Aysel, which is a fictionalized name, studies at VU and protests against the Israeli violence against Gaza and for an academic boycott of Israel as part of the group VU for Palestine. She would rather do this interview under her real name, she says. She and her two companions, let’s call them Sufjan and Floris, would also rather have signed their call to fellow students to speak out against the horrors in Gaza, recently on the Ad Valvas website, with their real names.
Executive Board’s reaction
“We are surprised and disappointed by VU for Palestine’s rendition of the conversations that have taken place. We want to take everyone’s experience seriously, but we do not recognize ourselves in how the conversations have been presented, nor in the facts that were discussed. Precisely because we realize how emotional and complex the situation surrounding the war in Gaza is, we have opted for guidance by an independent moderator. In doing so, we wanted to create a safe and equal space in which different perspectives could coexist and be heard. Like the demonstrators, we are very concerned about the war and the gross human rights violations in Gaza. At the same time, we believe that only through open, respectful dialogue, however difficult, can common understanding and lasting change be possible. Even now that the conversation seems to be stalling, we remain prepared for an honest and substantive exchange.”
But they are afraid to do so. International students in countries like the US and Germany have been deported for speaking out and they themselves have been intimidated – sometimes violently by groups armed with clubs, more often on social media where pro-Palestinian activists have been doxed and threatened. Politicians have criminalized their protests and suggested expelling protesting students. “I have a double nationality”, Aysel says, “and I know it’s unconstitutional, that a majority of the voters is against it, that therefore it will never happen, but Geert Wilders has been threatening to revoke the Dutch passports of citizens with a double nationality for years and years. What if protesting against Israeli violence is deemed a crime by our government? How will that affect my life?”
One day, she and some other activists were escorted from the VU main building. It made a big impression on her. Back home, she cried. “I don’t want to be afraid. I hate to be in this position”, she says. “I believe in this stuff. I fight for this stuff, I really want to do this under my own name.” “Yeah”, Sufjan says. “It’s not that we’re not proud of what we stand for.”
Fighting for Muslims
Aysel’s mother is dead against her activism. “She says: ‘Let the others do it, let the white people protest’, she really says that. And I go: ‘Mom, if we’re not fighting for other Muslims, who will?’, you know.”
VU anthropologist Sinan Çankaya complained in an interview with NRC Handelsblad that the protesters on his campus are mainly white and international students, while kids with a migration background are studying diligently.
‘If we’re not fighting for Muslims, who will?’
Sufjan says he has talked with many such students. “They say it feels unsafe for them with all the police and security around, that they’re more at risk, given their more precarious position in society.” He says the subject of Gaza is also a big taboo at VU. “However, when you see how many students signed our petition and how many support we get from student organizations, I would say that 80 or 90 percent of the students at VU sympathizes with our actions.”
Arrested by the police
Recently, VU for Palestine occupied the BelleVue building. Aysel, Sufjan and Floris are still shocked that the VU Executive Board had them arrested instead of speaking with them. “In Ad Valvas, the board said that they would soon invite us for a talk, but that’s been a month and a half ago now and still we have heard nothing”, Aysel says.
It was VU for Palestine, however, who walked away from the last of a series of meetings with the board months ago. “There was no point in continuing those negotiations”, Sufjan says. “There was no moving forward. We were not listened to and we were not respected.” Floris says some students were “infantilized” and spoken to condescendingly, particularly students of colour. “Some of the things the board and its staff said were racist”, Sufjan states. “Which doesn’t mean that they are racists”, Aysel clarifies. “You can say something racist or act in a racist way but that doesn’t mean you are racist in general.”
Tone policing
There was no direct reason for them to call it quits at a given moment. “There were many things that added up”, says Floris. “For starters, we weren’t allowed to call the meetings ‘negotiations’, the board said it was a dialogue”, Aysel adds. “But we had to promise beforehand to not make public what was said during the meetings. What kind of dialogue is that?”
According to the three activists, the board policed their tone and choice of words. They wouldn’t accept the term ‘genocide’, they criticized their posts on Instagram and demanded that they be removed or rephrased. The board didn’t want to talk about Palestine. “They were always steering away from the things we had on our agenda”, Sufjan says. “It was just a way to placate and stall us.”
Terrorist state
VU for Palestine demands that VU discloses its ties with Israeli institutions, but VU refuses and as a semi-public institution is not legally obliged to do so. “We’re not seeking the names of Israeli academics”, Floris says. “We don’t care about specific individuals, we’re not targeting people. We’re targeting an apartheid state, a terrorist state because Israel is committing a genocide.” Sufjan adds: “The accusation that our demands would be antisemitic is therefore quite absurd.”
They react somewhat evasively when asked whether they think Israel has a right to exist. “No state has a right to exist”, Sufjan says. “Not Italy, not France, not Rhodesia. Israel is no exception. People have a right to exist. The Palestinian people have a right to exist. And both Jews and Palestinians have a right to live there. But Israel in itself, as an apartheid Zionist state, as a settler-colonialist state, has no right to exist.”
Antisemitism
They realize that many people consider their actions antisemitic, which they say is a result of “Zionist propaganda”. “During one of our actions, a staff member came by”, Floris recounts. “She said something like: ‘I’m Jewish, this is hateful towards me’. We tried to talk to her but she said we were antisemites and shouted ‘Fuck you’ and things like that.”
Some Jewish students at VU are dismayed by the Palestinian flags at protests and by slogans like ‘Free Palestine’. About ten of them, at a recent meeting of the Jewish student association VUJU, expressed a desire to emigrate to Israel because of this.
‘Why should we change our language to make people feel comfortable?’
Sufjan says he can’t believe they would want to emigrate “because of a few flags and slogans.” Aysel has an Israeli friend who supports the Palestinian cause but still feels uncomfortable seeing a Palestinian flag. “We would like to talk with people who feel intimidated by us, explain our side. Our core values are not to be antisemitic, Islamophobic, racist – we’re against all kinds of discrimination. We just don’t want to be complicit in the genocide that’s going on in Gaza.”
“It really personally saddens me that these students don’t try to engage with us at all”, Floris says. “I feel like although they’re really close to us, they seem scared of us for no apparent reason.”
Free Palestine
Wouldn’t it help to avoid slogans that are perceived as offensive or associated with Hamas, and to not use the term ‘Zionist’ as if Zionism is a crime? Someone like Erella Grassiani, a staunch Israeli-Dutch activist for Palestinian rights, also expressed her aversion to its simplistic use.
“Why should we change our language to make people feel comfortable?” Aysel says. “We should not make ourselves smaller or more malleable. We’re not using these slogans flippantly, because they sound nice. We actually mean it, you know.”
Moreover, they are convinced that most Jewish students and staff at VU support their cause. “I understand that many Jewish students who are pro-Palestinian are afraid to speak out”, Floris says. “But many people in our group are Jewish. I think for every Zionist Jewish person at VU there are two Jewish pro-Palestinians.”
Attack of Marcel Nollen
This interview with VU for Palestine (VfP) took place some three weeks before Marcel Nollen of the Executive Board was attacked by a large group of activists of VU for Palestine. He was pushed and shoved, beaten and obstructed when he tried to leave. One activist shouted slogans through a megaphone held close to his ear. The next day police disbanded the encampment VfP held on the campus square and made arrests, leading to a violent confrontation.
VU for Palestine, at the request of the group’s lawyer, declines to comment on the attack on Nollen, which was partially witnessed by an editor of Ad Valvas. A spokesperson for VfP states that activists are the ones being continuously intimidated by VU. He says the Executive Board has hurt VU for Palestine’s feelings in its online statement, using phrases like ‘we as a VU community’, “as if we are not part of that community”. He also berates the board for not addressing the police violence used during the eviction of the encampment, “while one activist was beaten so hard he had to be treated at the hospital.”
Aah the good ol’ hypocrisy of these “activists “. On the one hand “boohoo why don’t you let us do our thing, you are making us uncomfortable “ but on the other they walk out of the negotiations not to mention attack a member of the board and also have this attitude “uggh why should i change this slogan if some are uncomfortable using chants from terrorists(Hamas)?” Or wait, they are gonna claim Hamas are peace fighters now?
I feel that VU is far too tolerant with these “activists “ and that more-often than not they turn violent and destroy property- for which they should pay both in a fiscal way and also with some consequences as any other puny act of vandalism entails.
Addendum
Before someone says I am supporting either side, I am not. I am a firm believer there is no “good guy” in this story, so I choose to firmly remain out of choosing a side.
This is not as black and white as some people want to believe, its in fact very much grey with various shades.
And if I were an actual activist the last thing I would do to garner sympathy and get my cause closer to other people (neutrals) would be to associate with these people that destroy, occupy, attack etc. I see these as nothing more than mere ultras from a football game, looking more into causing a nuisance and picking fights rather than actually supporting a cause.