The extraordinary faculty meeting of the University of Barcelona (UB) held this Wednesday has approved a motion calling for "the severance of institutional and academic relations" with Israeli institutions in solidarity with Palestine. The motion, promoted by the Universities with Palestine and Palestine UB groups, was passed with 59 votes in favour, 23 against and 37 abstentions, and demands that the governing bodies of the university break relations with universities, research centres and other Israeli institutions "as a pressure mechanism on the state of Israel until the genocide ends and the Israeli apartheid system is eradicated and the colonization of Palestine ends." The motion also demands that the university avoid contributing to the "perpetuation of the Israeli occupation of Palestine" and calls for the Spanish and Catalan governments to break relations with Israel, starting by putting a halt on the arms trade. This motion was already passed at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) in January, and will be taken to the rest of Catalan universities.
The rector of the UB, Joan Guàrdia, noted that it is not the first university faculty to approve a document of this nature and that the current situation in Gaza cannot be treated with indifference by the university: "As an institution that uses science as a mechanism to face reality, we cannot be indifferent". "From the first moment we have been acting with colleagues from the educational community who have been mistreated. We will maintain our commitment to attend to the educational community that is afflicted by this unbearable barbarity," he added.
During the faculty meeting, the representative of the group that presented the motion, Adriana Nadal, recalled the UB's principles of respecting freedom of thought and the defence of human rights and believes that it must "also demand respect for Palestine" with actions that are necessary. "It is time for the UB to be faithful to its principles and put an end to complicit silence in the face of the Palestinian genocide at the hands of Israel," she said. Some of the faculty members rejected the motion considering that the university "does not have the right" to take a position on this conflict, alluding to Spain's university system law (LOSU), and considering that it would be a mistake for the UB to adopt this document as it includes words like 'genocide' or 'apartheid'.
Rally to denounce the offensive against Rafah
In a statement made after the meeting, the dozens of students who have been camping at the UB in its central Barcelona campus in solidarity with Palestine - the promoters of the initiative - celebrated the passing of the motion, but they added that they hope it will not "remain an empty statement", and they assert that they will ensure that the governing council of the UB complies with the points. On the other hand, they called an "emergency meeting" this Wednesday evening to denounce Israel's offensive on the city of Rafah.
The students and professors who began their encampment protest on Monday night at the University of Barcelona to denounce "the genocide of the Palestinian people" said on Tuesday that they had no plans to leave soon. A spokesperson, Pablo Castilla, stated that they intended to continue there this week and also to remain there on Sunday May 12th, the day of the Catalan parliamentary election, a decision that could be controversial as the building is a polling station that day. The pro-Palestinian activists asserted that their protest "does not interfere with the campaign", and asked the UB rector Joan Guàrdia, to "oppose any attempt to evict" the protest on the grounds of the election.