Newsletter - October 2025
LEIDEN SCHOLARS FOR PALESTINE
Newsletter - October 2025
By Leiden Scholars for Palestine • 13 October 2025
Dear colleagues,
We are pleased to inform you that the suspension of the two student exchange programmes has been approved by the University Council (read more about the vote here). However, our demands to cut all ties with Israeli cultural and academic institutions complicit in the occupation, repression, exile dispossession, and genocide of the Palestinian people are still unmet.
As we welcome, with immense relief, the news that a ceasefire agreement has been reached, we also know that the genocide, continued oppression, dispossession, and colonisation of Palestine and Palestinians will not end without ending complicity and demanding accountability. Now more than ever, we need more BDS pressure to ensure a real end to the genocide and full accountability for Israel’s war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. Today, students will host a panel and discussion in FSW on academic complicity and the need for a boycott (17:30, SC.01).
In this newsletter, we present to you more updates and activities.
In this newsletter:
- Union members in solidarity with Palestine
- In de klas, in de wereld: registrations still open
- State of PACBI: Cultural boycott in the Netherlands
- Reading club: Isabella Hamad
- Calendar
Union members in solidarity with Palestine
FNV has recently agreed to our call for a member meeting to discuss a demand for academic boycott. A similar request has been made from the AOB but no date has been given as of yet.
FNV members who would like to get involved or be informed about FNV’s line of action can send an email to:
[email protected] or [email protected]
AOb members who would like to get involved or stay updated can send an email to: [email protected]
CNV members who would like support in order to start their own action can send an email to: [email protected] .
In de klas, in de wereld
ICLON classes about Israel/Palestine for secondary educational teachers
In the classroom, in the world’ is a new cross-curricular programme series in which ICLON, Leiden University, brings together experts from various disciplines to develop valuable teaching materials for secondary education (VMBO, HAVO and VWO).
ICLON aims to support teachers in this way by equipping them to deal with complex topics in their classes, in an informed manner. We are starting the series this autumn with three meetings on Palestine/Israel. What insights do our Leiden academics have on these sensitive topics? What would be a good approach for teaching these topics?
After two successful sessions with Prof. Larissa van den Herik and Dr Christian Henderson, on Tuesday 14 October, Dr Sai Englert, lecturer in Political Economy of the Middle East, will give a lecture in which he will make international comparisons between Israel’s actions in Palestine and those of other settler colonies throughout history.
Teachers of all subjects in further education are welcome to attend!
State of PACBI: Cultural boycott in the Netherlands
A group of 250 cultural institutions in the Netherlands and Belgium has announced a cultural boycott of Israel. Signatories include the Netherlands Film Festival, the Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent, and the Rijksakademie of Fine Arts. It entails, among other things, that organizations and artists avoid collaborating with Israeli institutions they consider complicit and refrain from showcasing their work on Israeli stages, in museums, or at film festivals. The organizations also called on the sports sector, academia, the business world, and politicians to sever all ties with Israel.
Reading club: Isabella Hamad
Judith Naeff’s MENA reading club has read Isabella Hamad’s Enter Ghost, about a Palestinian theatre group playing Hamlet. It is an evocative, richly-textured novel about family tensions, the challenges of reconnecting with one's heritage and the role of art as an act of resistance. If you would like to join the informal online group discussion (which will be planned sometime in early November), please drop Judith an email at [email protected] .
Calendar
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