Activistenpartij UvA

Today, the UvA shut down anti-genocide protesters at the Opening ceremony of the Academic Year, and barred students and staff wearing keffiyehs from entering Maagdenhuis for the post-ceremony borrel.

At the start of the new academic year, students at UvA reclaimed the stage during the Opening Day Ceremony, holding up images of starving children in Gaza and chanting over Rector Magnificus Peter-Paul Verbeek’s moralising speech.

Instead of engaging with the protest, UvA shut it down. The university first suspended, then outright cancelled the ceremony, marking a sharp departure from last year, when protestors were given the stage to share their demands.

Why protest now?

Since the anti-genocide encampment in June 2025, the CvB has failed to deliver on its promises to protesters to:
1. Fast-track the ethical committee’s assessment on UvA’s collaboration with Tel Aviv University;
2. Deliver a decision on whether new collaborations with Israel will be made under Horizon Europe.

As Gaza is starved before our very eyes and Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people approaches the 700-day mark, we are way past the time to act with urgency. Yet, the CvB continues to drag its feet, maintaining the UvA’s complicity in the systematic killing and starvation of the Palestinian people. The UvA has blood on its hands. There can be no business as usual during genocide.

After the cancellation, attendees were redirected from the Aula to Maagdenhuis for after-drinks. But repression didn’t stop there: several democratically elected members of the Central Student Council (CSR) and Faculty Student Councils (FSR), along with staff members, were refused entry, despite holding tickets to the opening ceremony as well as the borrel afterwards. Their “offense”? Wearing keffiyehs, or simply standing with those who did. Shockingly, even the CSR Chair was denied entry, despite having a meeting scheduled in Maagdenhuis at that exact time. The students were told that they could not enter because the event was “full”, despite it being invite-only, and other attendees (who were not wearing keffiyehs) were ushered in behind them.

A statement from UvA staff who were also denied entry into Maagdenhuis:

“Five staff members who walked with other attendees of the Opening of the Academic Year from the Aula to the Maagdenhuis for drinks were prevented from entering the Maagdenhuis by security, on the grounds that they were supposedly protestors. The five staff members asked why they were refused whereas many others were allowed inside but were told the university decided this. Some staff noticed they were being photographed by security officers. They were later also denied entry to the cloakroom to collect their bags and jackets.”

What does it say when a university consistently silences its students and staff, excludes its own democratically elected representatives, and polices visible solidarity with Palestine?

What kind of “academic freedom” are we fostering if elected student representatives can be barred from entering university events for wearing a keffiyeh – an item of cultural expression?

The Activistenpartij stands in solidarity with protesters who disrupted the UvA’s Opening of the Academic Year, and is deeply concerned by the precedent being set by the UvA when elected student representatives and staff are barred from entering university spaces due to their choices in clothing or political affiliations. Free Palestine, and cut the ties. 🇵🇸