from thefreeonline on 30th April 2o24 by Ester Fayos at La Directa * translation thefreeonline
The student movement sets up a camp, for now indefinite, at the Faculty of Philosophy in solidarity with Palestine and to denounce the “genocide perpetrated by the colonial State of Israel in Gaza”.
The protest adds to the wave of pro-Palestinian mobilizations started in recent days at universities in the United States
Camping in solidarity with Palestine at the University of Valencia | file
Esther Fayos
It’s three o’clock in the afternoon on Monday, April 29, and the first students with their tents are starting to arrive at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Valencia. Around thirty tents and eighty people fill the hall of the faculty when it is ten o’clock at night.
Through WhatsApp and Telegram groups, the call for a first assembly to organize what has been called “Solidarity camp with Palestine”, the first in Spain, has been shared.
They are students and teachers “in solidarity with the Palestinian people and to contribute to the end of the genocide perpetrated by the colonial State of Israel in Gaza”.
This is how they present themselves in a manifesto sent to the media this Monday.
Onada repressiva a València contra l’activisme en solidaritat amb Palestina *Repressive wave in Valencia against activism in solidarity with Palestine Ester FayosImatges | Lucas Guerra
“This is the genocide best documented audiovisually by its victims and its perpetrators, the worst genocide we have experienced in our lifetime and the genocide that speaks worst of the North Atlantic, due to its complicity with the Israeli apartheid regime “, they receive.
For the time being, the camping at the Faculty of Philosophy remains “indefinite”.
It has been promoted by the BDS collective – an acronym for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, the international campaign that defends civil disobedience to force Israel to end the occupation that began in 1948 -, as well as by Students for Palestine, col· group of students from the University of Valencia and the Polytechnic of Valencia and Gandia that was born in November 2023, in response to the outbreak of the latest episode of Israeli bombing in the Gaza Strip.
For now, they have received the support of several unions and collectives of the university community, such as the Bloc d’Estudiants Agermanats (BEA), the Sindicat d’Estudiants dels Països Catalans (SEPC), the Front d’Estudiants, UV Combativa, Plataforma PDI Precariat, University Network For Palestine, and also the STEPV, CGT, CNT, CCOO or the COS.
“We hope that more groups and people will join. The camp is open to everyone, from inside and outside the university”, explains Esther Monge Hernández, student of the double degree in Sociology and Political Sciences and member of Students for Palestine and BDS.
They also plan to organize activities over the coming days.
They address the Spanish government, to which they ask, first of all, “an end to the purchase and sale of arms and relations with Israel”
The young people have seven points-claims that they intend to achieve through the protest.
“We want the Spanish State to break the agreements with cultural, academic, financial, sports companies… in order to boycott Israel”, points out Monge Hernández.
Secondly, they demand to “join the South African initiative”, referring to the fact that South Africa has filed a complaint against the State of Israel before the International Criminal Court for an alleged crime of genocide.
Thirdly, “recover universal jurisdiction”, the right of courts to investigate a crime regardless of the country in which it has been committed.
And, lastly, “put an end to the persecution and criminalization of solidarity with Palestine” and the “repeal of the Spanish Gag Law and the foreigner law”.
They demand from the rectors of the universities “a clear and firm commitment, in writing, not to sign any agreements or conventions with Israeli institutions”.
And they add: “not now or in the future, until the Israeli crimes against humanity against the Palestinian people and the systematic and massive violation of human rights do not end.”
They also claim “the end of collaborations and contracts with complicit companies”, such as HP, Banco Santander, the insurance company Axa or the water company Edén.
In the case of HP, as reported by the Network Against the Occupation of Palestine (Rescop, by its acronym in Spanish), “it has executed large contracts of the Israeli government in areas of civil and military administration, providing assistance direct to maintain the system of systematic discrimination and oppression against the Palestinian people”.
One of the most important contracts between the technology company and the State of Israel is the development and maintenance of a biometric control system with facial and hands recognition through which Israel records personal data of the Palestinian population over the age of 16 who resides in the occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza.
It is used to control or restrict the movement of Palestinians within their own territory.
The rectors of the universities demand “the end of collaborations and contracts with companies complicit with the Palestinian genocide”
Last March, Banca Armada denounced that Santander is one of the main banks that, through loans and credits, finance the main arms companies involved in the Gaza genocide.
A report by the organization Don’t buy the occupation details that Banco Santander has financed with 8,609 million euros companies involved in occupied Palestinian and Syrian territories, such as Boeing, manufacturing and selling airplanes, helicopters or missiles; or Rolls Royce, manufacturing and distributing systems for aircraft or tanks.
For its part, the BDS movement has denounced that the insurance company Axa “invests seven million dollars in three Israeli banks involved in business with the structure of illegal settlements in Israel”.
Financial institutions Bank Leumi, Israel Discount Bank and Mizrahi Tefahot Bank have branches in occupied territories and provide mortgage loans to local settlement authorities for construction projects.
As for the Israeli company Agua Edén, it is based in the Golan Heights, Syrian territory illegally occupied since 1967. The company distributes bottled water for public water vendors in hospitals or administrations and bottled water.
Estand de la companyia israeliana Elbit Systems, especialitzada en tecnologia militar, en una edició de la Fira Internacional de Seguetat i Defensa a Madrid *Stand of the Israeli company Elbit Systems, specialized in military technology, at an edition of the International Surveillance and Defense Fair in Madrid
This is why the students are demanding the signing of “new agreements and collaborations with Palestinian universities”.
“University institutions are complicit in that they legitimize genocide with these types of contracts”, criticizes Esther Monge Hernández.
“We need – she continues – Palestinian universities to have the support of the world to create a network of solidarity and knowledge”.
They also demand that all universities “publicly condemn the Palestinian genocide”.
The protests spread
The encampment at the University of Valencia adds to the wave of protests started in recent days at around sixty universities in the United States.
Columbia University, in New York, was the first to organize encampments and mobilizations and, since then, they have spread to other educational centers throughout the United States and France.
Last Friday, April 26, dozens of students occupied the University of Political Sciences in Paris to protest against the genocide.
Pro-Palestinian camp at the University of Valencia | Lucas Guerra
The mobilizations have been accompanied by repression.
Nearly two hundred activists have been arrested during pro-Palestinian protests at universities in the United States. In Paris, riot police peacefully evicted the female students who had camped out, after they managed to reach an agreement with the university to start an internal debate.
“We deeply condemn the repression. Our freedom of expression and the right to a legitimate protest are being attacked, against a Zionist colonial state”, says Esther Monge Hernández, who hopes that other universities from all over the Spanish territory will join the wave of protests.
The Free 