{"id":168425,"date":"2024-10-10T09:19:39","date_gmt":"2024-10-10T07:19:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/academics-for-palestine-tal-med-os-rektorer\/"},"modified":"2024-10-11T06:58:04","modified_gmt":"2024-10-11T04:58:04","slug":"academics-for-palestine-rectors-talk-to-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/academics-for-palestine-rectors-talk-to-us\/","title":{"rendered":"Academics for Palestine: Rectors, talk to us!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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OPINION ON THE UNIVERSITY POST<\/p>\n

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The names of the signees appear at the bottom of the post.<\/em><\/p>\n

We are four representatives of Academics for Palestine: a group of employees from all eight Danish universities who fight against the apartheid of the Israeli state.<\/p>\n

789 employees \u2013 primarily from UCPH \u2013 recently signed our petition<\/a> in support of \u2018Studerende mod Bes\u00e6ttelsen\u2019 and an academic boycott of Israeli universities.<\/p>\n

READ ALSO:<\/strong> Staff from Danish universities come out in support of student action<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

We have tried to contact the association of Danish Universities several times in an attempt to present our demands and to discuss these issues with Denmark’s eight university rectors.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, they haven\u2019t wanted to meet up with us.<\/p>\n

10 minutes, please<\/h3>\n

Therefore, we decided \u2013 together with representatives from \u2018Studerende mod Bes\u00e6ttelsen\u2019 \u2013 to show up at one of Danish Universities’ meetings, which took place on 8 October.<\/p>\n

The lack of democratic tradition in Danish academia strongly degrades the international image of this country<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The idea was to recite a text with our demands and in particular challenge UCPH rector Henrik C. Wegener’s arguments against a boycott<\/a>. We also wanted to use the occasion to offer each rector a book by Maya Wind<\/a>, an Israeli scholar who has studied the ties between Israeli universities and the apartheid.<\/p>\n

READ ALSO:<\/strong> Rector Henrik C. Wegener: This is why there will be no UCPH academic boycott of Israel<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

All rectors denied us access to the room. Apparently, 10 minutes of their time was too much to ask for. Instead, we handed over the text and gave them the books.<\/p>\n

We come from many different countries where it would be easily doable to have a meeting with your university rector to discuss such important topics. But in Denmark that isn\u2019t the case. The lack of democratic tradition in Danish academia strongly degrades the international image of this country.<\/p>\n

Here are our demands<\/h3>\n

We simply ask the Danish universities to follow the International Court of Justice ruling<\/a> recognizing the crime of apartheid and urging each UN member state<\/a> to work towards its end. And to drop the scandalous double standard they hold with regard to the boycott of Russian and Belarusian universities<\/a> in 2022, but not Israeli ones in 2024.<\/p>\n

We therefore ask for:<\/p>\n