FNWI students want civil consultation on academic ties with Israel
Science faculty students are calling for a citizens’ council on how to sever ties between the UvA and Israeli institutions. Talks between students and the faculty board are ongoing.
For weeks, science faculty students have been in talks with the faculty board about severing the faculty’s ties with Israeli institutions. Four of the eight collaborations announced by the UvA in early May fall under the Faculty of Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Computer Science (FNWI). The faculty board previously rejected the students’ demand to sever ties because the board “could not decide without the support of everyone at the faculty.” Therefore, the students are now pushing for a civic consultation on the faculty, organized by an independent party.
To toughen the policy regarding cooperation with third parties, such as universities in war zones, the Executive Board and the UvA deans are organizing roundtable discussions. The first two meetings took place last Monday at ACTA and the FNWI.
There were also questions about the open letter that appeared in Trouw last weekend, in which rectors of Dutch universities wrote that they did not want to sever academic ties with Israeli institutions. The article gave some people the impression that ties with Israeli universities should be left out of the discussion. Rector Peter-Paul Verbeek announced that “the discussion within the UvA is still completely open” and that the letter was not meant to “pre-empt the outcomes of the process of internal dialogue.”
The independent NGO, G1000, would be responsible for organizing the citizens’ council. It would proceed as follows. G1000 selects a large group of FNWI students, researchers, and employees representing the entire faculty. During three meetings, G1000 experts would inform the participants who would then formulate concrete proposals, and G100 would organize a vote.
According to Lola Fioole, a member of FNWI’s Faculty Student Council, a citizens’ meeting is a step in the right direction. “We want to talk about how we are going to cut ties and not if, which has also been the demand of the protesters. If it’s up to us, the citizens’ council would take place before the summer.”
Things are not yet at that stage, according to the faculty board. “The board first needs clarification on several issues. So whether and how a citizens’ council will take place is not yet clear at this point,” the spokesperson announced. Talks between the students and the board are still in full swing. Next week, the faculty board hopes to provide more clarity on the outcome.
