The Government of Madrid will protect professors and researchers who are affected by the decision taken yesterday by Spanish universities to review and suspend agreements with Israeli institutions and entities that do not publicly express their rejection of the violence in the Gaza Strip. This is a statement signed by the 77 Spanish universities, public and private, within the framework of the Conference of Spanish University Rectors (CRUE) in which they express their “deep regret” for the conflict and demand the cessation of the military operations of the Israeli army and terrorist actions.
The Minister of Education of the Madrid government, Emilio Viciana, has described in a letter sent to the CRUE this morning that this declaration represents a breach of “legal security”, an “act of censorship” and “ideological control” and a “ lack of humanity.”
In the letter, the counselor questions this type of pronouncement, pointing out that “it is strange that (the rectors) did not express themselves with closer and more committed issues” such as the Amnesty Law.
He criticizes, in particular, the paragraph of the joint statement in which the universities undertake to “review and, where appropriate, suspend collaboration agreements with Israeli universities and research centers that have not expressed their firm commitment to peace and compliance.” of international humanitarian law.
Viciana understands that the agreements are merely academic, which breaks legal certainty and, furthermore, the political ideas of scientists should not be part of said agreements, nor can they be forced to speak out. “These types of forced signatures remind us too much of dictatorial regimes.”
Likewise, it considers “an act of inhumanity” to require anyone to go “against their own country when it is at war.” These types of statements, he argues, were not required of Palestinian academic and research institutions after the Hamas attacks.
Finally, it considers that the CRUE statement carries an implicit threat to the labor rights of university staff. “It is unconstitutional to deprive someone of their salary, a subsidy or deny them an agreement for ideological reasons.”
The advisor of the Government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso undertakes to respect the agreements of the Community of Madrid and to “protect teachers and researchers from Israeli institutions that have been affected by the measures of Spanish universities.
This letter is produced in the context of a mobilization of Spanish campuses and institutional declarations in universities. Students are already camping on ten campuses in eight autonomous communities to support the Palestinian people and demand an end to the war in the Gaza Strip.
University students are camping out in protest against Israel’s attacks on Gaza at universities in the Community of Madrid, the Valencian Community, Galicia, the Basque Country, Catalonia, Andalusia, Aragon and Navarra.
