Newsletter - August 2025
Dear colleagues,
As we are about to start yet another academic year, with the situation in Gaza and the West Bank worse than ever, and our university as complicit as ever, we appeal to you with an urgent call for solidarity and joint action.
In this newsletter:
- Call from our Palestinian colleagues
- Start with silence
- #wijwerkenhiernietaanmee
- Weekly sit-in
- Palestine Poster Workshop 2
- Union members in solidarity with Palestine
- What more can you do
- Calendar
- Read more
Call from our Palestinian colleagues
In July 2025, the Presidents of three major Universities in Gaza have collectively issued a statement. “Our campuses may have been razed, but our universities continue to exist”, they write. The letter makes an urgent appeal to the international academic community to acknowledge scholasticide, urge for a boycott, and collaborate with Palestinian colleagues in rebuilding their institutions. We have forwarded their open letter to our College van Bestuur. In response to the call, a coalition of Dutch educational institutions and student organizations has called for a renewed campaign at the opening of the academic year 2025-2026, to raise awareness, foster solidarity, end complicity, and strengthen support.
Read more about the campaign and sign up here: https://3en5mei.nl/backtoschool/
Start with silence
No business as usual
During the summer break we have all witnessed on the news how the human suffering in Gaza has taken horrifying, unimaginable forms. In spite of the ongoing genocide, our Executive Board has still not decided on current research collaborations with Israeli partners. The ties are "under review" indefinitely.
There is no time for more stalling. Our board has to take action now.
What can we do as lecturers? LU staff members have already made their voices heard through demonstrations, walk-outs, teach-ins, letters and petitions. We were met with silence. Are we just going to start teaching our classes in the new semester, back to work as if nothing is going on? No.
No business as usual.
We call on all lecturers to participate in the action “Start with Silence”
Join a collective silent protest by starting your first class(es) of the semester with a moment of silence. A silence that calls for action: Leiden University, boycott Israel.
(1) Download the powerpoint presentation: here, and add it to the opening of your first lecture’s slides. Feel free to adjust the text in the slides as you see fit.
(2) At the opening of your first class, explain to your students why you open the year like this and what this action means.
(3) Invite your students to join in a moment of silence in solidarity and protest. You can give unwilling students the opportunity to take a break and return to class later.
(4) Have a moment of silence. The length of the silence is up to you 2 minutes, 2 hours, or anything in between. You can use the moment of silence as a steppingstone to discussion, or move on with your class right after. In any case, we encourage you to start this academic year with a moment of silent resistance.
#Wijwerkenhiernietaanmee
LSP encourages all colleagues at Leiden University to join the national action #wijwerkenhiernietaanmee on Monday 1 September.
Do you want our government to take serious action to stop the genocide in Gaza? Then join us in calling on everyone to wear red on the 1st of September, and to make clear that business-as-usual is not an option: we will not be complicit.
On Monday, September 1st, we will let this message resound throughout the Netherlands via the following action:
- Shortly before noon, temporarily lay down your work - whether you’re employed or not, whether you’re a student, a freelancer, or retired. Do this together with others: colleagues, friends or neighbours.
- When the air raid alert sounds at 12:00, step outside your office, classroom, or home. Once the siren falls silent, use pots, pans, or claxons to sound the alarm for Gaza - and extend the alert to at least 5 minutes.
- Wear red on this day, so like-minded people can recognise you.
- Take images of the action, and share them on social media under the hashtag #wijwerkenhiernietaanmee.
Are you unable to join this action but do you support our message? Then post the hourglass graphic on social media at noon, out of solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza. Again under the hashtag: #wijwerkenhiernietaanmee.
For more information and the concrete demands to the government, visit: www.wijwerkenhiernietaanmee.nl
Weekly sitin
We will resume our weekly sit-in in front of Rapenburg 70, to stand in solidarity with our Palestinian colleagues and students, who have been bombed, displaced, starved and killed, and whose institutions have been willfully destroyed.
Please note, this term the sit-ins will take place on Tuesdays, with the first meeting on Tuesday 9 September.
Please join us:
11:30 in the cafeteria of Herta Mohr (HMO) for silent march to =>
12:00 silent sit-in in front of the Bestuursgebouw, Rapenburg 70 (Oude UB).
Palestine Poster Workshop 2
History, Graphic Design, Political Solidarity
Judith Naeff and Andrea Reyes Elizondo
Friday 19 September
11:15-12:45 Lipsius 1.28 | lecture on design history of posters for Palestine
13:15-16:30 Herta Mohr 1.80 | atelier
Open to students and staff of Leiden University.
After the successful Palestine Poster Workshop in November 2024, we will offer the same event, with a slightly different focus. We will delve again into the long tradition of political posters for Palestine. In the seventies and eighties, the Palestinian Liberation Organization regularly commissioned Palestinian, Arab, and international artists, building an impressive collection of political posters, characterized by innovative graphic design. In this workshop we will focus on the relation between text and image, looking at slogans and poetry, but also calligraphy and Letterism.
The workshop consists of two parts. The lecture discusses the design history of Palestine posters. After the break, we will take inspiration from this legacy in designing our own posters. We will work with analogue methods such as collage, lino print and paint.
Costs: €3,00 for materials (atelier only, lecture is free)
You will receive your original poster and a quality scan for printing copies.
Please bring your own lunch for the break.
Information and registration here.
Union members in solidarity with Palestine
A group of union members of FNV and AOb would like to mobilize the union towards more action in solidarity with our Palestinian colleagues. Are you a union member, or willing to become one, and interested in joining these efforts, please write to us at [email protected] .
What more you can do
There are many ways of getting involved, from expressing solidarity, to supporting in the background or taking the stage. Here are some suggestions.
1. Sign the pledge.
2. Join the weekly silent sit-in.
3. Raise your concerns about institutional complicity and call for a boycott in your department, institute, Faculty, union, or directly to the CvB.
4. Attend our events.
5. Follow us on Instagram @leidenscholarsforpalestine or subscribe to our newsletter via the link on our website www.leidenscholarsforpalestine.org to stay up-to-date.
6. Join our collective.
We are urgently looking for someone to manage our social media.
Support with planning teach-ins, campaigns and other actions, as well as other communication, design, and outreach is always appreciated. Please email [email protected] if you would like to get more involved.
Calendar
Read more
Don't forget to follow us via our Instagram or the subscribe link on our website.
In solidarity,
Leiden Scholars for Palestine
