Spanish universities plan to suspend cooperation with Israeli institutions
Scores of Spanish universities plan to suspend cooperation with the Israeli universities that have not called for peace in the occupying regime’s ongoing genocidal war against the Gaza Strip.
The plan was announced in an open letter by the Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities, which oversees 50 public and 26 private universities, on Thursday.
The universities, the letter read, planned to suspend collaborations with Israeli universities that “have not expressed a firm commitment to peace and compliance with international humanitarian law.”
In addition, the universities pledged to “intensify cooperation with the Palestinian scientific and higher education system and expand our cooperation, volunteering, and care programs for the refugee population.”
The schools said they were showing solidarity with “the feelings of our campuses and the demand that is spreading from them.”
They were referring to ongoing pro-Palestinian encampments and rallies that have been going on across many universities throughout the European country in protest at the Israeli war on Gaza.
At least 34.904 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed so far during the war, which began following al-Aqsa Storm, a retaliatory operation by the coastal sliver’s resistance groups.
The letter also called for a permanent ceasefire in the war and transfer of humanitarian aid into the Palestinian territory, which is enduring a simultaneous Israeli siege.
Over the past weeks, student protests have gained momentum across western Europe, with the participants raging against the brutal Israeli military onslaught and pressing their schools to divest from the Israeli companies that contribute to the genocide.
Dutch police violently break up a pro-Palestinian demonstration camp at the University of Amsterdam, arresting 125 students.
The demonstrators have taken their cue from pro-Palestinian student protests across the United States, which have spread across numerous of American colleges.
More than 1,000 people have reportedly been arrested on US campuses since April 18, when a pro-Palestinian encampment at Columbia University in New York was forcefully removed by the police.
