The students that are holding a sit-in at Ghent University’s UFO Building have expressed their confidence in Iman Khalid Benhaddou. The Ghent cleric has been appointed to find an amicable solution to a dispute between those protesting and the university. The dispute centres around UGent’s with academic institutions in Israel.
The students that are occupying the UFO Building are demanding a complete boycott of all Israeli academic institutions.
However, the university will only go as far as suspending cooperation with three Israeli academic institution that it deems to be problematic as they have links to organisations linked to human rights abuses committed since the start of the escalation of the conflict on 7 October 2023.
Out of hand
The protest got out of hand on Friday when some of the protester entered the Vice-Chancellor’s building. The was an altercation between protesters and security staff. 10 protesters were detained. One of them has been charged with assault. The situation has calmed somewhat over the weekend.
Imam Benhaddou has already held a first round of talks with the protesters. They are still in the building, but have removed some of their tents so that other students can get past to go and sit their exams. However, this wasn’t necessary as the university has relocated exams that were due to be taken in the UFO building.