Around 170 pro-Palestinian demonstrators staged what the described as a “die-in porotest” during the traditional parade that marks the start of the new academic year at Leuven University (KU Leuven) in Flemish Brabant. The activists gathered on both sides of Leuven’s Naamsestraat, where the parade starts. As the professors that take part in the procession left the university hall, the activists lay down on the ground in front of them to block their path.
“Die-in” protest during parade to mark the start of the new academic year at KU Leuven
Mike Barlow
Published:
It was only once police intervened that the professors led by KU Leuven’s new Rector Severine Vermeire and her counterpart from Louvain-la-Neuve University (UCLouvain) Françoise Smets were able to leave. They walked around the protestors in single file.
The KU Leuven anthropology professor Karel Arnaut told journalists that “Israel is going further and further in its genocide and murderous campaign. Protest is more necessary than ever”. Professor Arnaut called for the university to withdraw from European Horizon programmes that involves Israel.
Bilateral cooperation
The university’s new Rector Vermeire has indicated that she intends to maintain the university’s existing policy with regard to Horizon projects for the time being.
“Several European projects are still ongoing. It is very difficult to withdraw from them as long as the association agreement with Israel is not suspended. I'm not aware of any European university that has managed to do so”.
Last week, the Rectors all of Belgium’s 10 universities published a letter calling for the suspension of the association agreement between Israel an the EU, a call that was reiterated by Severine Vermeire earlier on Wednesday.
“This would allow us to withdraw. Bilateral cooperation should remain possible for me, provided that the project is approved by the ethics committee. The projects that are under way concern healthcare, autism, cancer treatment and trauma. These are projects that I believe it is important not to interrupt."