– Propalestian demonstration on the UNIL campus
Nearly 200 people gathered this Wednesday to protest against Israeli bombings on the Gaza Strip, and now on Lebanon.
Published today at 6:02 p.m.
Jean-Guy Python
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- Nearly 200 people demonstrated on the campus of the University of Lausanne.
- The demonstrators accuse UNIL and EPFL of complicity with the State of Israel.
- The collective criticizes the non-compliance with the commitments made by UNIL last May.
- UNIL claims to have kept its commitments.
Kefi on the shoulders or on the head, Palestinian and Lebanese flags in the wind, nearly 200 people demonstrated this Wednesday afternoon on the campus of the University of Lausanne, near the Géopolis building. At the call of the collective Occup’ UNIL Pal and the Student Coordination for Palestine EPFL, they denounced the complicity of higher education institutions with the State of Israel, even accusing them of intimidation and threats.
The demonstrators criticize UNIL and EPFL for not having kept the commitments made last May, when they occupied the Géopolis building. “The UNIL leadership was committed to welcoming Palestinian academics, to allocating a fund for the reconstruction of Palestinian academic infrastructure, and to taking a public position against the genocide. Five months later, it is clear that what has been undertaken is far from sufficient,” laments Nico.
For Occup’ UNIL Pal, “genocide and apartheid continue and UNIL, behind publicity, has still not taken a firm position and defended respect for fundamental human rights.” And the collective maintains its demands: the end of the cooperation of the University of Lausanne and the EPFL with Israeli universities “deeply involved in the Israeli war effort”, or even a firm position taken by the management of the schools denouncing the situation in Gaza.
When contacted, UNIL assured that it had fully fulfilled the commitments made last May after the occupation of the Géopolis building, for two weeks, by the Occup’ UNIL Pal collective. UNIL had notably made a commitment to create a unit of experts in order to evaluate collaborations with scientific institutes in the context of armed conflict from the perspective of ethics, scientific integrity, international law and of academic freedom.
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Laurent Antonoff has been a journalist in the Vaud section since 1990. After covering the regions of Northern Vaud and the Riviera, he joined the Lausanne editorial team at the turn of the millennium. A novelist in his spare time, he won the Berner Zeitung Local Journalism Prize in 1998.More info
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