A group of around 80 pro-Palestinian activists set up a blockade at the entrance to the Rectorate Building at Ghent University in East Flanders on Tuesday morning. The main entrance to the building was barricaded using building site fencing. Palestinian flags and pallets were also added to the barricade to prtevent staff and students from getting through. The activists are calling for Belgian universities end all cooperation with Israeli academic institutions.
Pro-Palestinian activists block entrance to Rectorate Building at Ghent University
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A bailiff has visited the barricade and the University may seek an injunction ordering the removal of the activists.
The action follows an earlier student occupation and is part of a wider campaign to demand that universities, in this case UGent, sever all links with Israeli universities and companies. The local police went to the site on Tuesday morning. Around fifty activists are occupying the interior and exterior of the Rectorate Building.
According to the campaigners, academic institutions such as Ghent University continue to collaborate with Israeli partners that are involved in human rights violations in Gaza. They claim that Israeli universities are not neutral but are in fact actively involved in the war. They therefore view any collaboration with academic institutions in Israel as “complicity” with the war in Gaza. Last year, the UFO Building near the Rectorate building was occupied for several months by activists with the same demands.
Discussions with the university management eventually ended the sit-in and the university agreed to break off most of the cooperation projects criticised by the activists. However, the activists say that this promise has not been sufficiently kept.
For its part, the university argues that cutting international academic links is a process that takes time, has legal implications and is dependent on a European agreement.