The British-Palestinian surgeon, Principal of the University of Glasgow, gave a speech in the UV’s Aula Magna on ‘The ecology of war: Gaza as the ultimate example’, in which he addressed the current situation in Gaza from his own experience. The conference was moderated by journalist and Professor Lola Bañón, with the participation of UV’s Principal Mavi Mestre and the Head of the UV’s Science and Human Rights Collective Nadia Yahlali.
The conference of the renowned British-Palestinian surgeon Abu-Sittah, who had previously been prevented from giving lectures in Germany and France, was held in the UV’s Aula Magna on Friday, 31 May.
The Principal of the University of Glasgow, in his speech ‘The ecology of war: Gaza as the ultimate example’, expressed that in Palestine he experienced ‘dispossession, loss of property and exile’, as well as the lack of freedom of movement familiar to those in exile who know that ‘at any given moment you can be arrested.’
The conference was co-organised by the UV, the Science and Human Rights Collective and the University Network for Palestine and was moderated by journalist and UV Professor Lola Bañón, who has extensive experience in the Middle East. She is the author of Palestinians (Planeta publishing house), is Senior Academic Advisory Board of the Cambridge Centre for Palestinian Studies and an honorary member of the Board of Directors of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA Spain) and received the Amnesty International Award for the Defence of Human Rights and the Palestinian International Award of Excellence and Creativity.
Prior to Dr Abu-Sittah's lecture, Dr Nadia Yahli and Principal of the Universitat de València Dr Mavi Mestre spoke.
Secretary of the Department of Atomic Molecular and Nuclear Physics of the Universitat de València and researcher at the Institute of Corpuscular Physics (IFIC, a joint research centre of the Universitat de València and the Spanish Research Council) Nadia Yahlali spoke on behalf of the UV’s Science and Human Rights Collective, of which she is a founding member.
Stance of the Science and Human Rights Collective
In her speech, Nadia Yahlali expressed the recognition of the UV’s stance through the commitments made by the UV. These include a call for EU funding to be withheld from R+D activities with Israeli organisations, for administrative clauses to be included in UV public tenders to prevent the participation of companies that violate human rights, for agreements with Israeli organisations to be suspended until Israel's war on Gaza is over, and for the Spanish Government to join South Africa’s case against Israel.
She also expressed the disagreement of this collective with the fact that the UV does not take a stance on the Palestinian people kidnapped by Israel and to consider that the Israeli military action is genocide, as well as that the Palestinian-Israeli question is not the result of a process of decolonisation but of colonisation by Israel.
Finally, she called for the inclusion of transparency mechanisms to ensure ‘the monitoring of the agreements of the Governing Council’ regarding Palestine.
The camping disrupts the activity
The speech by the UV Principal Mavi Mestre was interrupted at the beginning by a small group of young people who accused the UV of adopting an ambiguous stance on Palestine and demanded that the UV ‘use terms such as colonialism and genocide.’
They introduced themselves as members of the UV Camping and pointed out the inadequacy of the statement approved by the Governing Council , claiming that the UV should demand the Spanish Government ‘the repeal of the Foreigners’ Law and the freedom of people imprisoned for ethnic reasons’, ‘the UV’s disapproval of reprisals by other universities’ and that the UV ‘recognises that the Governing Council’s statement is a result of the camping.’
Finally, they demanded the creation of a commission of 4 members from the camping and 4 members from the government in order to follow up on the Governing Council’s agreements.
They gave the Principal ‘until the Senate’s meeting on 18 July’ to do this.
The UV’s position on Palestine
After the interruption, Principal Mavi Mestre resumed her speech, recalling that ‘since October 2023, the Universitat de València has repeatedly expressed its position on Israel’s brutality in Gaza, the systematic violation of human rights and international law, the great loss of life and the premeditated destruction of basic infrastructures such as hospitals and educational centres. The university is against the Israel’s military intervention.’
The Principal recalled the clear stance of the Universitat de València and its support for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), stating that the UV’s commitment was not only in words, but in deeds.
The Governing Council approved 3 collaboration agreements with Palestinian universities (read the full text here) and reported a budget of 161,200 euros for grants for the Refuge Plan, aimed specifically at Palestinian students (read the full text here).
The Principal also stressed the different past and future activities to raise awareness of the situation in Gaza within the university community. She also informed that the Governing Council’s position on Palestine and the UV’s requests had been sent to both Spanish President Pedro Sánchez and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen (read the full text here).
‘The ecology of war’, according to Abu-Sittah
Ghassan Abu-Sittah began his conference by remembering his experiences in Palestine: the dispossession, the loss of property, the exile and the feeling of having no freedom of movement, ‘knowing that you can be arrested at any time.’
The British-Palestinian surgeon presented recent data, and the number of Palestinian deaths has risen to 35,000 people, at least in the morgue, but this represents only 40% of the total, since most bodies are buried under the rubble. He recalled his experience on 12 October 2023: ‘the smell of rotting bodies then came from inside the buildings.’
Read about the conference here.
Watch the full conference here.