To all current and former members of the University community: Teaching and research staff, students, administrative and service staff, as well as associated staff of institutes and research groups, departments, faculties and unions, from the collective #NotMyUniversityليست_جامعتي #, the Spanish Inter-University Network of Solidarity with Palestine, appalled by the information coming from Palestine, and Gaza in particular , we call on you to sign this manifesto denouncing the collective punishment that Israel is inflicting, with the complicit silence, if not acquiescence, of the international community, especially the European Union, on 2.3 million defenceless and innocent people. We call on the university community throughout Spain to join us in our firm rejection of the argument that the murders and kidnappings of civilians committed by Hamas - which we unequivocally condemn - can justify the blockade, the indiscriminate attacks and the invasion of Gaza, as well as the unpunished actions of the settlers who terrorise the population of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, actions that international humanitarian law considers to be flagrant war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The toll is already staggering: in one month, the number of displaced persons has exceeded one million and the death toll has risen to more than 10,000. Health, education and housing infrastructures throughout Gaza have been destroyed and more than 30,000 people have been injured. Among the institutions attacked and destroyed are the Islamic University of Gaza and Al-Aqsa University, partners of a dozen Spanish universities in teaching and research projects. Our colleagues in all the Palestinian universities with which we have international mobility agreements call on us to denounce these crimes and demand that our authorities put pressure on Israel to comply with international law.
We also call on the entire university community to reflect on the fact that the violation of the national and human rights of the Palestinian people as a whole, the violence and the unbearable daily life and lack of future for Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the refugee camps in Lebanon, Jordan and Syria, only fuel violence and extremism. Each new generation of children grows up deprived of basic necessities, including the right to education and a decent future, with lifelong physical and psychological consequences. We must prevent this situation from continuing to the point of extinction, and we therefore encourage the entire university community to take all possible measures to put pressure on institutions and governments.
The Palestinian people are victims of decades of suffering, of a systematic policy of expulsion, dispossession, apartheid and annihilation by Israel, the original cause of which is the denial of their existence for 75 years.
Given the scale of the ongoing genocide, we ask for your signature to demand that the authorities of Spanish universities make a public and explicit declaration of support for the Palestinian people, in accordance with the guiding principles of the university statutes and the long history of our universities taking a stance in defence of peace, justice and the dignity of all peoples, which are also the basis of our university life.
7 November 2023
#NotMyUniversityليست_جامعتتي#