Strike Back: The Student Intifada, Dec 12-18
Union action in the Netherlands, BDS win in the US, disruptions in the UK and much more from The Student Intifada.
Welcome and welcome back.
From Monday 9th to Thursday 12th, staff and students at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) went on strike. Back in May, UvA staff members of the Netherlands Trade Union Confederation (FNV) voted to enter into negotiations with the Board of Directors over the university’s ties with israeli institutions and the ability of university staff and students to protest on campus. This would involve an independent review into the university’s partnerships, and the suspension of links with israeli organizations until the review is finished.
The UvA administration refused to negotiate.
Student protesters in Amsterdam have faced massive crackdowns on their right to protest at both a University and police level – a video of a UvA protestor jumping into a canal to avoid being caught by police was one of the memorable early scenes from months of student, staff, and community activism in the city.
UvA did not change its stance on israeli partnerships. At the end of November, FNV staff members voted 84% in favor of striking.
Many UvA students supported their comrades by striking alongside them, refusing to attend lectures or respond to emails. Hundreds attended sit-ins and pickets throughout the week. Teach-ins, speeches, music, readings, and marches were organized to educate other staff and students about the university’s complicity in genocide and attempts to prevent peaceful protest.
Jowayriah Safadi, president of the Health Services Union in the West Bank, wrote on behalf of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions to the 300+ UvA staff members on strike. Members of the Palestinian Unions “look with great appreciation and praise to your active and distinguished participation” in the strike, and the “great solidarity” of Amsterdam students and staff with the Palestinian people over the last year.
This was an escalation. It was the first mass strike for Palestine in the Netherlands – it is unlikely to be the last. It is also far from the last escalation that the staff at UvA will use to bring their administration to the table. In a speech written by the UvA United Front for Palestine given on the last day of the strike, speakers made it clear that without their demands being met, staff and students will not stop acting for Palestine:
We are chipping at the walls of a colonial institution, and as we said before, brick by brick, wall by wall, the occupation has to fall. Take that as literally as you can. We need to do more, more, and more. Continue mobilizing, continue organizing, and continue disrupting.
Updates from the intifada, Dec 12-18
United States
On Thursday 12th, two UChicago students were arrested by campus police and CPD for involvement in pro-Palestinian campus protests on October 11th. On Monday 16th, UChicago United released a statement demanding that charges be dropped against the students, referring to the University’s actions as part of a “deliberate premeditated targeting of a Black student in a university building”.
Also on Thursday 12th, San Francisco State University voted in favor of divestment from Caterpillar, Lockheed Martin, Leonardo, and Palantir in a resolution that bans future investments in any company that violates International law.
On Wednesday 18th, students and faculty at New York University (NYU) picketed outside Garibaldi Square. The picket, titled "We Are All PNG," demanded that NYU drop charges against two faculty members arrested by the New York Police Department (NYPD) at NYU's request; drop the "Persona Non Grata" (PNG) status it assigned to four faculty members and dozens of students for their participation in nonviolent pro-Palestine activism; and negotiate with students in good faith over their demands for disclosure of investments, divestment from israel, and closure of NYU-Tel Aviv.
Help us cover more countries and actions for Palestine!
Canada
December 16th, students at the University of Toronto disrupted a UofT donor event to celebrate for the Defy Gravity campaign. The campaign included fundraising for research partnerships with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI), Technion and Tel-Aviv University - three academic institutions deeply complicit in Israeli apartheid and genocide.
We will continue to target their money until it is financially untenable for them to continue to be complicit in genocide and apartheid. - UofT Occupy for Palestine
Belgium
On Tuesday 17th, several Belgian universities, including UAntwerp, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL), UHasselt, UGhent and the Vrije Universiteit Brussels (VUB), collectively published an open letter addressed to the Flemish Interuniversity Council (VLIR) and Wallon Council of Rectors (CRef) demanding an academic boycott of israeli institutions, and adherence to international law. The letter has garnered the signatures of more than 700 students and academics across all Belgian universities.
That same day, activists from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL) organized an art walk in Louvain to explore Palestinian culture and resistance. At each stop of the walk, activists engaged with Palestinian visual arts, spoken word and poetry performances.
United Kingdom
On Friday 13th, students at University of Sussex disrupted a conference titled “Displacement, Forced Migration and Reparation: Comparisons and Controversies” that was to be co-hosted with Hebrew University, an israeli institution built on occupied Palestinian land in East Jerusalem. On the day of the conference, students successfully occupied the conference venue. The University was then forced to move the conference off campus.
On Saturday 14th, a demonstration was held outside HM Prison Bronzefield, where 11 Palestine Action members are being held as political prisoners. In August, the Palestine action members had disrupted israel’s weapons production at Elbit’s systems. In attendance on Saturday, were the prisoners’ family members, pro-Palestine rap artists and students from SOAS and King’s College. The demonstration was organized by Palestine Action in response to the British state’s mobilization of the police and misapplication of counter-terrorism laws to repress pro-Palestinian activism.
Also on Saturday 14th, four activists from the University of Newcastle were arrested for protesting outside Rafael factory, an israeli weapons factory, in Newcastle. They were released from police custody later that evening.
Our comrades who we look up to, were taken by state puppets for merely protesting outside an israeli arms factory in the Toon. Sooner or later, they’ll realise that they don’t break our movement when they arrest our loved ones, instead they strengthen our movement. The system is not broken. It is working how it is supposed to. — Newcastle Apartheid Off Campus.
On Sunday 15th, students from the University of Newcastle wrote an open letter demanding the removal of a Ministry of Defence (MoD) sponsored module (H4MoD) which required students to offer solutions to current MoD problems, which could increase the Ministry’s capacity for violence and set a precedent for military presence in higher education. MoD has a history of colonial violence in Kenya and Iraq, and is has funded the genocide in Gaza and the israeli invasion of Lebanon.
On Monday 16th, student-activists from SOAS travelled to Liverpool for a meeting with Liverpool University’s student-activists, trade unionists and members of the city’s Palestine solidarity movement. SOAS student-activists have described this meeting as building momentum for their International student conference, set for April 2025, which will be ‘bringing in student activists from global campaigns to share their experiences and strategize in London’.
France
On Thursday 12th, Paris 8 organized screenings of Area C directed by Salah Abu Nimah, and Gray, Black & Blue directed by Karam Abi Ali, as part of an International Action Day in solidarity with Khalida Jarrar which called for the end of Jarrar’s solitary confinement and the release of all Palestinian prisoners. Jarrar is a feminist activist, academic, and researcher at Birzeit University who was arrested on 26 December 2023 from her home in Ramallah and has been held in solitary confinement in Neve Tirza prison for four months. The conditions of her ongoing confinement have been described as ‘being held in a grave’.
That same day, the EHESS-Condorcet Palestine Committee set up an information table with texts by Khalida Jarrar and a letter-writing workshop.
Netherlands
On Thursday 12th, a National Walk Out was organized by student groups in Nijmegen, Wageningen, The Hague, Leiden, Rotterdam, and Enschede in solidarity with UvA union protests and to demand the universities’ Board of Directors to cut ties with israel. The Walk Out was organized partially in response to a recent Amnesty International report which concluded that israel is committing genocide, and last week’s report from Tilburg University’s Ethics Commission which advised the University to cut ties with complicit israeli universities.
On Monday 16th, six staff and students from Radboud University were held overnight in jail on wrongful accusations of suspected property damage. Riding a public bus, they were singled out for arrest for wearing keffiyehs. The Nijmegen Student Encampment has condemned this as an act of racist profiling and organized a noise-demonstration that was held outside the police station the following day. Radboud Staff for Palestine has published an open letter demanding a transparent investigation of the wrongful profiling, a public apology, reparations, and safeguards for the right to free speech and assembly. It has gathered over 650 signatures so far.
On Tuesday 17th, students in Enschede organized a demonstration at the Zwolle bus station against using buses by EBS, a daughter company of israeli company Egged. Egged buses drive settlers between occupied Jerusalem and illegal settlements in the West Bank, and prohibit Palestinians from boarding.
Turkey
On Tuesday 17th, students and academics issued statements to news outlets about protesting the participation of the CEO of the Azerbaijani company SOCAR, at the TRT World Forum on 29th November. They criticized the Azerbaijani companies' role in supplying oil for israel, and Turkey’s complicity in transporting this fuel via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline — despite a proclaimed embargo. They also criticized their brutal detainment and arrest by police, highlighting mistreatment in police custody which has made clear the systematic targeting and attempted silencing of vocal pro-Palestine protestors by Turkish authorities. Protestors reaffirmed their dedication to the Palestinian cause and said that the state’s disciplinary measures would not deter them from further action.
Anything we’ve missed? Let us know!
Parting thoughts
On December 10th, Rebhi Shalabi (age 19) was riding his motorcycle in the city of Jenin in the West Bank. His cousin (age 15) was on the back of the bike. CCTV footage shows a Palestinian Authority “security vehicle” sitting at a crossroads Rebhi wanted to pass through; he stopped meters away from it. After a few seconds, Rebhi raised his hand, startled by something from inside the vehicle. Two shots were fired. Rebhi was martyred, and his cousin was severely injured.
In the last ten days, the Palestinian Authority has been conducting raids in Jenin Camp. On December 14th, the head of the UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, tweeted that “for far too long, residents of Jenin and Jenin Camp have been subject to a cycle of violence & destruction, rendering the camp nearly uninhabitable” and that UNRWA were forced to suspend their services to the camp because of ongoing clashes with security forces.
The escalating clashes in the West Bank have brought the PA into focus again and introduced newer comrades to the history of the post-Oslo governance of Palestine. We recommend reading this Al Jazeera article on why the PA is raiding Jenin Camp, and their explainer on the PA and its history.
In solidarity and resistance, The Student Intifada.
Written this week by comrades from India, the UK, the US, Belgium, and the Netherlands. The next newsletter will come out the first full week of January.
Thank you for your work in reporting the global solidarity movement, it's an incredibly valuable resource, especially in the face of media smear campaigns and lies.
The Queen's University Belfast Palestine Assembly has been facing one of these campaigns following a demonstration held on the 14th of November against the presence of zionists like Hillary Clinton on campus.
On the 12th of December, 3 QUBPA members, myself included, began our court proceedings for false charges gotten during unlawful arrests on the 14th. Alongside that, a FOIA Request has revealed that the claimed injuries reported by the PSNI and uncritically stated in the media are things like 'headaches' and 'whiplash'.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DDui0PNI978/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
There is an ongoing "US Consumer Strike for Palestine" now through Jan 1, 2025. No Shopping while bombs are dropping. No holiday joy in genocide. For a permanent ceasefire, immediate arms embargo on IZrl. See website https://consumerstrike4palestine.org/