Student Protests Adequate?
By Roshni Ravi | News | February 5, 2025
Cover Illustration: Student protesters gather at Roeterseiland campus, May 7 2024. Livia Wendland / The Amsterdammer
Reporter Roshni Ravi covers UvA students’ and staff’s opinions on protests for divestment from Israeli institutions and the university’s response.
At 11:00 A.M. on Tuesday, October 8 2024, students and staff of the University of Amsterdam (UvA) walked out of their classes at the Roeterseiland campus. They gathered on the bridge to commemorate the grim one-year anniversary of Hamas’ October 7 attacks and Israel’s subsequent violence in Gaza. Protestors rallied for the Palestinian cause, demanding that the university sever its ties with Israeli organizations. Students and staff at the UvA share their thoughts on the university’s response to this cause and its demands.
Police Involvement
One of the university’s responses to the student movement was to call in the police to disband encampments and protests. The Amsterdammer covered the excessive force used by police on students in May.
A 24-year-old UvA political science master’s student, who is also a member of the Radical Organisation of Students in Amsterdam (ROSA), expressed shock at the hostility the protestors faced: “I expected to be denied our demands […], but I didn’t expect so much disrespect and so much disregard for their students [from the university]. You genuinely feel like your safety at the most fundamental level is threatened by the people who are supposed to protect you.”
One of her colleagues corroborates these feelings: “There are people who will have scars forever. They traumatized part of a generation.”
Staff members have also expressed their profound disappointment with the UvA’s decision to involve the police. Dr. Gijsbert van Iterson Scholten, a lecturer in the Political Science department of UvA, refers to the university calling the police on protestors as “the stupidest thing one could have done.” As an expert in the field of peace-making, he believes the university should have engaged in dialogue with the protesters rather than resorting to violence. “We have students who practice international solidarity and want to change the world. If we give up on that, we’re doomed for sure,” Dr. van Iterson Scholten continues.
The Issue of Safety
The UvA justified calling the police by citing concerns over safety and public order. However, students insist their demonstrations were peaceful. “We were being treated like something we were not,” says a member of ROSA.
Dr. Noa Roei is a Jewish-Israeli assistant professor in the Literary and Cultural Analysis department and also a member of Gate 48, a platform for Israelis in the Netherlands, calling for an end to the occupation of Palestinian territories. Dr. Roei criticized how the university has used the rhetoric of safety to discredit the protesters.
“Let me start by saying I don’t feel unsafe,” she says. “I do know there are people who feel truly unsafe […]. But their feeling is weaponized for making other people feel unsafe and unheard.”
Dr. Roei also emphasizes the importance of considering all students’ feelings. “Nobody’s asking about how Palestinians and Lebanese students are feeling these days. We need to take all of our students’ feelings into consideration and deal with that. Feeling safe is something that is not created with more limitations. It’s created with more dialogue and more openness rather than less.”
She further stresses that the focus should remain on what is happening in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon. In her opinion, the UvA community should not let concerns about campus safety completely overshadow the acute lack of safety experienced by those facing military violence abroad.
Discussions and Demands
After the protests, the board of the UvA entered into discussions with protestors to try and meet their demands. This resulted in the UvA publishing a list of its partnerships with Israeli institutions and revising its policy framework for international collaboration.
When interviewed, however, students and staff felt that this response did not adequately address the demands of protestors.
Dr. Roei feels that the demands of students and staff are not being taken seriously, as the UvA’s response does not reflect any true interest in the concerns raised by the protesters calling for sanctions. This sense of being unheard is a source of deep frustration for the students and staff.
Although the university has engaged in discussions, students feel their power in these conversations is limited. An instance is the role played by the Central Student Council (CSR), which works with the Executive Board (CvB) in decision-making processes on various issues. The CSR has the power to advise the Executive Board and the power to consent to, or not consent to, any decisions made.
“The CvB has made it extremely clear that the CSR will only have advisory powers when it comes to actually drafting the ethical framework [for international collaboration],” says a member of the CSR, “They’re not willing to give the CSR anything other than a consultative voice, despite the fact that the CSR […] is still the most representative body when it comes to the opinions of the student population.”
The Challenges of Divestment
The call for divestment remains necessary for the protestors. “We [in the Roeterseiland campus] shouldn’t underestimate the creation of knowledge when it comes to political and sociological understanding,” says a member of ROSA. “The narrative pushing for the hegemony of the settler-state is all a political creation … this narrative is formed in the very institutions we’re calling to sever ties with.”
As seen in recent months, the institution cannot easily meet the demand for divestment. UvA faculty members shed some light on why this is the case.
Dr. van Iterson Scholten argues that protesters may be overestimating the university’s influence. “Once you’re in a research consortium and you receive funding from the European Union, you can’t just remove partners because they are based in a specific country unless there are legal obligations from the EU,” he says.
There is also the argument for supporting Palestinian and Israeli scholars.
Having worked with such scholars, Dr. Roei points out that some scholars in Israel, particularly those critical of the Israeli regime, are often silenced within Israeli institutions. “Critical and important work that goes against the Israeli regime of occupation is happening by and from Israeli and Palestinian scholars who are based in these universities … We should remember that sometimes people don’t have the choice but to work there or not to work at all … Yet, what we see constantly throughout the years, but very strongly in the last year, is a policing and silencing of critical voices.”
“It pains me every time when groups, like Israeli scholars as such, are conflated with Israeli institutions,” Dr. Roei continues, “But at the same time, the institutions themselves have to be made accountable.” Dr. Roei referred to Academia for Equality as an organization that works to support scholarship that criticizes the Israeli regime.
Moving Forward
It is difficult to know what shape the future should take in a situation that is layered with such complexity. A Jordanian-Palestinian student who graduated from the UvA this year speaks of the key role that education should play in it. She recalls stories her grandmother, a refugee from Palestine after the Nakba, used to tell her about how her family survived in Jordan.
“There’s so much education that should be taught and there’s so much information that’s missing,” she says, “I just hope that the UvA is able to divest and not only divest, but also to start hosting educational events about Palestine and Israel and also about anti-Semitism … Like Jewish hate should not be a thing, as well as Muslim hate. It’s all not about religion. It should just be about making Zionism disappear.”
Despite their painful experiences with the police and the university, students remain determined to continue their protests. One member of ROSA calls it the ‘social justice fight of our generation.’ “This isn’t going to stop,” he says. “People are motivated and better organized than ever. This fight will continue until it is resolved.”
“Don’t give up on the university,” Dr. Roei urges student protestors, “The university is many things at once. It is also a place for building a future and holding onto alternative possibilities.”
Roshni Ravi is a university student in Amsterdam. The views expressed here are not necessarily those of The Amsterdammer.
