Students from the University of São Paulo (USP) begin this Tuesday (07/05) a camp in favor of the Palestinian cause and in repudiation of the massacre committed by the Israeli Army against the civilian population of the Gaza Strip, which has already killed more than 34 thousand people since last October.
The initiative came from different student entities at USP, organized around the Student Committee in Solidarity with the Palestinian People (ESPP-USP). The mobilization begins this Tuesday, at 5 pm, with the setting up of the camp in the space of the History and Geography headquarters of the Faculty of Philosophy, Letters and Human Sciences at USP.
The opening ceremony of the camp will take place at around 6pm with a panel of debates on the topic. At 9pm, a film will be broadcast. The organization states that the movement has the support of university faculty and staff.
According to Ana Luísa Tibério, who is part of the PT’s Coletivo Graúna and member of the Student Committee in Solidarity with the Palestinian People at USP, the camp and activities over the next few days “will be fundamental for us to connect with international struggles and show support for the Palestinian cause ”.
“In addition to demonstrating our solidarity, we want to pressure USP to break agreements with Israeli universities that support and finance the ongoing massacre in Palestine,” added the movement’s spokeswoman. Opera Mundiwho is also a master’s student in Political Science at the university.
The camp schedule runs from Tuesday until Thursday (05/09). On Wednesday (08/05), at 11am, a workshop will take place held by members of the Coletivo Vozes Judaicas pela Democracia, one of the entities that supports the student movement.
The second event, still on Wednesday, is a debate table on international solidarity with Palestine, scheduled for 6pm, and which will be attended by journalist Breno Altman, founder of Opera Mundiand academic Reginaldo Nasser, professor in the area of International Relations at the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (PUC-SP) and specialist in topics related to the Middle East.
Also on Wednesday, at 9pm, the event will feature a performance of Palestinian songs with various artists.
Pro-Palestine camp at USP defends cutting ties with the State of Israel
Undersigned
At the camp, USP students started a petition demanding that the institution and other Brazilian universities and the “government itself” break relations with the State of Israel.
According to the organizers, this measure includes the renunciation of “current academic agreements and any relationships” linked to the State of Israel. “In particular, the FFLCH decides to immediately resign with the University of Haifa on the part of its Congregation and its Administrative Technical Council”, declares the committee.
The petition also defends that any and all administrative processes be removed from students who showed solidarity with the Palestinian people, stating that the “media and the rectory try to equate anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism” and use such a narrative “as justification to persecute the solidarity movement to Palestine.”
“We will not accept intimidation and persecution: down with any repression.”
Movement born in the USA
The action of USP students reproduces in Brazil a movement in favor of the Palestinian cause that began about a month ago in universities in the United States, following the mobilization of students at Columbia University, in New York.
Currently, more than 40 North American institutions are mobilized in favor of Palestine and repudiation of the Israeli government – one of the movement’s main demands is precisely that universities cut investment in projects linked to the Zionist government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The North American movement has been the target of very strong police repression, with more than 2 thousand students arrested so far.
In addition to Brazil and the USA, the pro-Palestinian wave at universities also mobilizes students in countries such as France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, Mexico and Cuba.
