About 30 students gathered this Wednesday in Largo da Porta Ferrea of the University of Coimbra (University of California) to demand from the rectorate of this educational institution an immediate ceasefire in Palestinian territory.
About 30 students gathered this Wednesday in Largo da Porta Ferrea, singing songs and carrying banners, to defend a free and independent Palestine and to condemn the Israeli offensive in Gaza, which has already led to the deaths of more than 37 thousand Palestinians, almost half of them children.
“From Coimbra to Rafah, Palestine will win”, “Students in unity for liberation”, “UC, pay attention! Ceasefire is a position”, “UC, listen, your history is the history of struggle”, sang the students who immediately When they started the protest, they saw students closing Porta Ferrea, something that had already happened in the past, as dozens of students decided camp near the Faculty of Arts.
The students stayed in the camp for 30 days, demanding that the rectorate of the University of Coimbra advocate for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Palestinian territory, the raising of the Palestinian flag on the university tower and the termination of all programs or agreements with Israeli companies, institutes and universities, as well as the refusal of the State Israel from any funding for academic programs.
During the concentration, one of the students, Mariana Costa, read out a manifesto in which she recalled that all universities in the Gaza Strip had been destroyed and that there would be “no finalists” in the Palestinian territory this year.
Criticizing the position of the University of Coimbra, which hides behind “a neutrality that does not exist,” the 25-year-old forensic psychology student reiterated the demands of the movement, which are also supported by more than 150 teachers and researchers who spoke out last week. The petition was signed with the parish priest.
Last week, the UC said it would always monitor the position of the Portuguese Republic in the face of the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip, refusing in its response to the Lusa agency to make any reference to a call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire. .
The UC also did not respond to Lusa’s question about why he did not raise the Palestinian flag on the UC tower, even though in the past the same monument was painted in the colors of the Ukrainian flag, hinting at a Russian invasion.
Asked if it was considering ending programs with Israeli institutions that may be linked to the Gaza offensive, UC said it “distinguishes people from regimes or governments.”
The University of Coimbra, “except in exceptional circumstances, has the responsibility to maintain and strengthen bridges of dialogue and tolerance between people, especially when the political world builds walls,” said the rectorate, which in 2023 terminated the contract of a Russian professor accused of ties to the Kremlin, without acknowledging There was not a single document supporting the charges brought to the trial.