Higher education teachers, researchers and administrators have united in a petition addressed to the governing bodies of Portuguese universities and polytechnics, asking them to respect the right of students to demonstrate without resorting to violence.
“We believe it is our duty as academics and higher education workers not to respond to demonstrations in a violent manner, to protect our students in the university context and space, and not to expose them to the risk of being targeted by the police. violence,” the open letter says it had about 80 signatures by 10 a.m. this Friday.
“We, the teachers, researchers and higher education administration staff, want to express our solidarity with the students who have taken the initiative to peacefully occupy buildings and other teaching spaces similar to what is currently happening at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities at Nova University.
In recent days, several universities across the country have been occupied by students protesting for peace in Palestine and against the Israeli invasion of Gaza, similar to what is happening at other international universities.
Supporters of the petition praise the decision of Universidade Nova management to “meet and communicate with students rather than call the police on this matter.”
“We call for this position to be maintained and ask all higher education departments to do the same” in similar cases, they say.
According to the signatories, “it is impossible to both glorify the student movements that took place in 1962 and resort to forms of repression and violence in the face of actions that are much further from disrupting the “normal functioning of institutions” than the student protests that culminated in the notorious “academic a crisis”.
Institutions of higher education must “play an appropriate role in enhancing civic participation and commitment.”
Thus, “the efforts of its constituent bodies to respond to the climate emergency or to prevent the attacks on human rights embodied in military occupation, the killing of tens of thousands of civilians, the obstruction of the delivery of humanitarian aid and the indiscriminate destruction of homes and vital infrastructure, should be welcomed, discussed and listened to, rather than harassed or repressed,” the authors conclude.
The petition can be signed here.
The ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip was sparked by an attack on Israeli soil by the Islamist group Hamas on October 7, 2023, which killed approximately 1,200 people and captured two hundred hostages, according to Israeli authorities.
Israel has since launched an offensive in the Gaza Strip that has killed more than 35,000 people, according to Hamas.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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