Europe’s universities rise up to stop genocide in Gaza, EUI president: ‘Guarantee space for discussion’

Brussels – From American universities to universities across Europe, student protests against Israel’s war in Gaza have spread like wildfire, even reaching the European University Institute (EUI) in Badia Fiesolana, just outside Florence. And they forced the president of the EU-state-funded study and research institution, Patrizia Nanz, to take a stand: “I intend to guarantee a space where faculty and researchers can ask all questions,” the German political scientist assured in defense of the protesters.

From Berlin to Rome, Paris to Barcelona, via Cambridge and Helsinki, numerous student groups are protesting against Israel’s military intervention in the Gaza Strip and the alleged complicity of EU countries. In Brussels, tensions remain high both at the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), with some students assaulting the leader of the Jewish students’ union during a protest action, and at the Flemish University (VUB), where a university building has been occupied for days.

VUB decided to discontinue an artificial intelligence research project with two Israeli organizations. Then Ghent University wants to close cooperation with three Israeli partner organizations of the university, involved in the production of military equipment or directly linked to the Tel Aviv government, its rector announced.

In Florence – and several Italian cities – the student intifada has begun, with students from Italian and international universities camped out in Piazza San Marco to demand a halt to the genocide in Gaza. Students urgently demand in the Manifesto, also relaunched by the Union of Researchers of the EUI, that every university publicly stand up for the ceasefire and against Israel’s invasion of Rafah. But that’s not all: they demand that universities take their business activities public, that they “disinvest and cut ties with any organization complicit in genocide,” and that they undertake new initiatives to host and support education and research in Gaza.

Yesterday (May 16), while the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, was discussing this with Sapienza students at the graduation ceremony, the Academic Council of the EUI — the body that represents all professors at the institute — issued a statement of strongly condemning the violence against civilians in the Middle East calling for an immediate ceasefire and the release of Israeli hostages in the hands of Hamas. Most importantly, the EUI pledged to ensure that the Institute “remains a safe space for all, particularly its students and researchers, to freely express their views and engage in peaceful protests.”

The president went on a limb: “As President of the European University Institute, I intend to guarantee a space where faculty and researchers can pose all questions – even those that challenge what we take for granted – as long as it is done with intellectual rigor and respect for the dignity of those involved.” Spurring those in the political and academic worlds who immediately opposed the protests to “distinguish between the various calls and slogans coming out of these protests – some of which we may not align with – and their profound roots in the defence of peace, the rule of law, and human life.”