5/15/2024–|Last updated: 5/15/202406:11 PM (Mecca time)
The student movement rejecting the war on Gaza continues around the world, as a new sit-in began at Kyoto University in Japan, and Cambridge University students expanded the scope of their sit-in camp, while the Swiss University of Bern called in police forces to break up the student sit-in.
Protesters at Kyoto University demanded an end to any kind of cooperation with Israel, especially joint military research.
The students set up sit-in camps at the university and submitted a memorandum to its administration urging university president Nagahiro Minato to publicly condemn violence against Palestinian civilians.
The students also urged the university administration to cancel a memorandum of understanding with Tel Aviv University under which joint military research would be conducted. They also demanded that support be provided to Palestinian students.
Anatolia Agency quoted a doctoral student at the university, Masashi Kawano, as saying that the university administration employs security guards to monitor students’ movements, and there are repeated campaigns of repression, according to what he put it.
But he added that the situation so far “is not as aggressive as in the United States or Europe,” referring to calling in police forces to end student demonstrations in support of the Palestinian people.
Swiss police intervene
On the other hand, the Swiss police moved – at dawn on Wednesday – to break up the sit-in of students who rejected the war at the University of Bern, according to what the university administration announced.
University President Christian Lohmann said in a statement published today that he is ready to continue the dialogue with the students, but he described the students’ sit-in as an occupation and said that their “politically motivated” demands do not provide a framework for constructive dialogue.
About 30 students were protesting at the university when the police intervened to expel them around 5 am local time (3 GMT), and they left chanting slogans in support of the Palestinian people, according to the Keystone ATS news agency.
This came after the Swiss police intervened – yesterday, Tuesday – to break up a similar sit-in at the University of Geneva, at the request of the university administration.
The University of Geneva had conducted a dialogue with the demonstrators, but later hardened its tone after the failure of the negotiations, announcing the filing of a criminal complaint against the pro-Palestinian students.
The student movement in Switzerland began at the University of Lausanne and quickly spread to other universities across the country, including Fribourg, Basel and Bern, as well as the two ancient polytechnic institutes in Lausanne and Zurich.
Escalation in Britain
In Britain, Cambridge University students expanded the scope of their sit-in camp in solidarity with Palestine after the expiration of a deadline they granted to the university administration in order to meet their demands.
The camp expanded to include one of the ancient buildings that hosts student graduation ceremonies at the university.
This escalation comes just two days before the graduation ceremonies and more than a week after they set up their tents on the university’s King’s College campus. It also comes after the university administration refused to open a direct dialogue channel with them despite its acknowledgment of receiving their list of demands.
Tel Aviv Tribune’s correspondent reported that members of the teaching staff at Cambridge University delivered a letter to the university administration supporting the demands of the protesting students.
The professors said they fully support demands to divest the university from companies they say are complicit in Israeli war crimes.
The student protesters in Europe are calling for an end to the Israeli war on Gaza and for an academic boycott of institutions that support Israel, raising the same slogans raised by students at American universities from which the spark of protests began on April 18.
New movements in America
The movement is still continuing in American universities, as students from Kony University in New York City took control of a library in one of the university’s buildings, and called it “Al-Aqsa University Library,” following the example of the oldest public university in Gaza, according to a statement.
The protesting students indicated that the move comes to highlight the university’s involvement, through its relations with Israeli universities, in targeting professors and destroying universities in Gaza.
The students added that the university refuses to negotiate with them regarding withdrawing its investments and boycotting weapons, surveillance and technology companies linked to Israeli universities.
On the other hand, Harvard University reached an agreement with student protesters to end their pro-Palestinian sit-in.
The decision to disperse the camp came peacefully after negotiations between the interim university president and representatives of the sit-in, where the university administration agreed to immediately begin returning at least 22 students suspended from studying and to begin negotiations regarding cooperation between Harvard University and Israel.
