On Wednesday night, the Rectorate of the University of Barcelona (UB) published a statement announcing that the university will break collaborations with the University of Tel-Aviv “immediately and indefinitely.” In the heat of this decision, the students who had been camping for 19 days in the central patio of the historic UB building announced on social networks that today they will dismantle the camp.
After an extraordinary meeting, the rectorate supported with 28 votes in favor, 5 against and 3 abstentions, the motion of support for Palestine approved by the faculty. According to the literal wording of the text, it is foreseen “not to establish agreements with Israeli institutions, to provisionally suspend all current agreements and conventions and not to maintain academic and institutional relations.”
Furthermore, the UB demanded that the European Union “immediately and precautionarily block the participation of Israeli institutions in projects financed with European funds.” He also made it clear that “the UB would not participate in any academic or institutional event in which Israeli organizations are involved.” This approval was added to those of the universities of Granada, Public of Navarra, Oviedo and Jaén.
The camped students yesterday valued this resolution as “a historic victory” and that it can set “a precedent” for the rest of the universities where they do remain camped in favor of the Palestinian people. The organizers of the protest at the UB claim that “their fight has been firm” that “they have not given in to pressure” to end the camp, whether on the occasion of the 12-M elections (the UB was an electoral college) or for the science festival, held in the same building.
The statement argues that “it is ending to take a step forward in the fight” and they consider that all the objectives proposed at the institutional level have been met. They have also shown support for possible camps in other Catalan universities, such as the one that has started on the campus of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya.
The same organization of the UB camp has called for this afternoon, in front of the historic building, a joint demonstration with the other groups and they assured that they are already working on new initiatives in collaboration with the unions, such as a strike that they could call for the month of June.