Uppsala University locks its doors after protest

Uppsala University locks the doors – to shut out protesting students.

The protesters think it’s wrong.

– They should not be upset because students are carrying out peaceful protests, but because they are part of an institution that supports genocide, says student Francesca.

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Since the seventh of October, Uppsala University has become the scene of intense protests against the war in Gaza.

The protests are mainly led by Uppsala Academics for Palestine, a student-organized protest group that demonstrated both on the university grounds and inside the campus.

In recent days, the protests have moved into the student city’s stronghold.

Segerstedthuset, where the university’s management and administration of around 600 employees sit, was visited by the protesters on Friday and Monday.

But as of today, the doors are locked – and only certain people are allowed in.

– Several felt, both on Friday and on Monday, that it was threatening. There was an appeal to the staff and flyers were handed out stating that staff and students at Uppsala University are complicit in genocide, says Pernilla Björk, director of communications at the university administration at Uppsala University.

“To be done respectfully”

It is mainly students who are involved in the protests, but there are also staff from the university’s departments who participate.

The group has set up a tent camp in the English park. Every day they protest in so-called walkouts that take place in different parts of the university campus.

– The protests were not violent in any way and I have a lot of understanding for their frustration with the situation, says Pernilla Björk. It is incredibly important to point out that neither anti-Semitism nor Islamophobia or any other form of harassment belong at a university. Here, you should be able to discuss even difficult questions and problematic issues, but it should be done respectfully, of course.

Protesters’ demands

The group Academics for Palestine has formulated two main demands for the university.

First, they demand that all institutional collaboration with Israeli universities be ended. Second, they call for new collaborations with Palestinian universities and support for researchers and students from Gaza.

– Right now we are trying to get the university’s attention to get them to start a dialogue with us, because so far it has been so slow and because none of what we have requested has been done. We hope that our protests can speed up the process so that we can discuss our demands, says Rafael, one of the protesters in the group.

Even Francesca thinks it’s time for the university to take the group seriously.

And she finds it hard to sympathize with the staff who were upset by the protests.

“They should be upset”

– They should be outraged – but not because students are carrying out peaceful protests, but because they are part of an institution that supports genocide. That our university is involved in building technology that is used to kill people is what should upset them, says Francesca.

Rafael and Francesca point out that the slogans are not aimed at individuals but at the university’s collective organization.

But the university’s stance is that it does not take a stand in non-academic conflicts.

– If universities do that, it risks limiting our individual researchers’ and students’ freedom of speech and opinion and, by extension, the university’s academic freedom, says Pernilla Björk.