Start of week update, June 16-22
News from Indonesia and Canada, a new occupation in Japan, decampments in the UK and Australia, and more updates from around the world
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Japan
On Thursday 20th June, a new Palestine Solidarity Camp was established at the Hongō campus of University of Toyko. This is the first encampment at this location, established roughly two months after the first UTokyo camp was set up on April 28th.
Austria
On Friday 21st, during their graduation ceremony, Central European University students used their time on stage to call out the university’s complicity in genocide. A CEU student spoke for the group, in a speech written cross-departmentally:
I wonder where CEU leadership has left the values it proclaims to represent [...]. I have found only denial, silence and complicity in those bank halls of Quellenstraße 51. But history will remember. The colonised people of the world will remember. We will remember. And we will not forgive. (link)
Canada
On Wednesday 19th, students, faculty members, alumni, and community members gathered at Toronto Metropolitan University to honour and remember Gaza’s Class of 2024.
On Friday 21st, the University of Waterloo posted a Notice of Trespass against the Gaza House encampment. This came only 3 days after students prevented the university from continuing with a board of governors meeting through an occupation. Students stated:
As it touts the most comprehensive and permissive free speech environment in Canada, UW shows its true face by ordering students to leave Gaza House [...] We will not give way to admin complicity, hypocrisy and outright lies. (link)
Also on Friday, an autonomous group of students at the University of Toronto dropped a ‘DISCLOSE, DIVEST’ Palestinian flag banner over the tower of University College. (link)
On Saturday 22nd, the People’s Plaza for Palestine encampment at the University of Guelph blocked traffic at a major intersection on campus for a symbolic 50 minutes:
Each minute represent[s] one million of the approximately $50M the university has invested in the genocide of Palestinians. (link)
France
On Thursday 20th, students in Marseille mobilised against the repression of pro-Palestinian student actions. This follows a defamation complaint being filed by Aix-Marseille University against one of its own students, for handing out flyers highlighting AMU’s financial and educational ties to Israel. (link)
A high schoolers’ autonomous collective from the Île-de-France region held a solidarity music night for Gaza on Friday 21st. This marked the occasion of Fête de la Musique, a week after 50 students were detained for their occupation of a high school in Paris. Organisers stated:
La politique c’est la révolte mais c’est aussi et avant tout de la rencontre, de la solidarité et de la fête. // Politics is a rebellion, but above all it is about people coming together, about solidarity and celebration. (link, link)
Australia
On Sunday 17th, after cease and desist letters and the suspension of two students, the Gaza Solidarity Encampment at the University of Sydney disassembled. Students for Palestine Sydney stated:
We will not be pausing for a second in the struggle to stop this genocide and free Palestine. (link)
Germany
On Friday 21st, students of the Free University Berlin established a registered encampment at the Henry-Ford Building, in solidarity with the people in Gaza. The encampment has produced a list of ten demands of their university, stating:
We stand for a free Palestine in which all people, regardless of religion, ethnicity, and origin, can live freely and self-determined. (link)
This week RWTH Aachen University sued the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, claiming the Aachen police are too lenient with protesting students. The police responded with a 17-page letter that explains students' rights to assembly and freedom of expression. (link)
Indonesia
On Friday 21st, in East Java, students from Brawijaya University, State University of Malang, and Muhammadiyah Malang University marched with other community organisations for Palestinian liberation. (link, link)
Belgium
On Saturday 22nd, the occupation at the University of Liège ended after 48 days. The students’ demands to investigate partnerships between the institution and Israeli universities, and BDS companies, was accepted. The first outcomes were the end of partnerships with two Belgian arms manufacturers. (link)
Ireland
On Saturday 22nd, a rally was held at University College Cork after the University claimed that they have no financial ties to Israeli companies, which the UCC BDS movement has disproved. (link)
Netherlands
On Friday 21st, students and staff occupied two classrooms and a hallway at University of Amsterdam Roeterseiland. Those involved in the action stated that their intentions were directly linked to the Palestinian student movement, and the actions of Dutch university rectors:
The rectors of all Dutch universities announced in a newspaper article on June 12 that they have no intention of revising or correcting their complicity [...] For us, this is further confirmation that taking action for our demands remains necessary. (link)
Also on Friday, a student protest was held in front of the Utrecht School of the Arts. Speakers included students who were assaulted by police in recent weeks. HKU’s administration has set a meeting with students on Monday in response. (link, link)
United Kingdom
On Friday 21st, SOAS University of London students held two protests, outside the Egyptian Embassy and on the university campus. SOAS students rallied to show their resistance against the repression of student activism on campus. (link)
On Saturday 22nd, King’s College London students disrupted their university’s open day, a key event for attracting students to apply to their university, after one of their negotiators was banned from the campus. (link)
As UK university students leave for the summer, several encampments are closing down or changing the way they operate. As summarised in the University of Durham student statement:
We must stress that our fight is far from over [...] The encampment ending is merely the ending a single phase of a broader movement, and the new phase begins now. (link, link)
Also Saturday, the direct action group Palestine Action in coordination with an autonomous group of Cambridge University students spray painted Senate House ahead of a graduation. The building is a key symbol of the university, and now symbolises its role in the genocide.
If there are actions or encampments you think we should be covering, let us know.