The University Hall of Leuven University (KUL) on the Flemish Brabant city's Naamsestraat has been daubed with red paint and plastered with pro-Palestinian posters. The posters denounced KUL's cooperation with Israeli universities and academic institutions as well as what is described as “a lack of transparency” on the part of university’s ethics committee.
Activists daub wall of the University Hall in Leuven with red paint and pro-Palestinian posters
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References are made to @kul.student.encampment, a group of students that have been occupying a university building for almost four weeks. On Thursday evening, the pro-Palestinian activists announced that they were launching a poster campaign in Leuven. The students claim that the university has systematically lied about the number of cooperation agreements it has with Israeli academic institutions and about what the cooperation agreements entail.
On Thursday, KUL’s Vice-Chancellor Luc Sels sent a message to staff at the university stating that the university would help them find psychological counselling and trauma assistance for Palestinian professors and students.
However, this gesture failed to impress the activists. They say that the university’s administrators and its ethic committee is in the strange position of on the one hand wishing to alleviate the suffering of the victims, while on the other hand not wishing to end cooperation with those responsible for their suffering.
“Deeply regrettable”
In a statement KUL says that it “This kind of vandalism is deeply regrettable. The daubing of our buildings is not a mark of respectful dialogue".
The university reiterates that it wishes to be “a safe community” for all its staff and students and that there should be room for openness and dialogue. “This is particularly necessary in times of war and unprecedented polarisation”.