‘Historic’ wave of Palestinian solidarity grows at universities in Germany
Nearly 700 students from Leipzig University, in Germany, sat down last month on the square outside the college cafeteria, next to the city’s old, ruined fortifications, to vote. A sea of hands rose, holding yellow cards. The vote was almost unanimous: The student council demande
Nearly 700 students from Leipzig University, in Germany, sat down last month on the square outside the college cafeteria, next to the city’s old, ruined fortifications, to vote. A sea of hands rose, holding yellow cards.
The vote was almost unanimous: The student council demanded the university cease all collaboration with Israeli institutions.
“All five [Israeli] partner universities of Leipzig University are an essential component of the Israeli military complex: They develop weapons, surveillance systems and recruit on their campus for military units,” 22-year-old Orlando Becker of Students for Palestine Leipzig told Al Jazeera.
“We therefore think that cooperating with those universities is in and of itself problematic, because one is legitimising and normalising those institutions.”
The Leipzig vote is the latest success for a wave of Palestinian solidarity at German universities that has accelerated since March, in which at least three other student councils – in Berlin and Dusseldorf – have put forward similar motions.
Israeli universities have long been accused of complicity in war crimes and other alleged abuses committed by their government. To argue their case, the students put together a report outlining how academic institutions contribute to the Israeli war machine – for example, in Gaza and the occupation of the West Bank – as well as advancing the government’s narratives.
“One example is archaeology projects,” said Becker. “Those often have the goal to prove that Palestinians do not exist and that Palestine was empty before the settlers came. In the name of science, Israel justified ethnically cleansing the Palestinian village of Susya in order to conduct archaeological research there, and later on twisted the findings to prove that the very same people that were ethnically cleansed never existed in the first place. Leipzig University has one archaeology project with Ben Gurion University.”
After sharing the report around campus, Students for Palestine collected 1,300 signatures to convene a general student assembly. The day before the assembly was due to take place, the university withdrew permission to use a lecture hall.
