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6/3/2024 The movement for Palestinian Solidarity in Chilean Universities: defying the liberal academia. By: Camilo Godoy & Catalina CalderónRead Now After 76 years of occupation, students from across the Globe have shown their support towards the Palestinian cause during recent months. The agreements, cooperation and public relations with Universities and academic institutions from Israel has been a common factor in the causes towards it, considering the context of imperialism and aggression with direct complicity from the US’ government and the UK after the AlAqsa Flood Operation by Hamas and then continued by other parts of the Armed Resistance in Gaza. Movements from civil society and grassroots organizations have been key in denouncing complicit relations with the genocide itself, considering the decisions made by governments from the Global North have been considerable weak, comparing with the case of Ukraine. On its last report Francesca Albanese, the “Anatomy of a Genocide” (February 26th, 2024) shown that Israel had killed more than 35.000 people, with a 70% of them being children and women. In response, students from Universities such as California Berkeley, Chicago, Spain Universities and more recently Oxford in an effort made by academics, students and professionals have joined together in order to break relations with Israeli institutions. In the case of Chile, a country with 19 million inhabitants, 1.341.439 students from higher education system, and the largest population of arab-palestine descendants, this situation has gone critical since May 15th, when a group of students camped in the Central Campus of the University of Chile. University of Chile is the most prestigious and oldest institution for higher education. Along with this, students from other institutions such as University of Santiago, Chile have demanded the immediate ceasing of the agreements with Israeli universities. The response from the authorities have consisted of advocating for “academic freedom” and defending possible “options for growing on knowledge” not considering that PACBI, movements from scholars such as SWAP (Scholars Against the War on Palestine) and more recently the work of Maya Wind (2024) has stated that Israeli academic institutions have contributed directly to the apartheid itself. In that sense, Eduardo Asfura, Academic at the University of Santiago states that ‘it is contradictory that, in the first public University from Chile, the response of the authorities (in this case, from the University of Chile), to the mobilization for Palestine, shows a dissuasive tone rather than a will for dialogue.’ In may 24th, the University Council from the University of Chile rejected to suspend agreements with Israeli academic institutions, pointing out that ‘the purpose of the international agreements established between universities and their units is to promote academic exchange, whether through training or research, in order to enhance the quality or impact of their work and contribute to the generation of knowledge networks at a global level’ (https://cooperativa.cl/noticias/mundo/medio-oriente/conflicto-israel-palestina/universidad-de-chile-descarta-eliminar-convenios-con-planteles-israelies/2024-05-24/200232.html). Asfura continues to point out that ‘this will has been expressed, fundamentally, in two strategies: 1) initial delegitimization of the strategies of the movement itself, through the stigma of ‘violence’ and "intolerance’ and 2) delegitimization of its demands, by questioning the usefulness and meaning of them. In this second case, the argument has been basically the following: ‘To break with Israeli universities is to silence dissident voices and critical voices. If the world did not do it with us during the dictatorship, it would be a mistake for us to do it now with the universities of Israel’. ‘Unlike what happened in Chile during the dictatorship, Israeli academic institutions have not been the of crimes against humanity”. Also in the 9 months of genocide, these university institutions (Israelis) have shown very little initiative for peace, showing that their main virtue is not dissent, but rather complicity’. In that sense, as Israeli academic Maya Wind put it, ‘Israeli universities are a central pillar of Israel’s regime of oppression against the Palestinians’. Something that is ratified not only in scientific, technological and logistical support’. In more general terms, Luna Jadue, member of the Committee in Solidarity for Palestine of the University of Chile says that “I think that the contribution we can make is important, considering that if the Universities show that we are committed with the social problems for nowadays, it will be easier for the people to understand deeply our struggle for the Palestinian liberation and its foundations”. To the opinion of Mauricio Rosales, Coordinator of the Solidarity with Palestine Committee at the University of Santiago de Chile, this movement “is something that is taking a very wide and massive character. This has strengthened the student movement and has been an opportunity to agitate an anti imperialist view, in order to make Universities Free from Apartheid, considering we are not only fighting for breaking the academic agreements but for demanding our national government to suspend all the relations with Israel’. This refers to the government of Gabriel Boric, which, unlike Gustavo Petro or Luis Arce in South America, hasn't cut diplomatic ties with Israel but has preferred to stick to other formulas such as calling the ambassador and joining the South African demand at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), as it been announced on Saturday, on his Public Account Annual Speech in 1st of June, 2024. In relation to the student movement, lately it has started gaining momentum, with a statement from the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Chile announcing the immediate suspension of one local and one global frame agreement. This, derived from protests and activities open to the citizens. As well as in other contexts, this has shown that the higher superior education system is still divided between a conservative élite reluctant to any political change, even if that means complicit relations with institutions with empirical relations with a genocide ongoing, based on military cooperation and legal international defense from the arguments of the Likud. Alongside this, even considering that the Palestinian movement still has an elite-base in Chile, this has been a challenge for being more massive and gaining an anti-imperialist approach, which has started exploring debates between the relation from indigenous peoples and the working class from the Global South and palestinian liberation, proving that solidarity with Palestine is not about ethnicity, nor esthetic, but about struggle of the oppressed around the world. Meanwhile the massive movement from civil society recalls the resistance led all across the globe to the Vietnam war and the mid 20th century’ American imperialism. As in the case of the opposition to imperialism during that time, it didn’t come from State actors, but from the civil society (grassroots and student movements) across the globe. Even with all the war crimes and transgressions of Humanitarian Law and Human Rights by Netanyahu's administration and the support from Biden, Rishi Sunak and the German government, Non State actors still have a power to question the international crimes and impunity from colonialist and imperialist countries and their academic allies. Currently, the student movement has been discussing to project Universities as Apartheid Free Zones (AFZ), going beyond only cutting academic agreements, establishing restorative and reparative processes -also on past practices-, preventing new agreements with institutions linked to genocide. This, understanding that liberal academia only acknowledges knowledge as a means to an end and obscures all the relations of power and impunity subjacent. Authors Camilo Godoy Pichon is a Chilean sociologist from the University of Chile and MA candidate in International Studies in University of Santiago, Chile. He has worked on topics such as environmental struggles and conflicts in the Global South, in regards to companies or corporations who promote extractivism and ecocide. He has worked with indigenous people, elders, and children from poor towns and areas from his country, along with developing academic work and research on the environmental justice' topic. He is very interested in analyzing how class influences environmental conflicts and other inequalities in South America and specially in neoliberal countries such as Chile. He has published 2 social/political poetry books both in Chile (2019) and Argentina (2022) and another poetry book on political repression during Pinochet's dictatorship, for the case of poor youngsters killed by the police in Southern Santiago in 1973, which will be published in Spain in early 2023. Catalina Calderón Archives May 2024
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