protesting the Land Forces Convention back in September had their first court appearance. More than 110 protesters have been arrested over the last months. Some defendants had all charges dropped, others have been adjourned, expecting to face court early next year.
On Wednesday 27th, students from the University of Sydney released a statement condemning the University’s choice to “accept in principle the recommendations of the Hodgkinson External Review Report.” Commissioned by the Senate following the end of the student encampment in July, the report’s recommendations limit free speech and include ridiculous notions such as banning postering on campus.
Austria
On Wednesday 20th, World Children's Day, students from various universities in Vienna and Teachers4Palestine Austria came together at the Academy of Fine Arts to unfurl a list of the known names of children killed in the genocide in Gaza. Organizers stated: “What solidarity with children requires is not only words of mourning, but clarity of analysis and a direction for militant praxis.”
On Tuesday 26th, the Free Palestine Collective at the Central European University, Vienna hosted historian Nadim Bawalsa from the Institute for Palestine Studies for a student-led lecture and discussion on the historical foundations of Palestinian political consciousness. Earlier this month, Bawalsa announced his decision to withdraw from the Lecture series “israel/Palestine and Us” hosted by CEU following the call of the FPC to boycott the series due to its zionist framing and normalization.
Parting thoughts
Beginning on November 29th, the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, Publishers for Palestine are holding the second Read Palestine Week.
A coalition of independent presses, poets, writers, and translators will be conducting a 24-hour Global Reading for Freedom of Expression and Solidarity with Palestine and Lebanon. Readers and attendees will convene online, beginning with Palestinian poets in Palestine and following the sun. Participants will share poems in their preferred language beginning at 17:00 Palestinian time (EET) to call for global solidarity through poetry, language, and collective resistance. The program schedule and free resources are available on the Publishers for Palestine website.
In solidarity and resistance, The Student Intifada.
Written this week by comrades from India, the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, and Belgium.
You’ve got the wrong date for the action that was done at the University of Leicester (UK). It was on Friday 15th :)