Spanish students have already camped in ten universities in eight different autonomous communities to protest Israel’s attacks on the Gaza Strip. For the moment, university students have mobilized in the Community of Madrid, the Valencian Community, Galicia, the Basque Country, Catalonia, Andalusia, Aragon and Navarra.
The students regret “the constant attacks against the Palestinian people,” which “have escalated to such an extent that the protests have reached the universities.”
The Complutense University of Madrid participates in the protests; the University of Valencia; the University of La Coruña; the University of the Basque Country; the University of Barcelona; to University of Granada; the University of Zaragoza; the University of Alicante; the University of Santiago de Compostela, which begins this Friday; and the Public University of Navarra, where the camp is scheduled to end this Friday.
In this context, the Coordinator of Student Representatives of Public Universities (CREUP) has urged the Minister of Science, Innovation and Universities, Diana Morant, “to take action to improve the situation of Palestinian university students.” Likewise, the association has asked to “end any type of collaboration with Israel, particularly in the Spanish University System.”
However, CREUP has defended the position of the Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities (CRUE), which undertook to review and suspend collaboration agreements with Israeli universities and research centers that “have not expressed a firm commitment to peace.” and compliance with international humanitarian law.
“We have been able to learn about the actions that the CRUE is going to carry out in this regard thanks to the protests of the student body and their insistence on undertaking activism from the university system for the cause,” said the student organization.
Furthermore, CREUP has expressed its support for all the actions taken by the rectors of Spanish universities and has assured that it will accompany them in fulfilling these commitments.
On the other hand, the student association, which brings together the Student Councils of Public Universities, has also defended the actions of the students in defending the rights of the Palestinian people.
The Spanish university protests follow the example of demonstrations that recently began on college campuses in the United States. In Spain, the first protest took place on April 29 at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Valencia, organized by BDS País Valencià and Students for Palestine, which was very well received.
On May 3, Germán Gutierrez, vice president of Institutional Relations of the CREUP, already warned other media that more student councils or student groups could join these protests throughout these days, as has finally happened this week .
The student organization has assured that “there are few” university campuses where a camp or protest in favor of Palestine has not been scheduled. Likewise, the CREUP has shown its support for all the demonstrations carried out by the students at the different universities in the territory.
Now, this is not the first time that actions have been carried out by Spanish students in favor of Palestine. On October 31, 2023, the Student Council of the University of Extremadura held a minute of silence for the victims of the conflict.
Likewise, on November 6 of that same year, several students from the Public University of Navarra joined a platform in support of Palestine, calling for a partial academic strike at their university and asking to “stop the massacre in Gaza.”
