Teachers, researchers and administrators in higher education have joined together in a petition to the governing bodies of Portuguese universities and polytechnic institutes to call for respect for students’ right to demonstrate, without resorting to violence.
“We believe that it is our duty, as academics and higher education workers, not to react to demonstrations with the use of coercion, to protect our students in the university context and space, and not to put them at risk of being the target of police violence,” reads the open letter that at 10 am today had around 80 signatures.
“We, teachers, researchers and members of the administrative staff of Higher Education, wish to express our solidarity with the students who have taken the initiative to peacefully occupy buildings and other academic facilities, such as the one currently taking place” at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities of Universidade Nova.
In recent days, several universities across the country have had spaces occupied by students protesting for peace in Palestine and against the Israeli invasion of Gaza, as has happened in other international universities.
The promoters of the petition praise the decision of the management of Universidade Nova to “meet and talk to the students and not call the police on this occasion”.
“We call for this position to be maintained and ask all higher education departments to do the same” in similar cases, they argue.
For the signatories, “it is not possible to simultaneously celebrate the student movements that took place in 1962 and resort to forms of repression and violence in the face of actions that are much further away from disturbing the ‘normal functioning of institutions’ than the student protests that culminated in the praised ‘academic crisis'”.
Higher education institutions must “play an important role in increasing civic participation and commitment”.
For this reason, “the efforts of its constituent bodies to respond to the climate emergency or to prevent attacks on human rights, embodied in military occupation, the killing of tens of thousands of civilians, the obstruction of humanitarian aid and the indiscriminate destruction of homes and crucial infrastructure, should be welcomed, debated and listened to, not persecuted or repressed,” the authors conclude.
The petition can be signed here.
The ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip was triggered by an attack by the Islamist group Hamas on Israeli soil on October 7, 2023, which caused around 1,200 deaths and two hundred hostages, according to the Israeli authorities.
Since then, Israel has launched an offensive in the Gaza Strip that has claimed more than 35,000 lives, according to Hamas.
Iolanda’s nails were a pro-Palestinian rallying cry. Eurovision “hid” video of the performance
Portuguese government condemns Iranian attack on Israel and calls for restraint
Israeli hostage declared dead by Hamas has Portuguese nationality
