Newsletter - December
Dear colleagues,
After an eventful week, this newsletter brings you news, music and more.
Leiden Scholars for Palestine are always looking for more members who would like to coorganize events, strategize and mobilize. Please contact us at [email protected].
In this newsletter:
- LSP supports the student occupation
- Union meetings
- Union survey and petition
- LSP drops raging music video
- UN Resolution 2803
- Ilan Pappé and Mariam Barghouti on lawfare advocacy and repression
- Calendar
LSP supports the student occupation
Last Wednesday, 26 November, students for Palestine occupied the Academiegebouw, rebaptized Dr. Suleiman Haboush University for the occasion. They responded to the annual Clevering lecture with the banner “Honouring Cleveringa’s legacy? Act on it!”
Leiden Scholars for Palestine (LSP) issued a statement fully supporting the demands of the students who occupied the Academiegebouw on November 26th, 2025, calling for a full cessation of collaboration between Leiden University and Israeli academic institutions, whilst Israel continues to wage genocide against the Palestinian people with full impunity and despite the so-called ‘ceasefire’.
Union meetings
FNV meeting
The FNV organized a members’s meeting on the 17th of November to discuss mobilization around collaboration with Israeli institutions by Leiden University. A group of FNV members had written an open letter to the FNV bestuurder Gijs Kooistra asking the FNV to increase pressure on the Executive Board. The two hour meeting on academic ties and a boycott was an open conversation about taking action, mobilization of colleagues, and concerns about possible repercussions. At the end of the meeting all the members present voted in favour of the proposed positions and mobilization. The outcome of the online membership was that 80% of the respondents supported this as well. The position is:
1. Immediately sever all institutional ties with Israeli organizations, including universities and research institutions. Organizations that actively work to protect international law are excluded from this.
2. Follow the example of, among others, the KNAW and the Flemish universities, and initiate an active and publicly visible lobby to exclude Israel from the Horizon programs.
3. Respect the right to demonstrate and the freedom of expression of students and staff to speak out against collaborations with genocidal regimes. For this, we request the following measures from the Executive Board:
- Ensure that staff and students who speak out do not suffer reprisals.
- Always act according to the principle of de-escalation during demonstrations at the university.
- Phase out the heightened security measures, such as those at Wijnhaven
The FNV will provide the first organizer training in the week of 8th December to the members who want to help mobilize members and non-members. If you are a FNV member and want to help, please reach out to [email protected]. You can also become a member at the training. The FNV has also launched a petition as part of the mobilization process: https://www.fnv.nl/cao-sector/overheid/onderwijs-onderzoek/leiden-boycot
AOb Members’ Meeting
On November 20th the AOb organized a members’ meeting. For some months, a group of LU colleagues that LSP had mobilized had been asking for a meeting to discuss support by the AOb to pressure our Executive Board on their policy regarding collaboration with Israeli universities.
In the meeting we also talked about other issues. On the agenda were information on the AOb itself, input for the new Collective Labor Agreement rounds, AI in academia, and how members can participate more. But we did talk for a substantial part of the meeting about how to take position regarding the Leiden Executive Board’s (lack of) policy concerning Israel/Gaza. Just like FNV members had concluded a few days earlier, the Leiden members of AOb present in the meeting agreed upon a common standpoint regarding collaboration with Israeli institutions, the participation of Israeli institutions in the Horizon programme and the securitization at Leiden University and its effects on Israel/Gaza related events.
A few days after the meeting the AOb has sent a survey to its members, very similar to the survey the FNV had sent a few days earlier to their members. In it, the AOb asks the Leiden University AOb community if they agree with the same standpoints and with following the same process as the FNV. The survey can be completed until tomorrow, Thursday, December 4 (see below).
Union survey and petition
The AOb survey is still open until tomorrow 4 December:
https://customervoice.microsoft.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx
The FNV survey is now closed. They have moved on to issue a petition open to FNV members and non-members at Leiden University and beyond.
Please sign and circulate their petition widely!
Leiden Universiteit voor een academische boycot van Israël - FNV
We call upon our supporters to also print and circulate promotion material for the petition:
Actiematerialen academische boycot Israël vanuit Universiteit Leiden - FNV
LSP drops raging music video
With the announcement of our new rector last week, the replacement of the entire College van Bestuur (Executive Board) is nearly complete. Looking back upon their years in office, Leiden Scholars for Palestine erupt in collective lamentation. With a hot rap track they address both the old and the new board members expressing their grievances about the years of repression, suspicion, and the criminal delay in taking any meaningful action in the face of genocide.
At the same time, it is a call to action: we sincerely hope that this new board will turn the page. That they will cut all ties with complicit institutions immediately, phase out all extra security measures, ensure an open and free university, seek redress towards students who have been affected.
https://leidenscholarsforpalestine.org/litany-of-grievances/
UN Resolution 2803
On 28 November, LSP hosted a panel discussion on UN Security Council Resolution 2803, adopted on 17 November 2025, which formally endorsed Trump’s ‘Peace Plan’ for Gaza. Scholars from different disciplines offered critical reflections on the consequences of the resolution for international law, Palestine and the future of world order. They identified elements of continuity and change in what Resolution 2803 represents and provided different perspectives on the possibility of its nullification, as well as on alternatives to the UN system to deliver justice for the aggrieved, in Palestine and elsewhere.
https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/events/2025/11/peace-or-lawlessness-the-vandalization-of-international-law-after-un-security-council-resolution-2803
Ilan Pappé and Mariam Barghouti on Lawfare, Advocacy and Repression
On Friday 12 December 2025, join us for a panel titled: The battle for the global narrative about the occupation of Palestine: Lawfare, advocacy and repression.
This event examines Israeli and Palestinian influencing strategies and the limitations that are imposed on the ability of Palestinians, Israeli human rights organisations and peacebuilding groups to tell their story to a global audience. Organised in partnership with the Clingendael Institute, this roundtable of experts examines the battle for opinion and the opportunities and limitations that Palestinians and their allies face in the struggle for rights and justice.
Speakers:
- Ilan Pappé (Professor Exeter University, author of ‘Lobbying for Zionism’)
- Mariam Barghouti (Palestinian journalist and analyst)
- Aisja Hamed (co-founder of Fikra, a literary magazine)
- Erwin van Veen (senior researcher at Clingendael)
Calendar
Please note:
* The silent sit-ins in front of Rapenburg 70 are suspended until the start of the new semester in the first week of February.
* The monthly walkout #wijwerkenhiernietaanmee will return for the first Monday of February.
Read more
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LSP Newsletter November
