By UNICAMP UNIVERSITY COUNCIL e UNIRIO UNIVERSITY COUNCIL.
Motions from two university councils
Motion of the University Council of the State University of Campinas
The University Council of Unicamp repudiates acts of violence against civilian populations in the Middle East and, in particular, condemns the brutal atrocities in the Gaza Strip. Therefore, it demands an urgent ceasefire in order to stop the genocidal barbarity in the region.
We understand that the University Council should not remain silent or remain silent in the face of the worsening humanitarian tragedy evidenced by the permanent and endless massacre of the Palestinian civilian population.
Through this public position, Consu expresses the commitment of the Unicamp academic community to ending the occupation of Palestinian territories, against the hateful regime of apartheid, in defense of a free and sovereign Palestine and the expectation of a democratic, secular and peaceful future throughout the region.
Motion of the University Council of UNIRIO against the genocide of the Palestinian people
CONSUNI, the University Council of UNIRIO, as the most important space for deliberation of our University, located in a country that still suffers the effects of a colonial policy of domination, located in a state that experiences daily and intense violence that is the result of the colonial condition, comes to the public to position itself in solidarity with the Palestinian people, who have historically suffered from genocidal and colonialist policies.
The Palestinian people have suffered the results of colonial policy for many years. With the advancement of Zionist ideas at the end of the 2023th century, a false idea was also created that the Palestinian territory would be “a land without a people for a people without a land”, choosing it as the appropriate space for the creation of a Jewish state. Since then, Zionism has intensified its efforts to expand its dominion over Palestinian territory, with the help of international allies in its colonial project, such as the British in the early XNUMXth century and the United States today. Therefore, the oppression of the Palestinian people will not begin in October XNUMX or with the creation of the Zionist state of Israel.
What we are witnessing today is a true genocide against the Palestinian people, carried out in front of cameras and televised to the entire world. The most recent offensive, which has the false pretext of liquidating Hamas, does not spare any Palestinian citizen, regardless of gender or age. We constantly see hundreds of civilians, children, young people and women being shot and bombed under the false pretense of being close to supposed military targets. We cannot even be sure of the exact number of victims, given the degree of violence of the attacks.
As of October 7, 2023, we have confirmation that at least 40.000 Palestinians have been killed in attacks by Israeli military forces, about 2% of the population, and that at least 22.500 Palestinians have suffered serious injuries, such as limb amputation, spinal cord damage, and traumatic brain injuries.
It is difficult to find and identify bodies, given the situation in bombed cities and the brutal violence of the attacks, so there is a clear possibility that the data on deaths of Palestinian citizens is underreported. According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, Israeli forces have targeted 69 percent of school buildings used as shelters for displaced people in the Gaza Strip.
Israel's attacks on targets such as schools, universities and educational spaces reinforce the character of genocide against the Palestinian people. On January 17, 2024, Israeli occupation forces in Gaza blew up the last university that still resisted the bombings and remained standing, Al-Azhar University.
Schools are also not spared and so far, approximately 85% of schools located in the Gaza Strip have been directly bombed or damaged by attacks. Universities and educational spaces mean, for a people, the transmission of their knowledge, their culture and the production of technology.
The systematic bombings are not tragic coincidences, but a genocidal tactic to annihilate the Palestinian people. The goal of this practice is to prevent the Palestinians who are still alive from having the right to education, not only during the period of cruel attacks that we see every day, but forever. How can we continue our academic activities while remaining silent in the face of a televised genocide? How can we pretend to be normal while watching an entire people being annihilated little by little and having their right to education degraded through genocide?
Brazil, as a country located on the periphery of global capitalism, with a predominantly racialized population that is a victim of daily and systematic violence, typical of our model of sociability, has the duty to take a firm stance. We are seeing some important positions from equally peripheral countries that were and are victims of colonialism, such as Colombia, which broke off diplomatic relations with Israel, and South Africa, which denounced the genocide perpetrated by Israel in the Hague, to name just two.
If historically it was humanity's duty to combat the genocide of the Jewish people during the Holocaust, today it is the world's duty to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people and actively fight to ensure that the genocide carried out by the State of Israel ends immediately.
The University Council of UNIRIO expresses its full solidarity with the Palestinian people and vehemently repudiates the genocide perpetrated by the State of Israel. It is necessary for Brazil to take concrete measures, in addition to public statements, to contribute to the fight against genocide: break off diplomatic, commercial, military and academic relations with Israel. Brazil must take a public stance, but beyond that, take concrete measures to ensure an immediate ceasefire.
The UNIRIO academic community does not condone genocides.
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