The pro-Palestinian activists camping at the University of Barcelona (UB) in its historic building, have given an assurance this Friday that they have no intention of interfering in Sunday's voting. The central Barcelona building in Plaça de la Universitat is to be used as a polling station for the elections to the Parliament of Catalonia being held this Sunday, May 12th.
The Electoral Commission has delivered warnings to both the Mossos d'Esquadra police force and the rector of the UB, Joan Guàrdia, that they have the responsibility to ensure that there is no electoral propaganda or coercion to vote in the building and its surroundings during election day on Sunday. This warning arises from the fact that since the beginning of this week students and others have maintained a protest camp in support of Palestine and against the war in Gaza.
Specifically, the electoral body advises that the Catalan police force and the UB are responsible for ensuring that Article 93 of the electoral law is strictly complied with, an article which establishes that neither in the electoral premises nor in their surroundings can election propaganda activities of any kind be carried out. "Nor are they permitted to form groups capable of obstructing, in any way, access to the premises, nor is the presence permitted in the vicinity of anyone who may hinder or coerce the free exercising of the right to vote", it adds. Finally, it gives the authority to the president of the polling station to take "all the measures they deem appropriate".
The protests camp members had previously held a press conference at which they insisted that they do not want to interfere in Sunday's elections, but warned that they will not end the protest in support of Palestine until the agreements reached in Wednesday's UB faculty meeting take effect.
The pro-Palestine campers' demands
In a statement, the students have demanded tangible actions and a written commitment from the rectorship and called for an extraordinary session of the university's governing council to ratify the text calling for severance of relations with Israeli universities, research institutes and companies. Then, in a press conference, they announced that, with youth organizations and unions, they plan to call a student strike next week. The camp has received the support of a hundred organizations from civil society.
The students also referred to Thursday's decision by the Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities (CRUE) to suspend collaboration agreements with Israeli universities that do not show a firm commitment to peace and international humanitarian law: "We consider the position of the CRUE a triumph of mobilization and occupations throughout the Spanish state", they stated. However, they warned that it is not enough to take "a position that maintains an equidistant discourse and from which facts that contribute to stopping complicity will hardly be derived."
Spanish university rectors: "We endorse the feeling of our campuses"
In its statement made on Thursday, the body of Spanish university rectors had expressed its "deep regret for the extremely grave events that are currently taking place in the Gaza Strip". The CRUE said that its members "endorse the feelings of our campuses and the call that is extending outward from them for measures to be taken by different bodies to stop the escalation of violence that is occurring."
The statement demanded an "immediate and definitive cessation of military operations by the Israeli army, as well as any action of a terrorist nature, and the release of people kidnapped by Hamas", as well as "that the State of Israel respect international law and allow the entry into Gaza of all humanitarian aid". It affirmed the Spanish rectors' commitment to "review and, where appropriate, suspend collaboration agreements with Israeli universities and research centers that have not expressed a firm commitment to peace and compliance with international humanitarian law; intensify cooperation with the Palestinian scientific and higher education system and expand cooperation, volunteering and care programmes for the refugee population; and to ensure that in the exercise of free expression, equally reprehensible conduct of anti-Semitism or Islamophobia does not occur, as well as any other hateful behaviour within the university communities."