By CARLOS AUGUSTO CALIL, LEDA PAULANI e SERGIO ROSEMBERG*
Process to expel students is based on 1972 regulations, during Laudo Natel's bionic government
1.
The University of São Paulo is filing disciplinary proceedings to expel four students from the molecular sciences course “for their conduct in advocating and disseminating (through the minutes and social media) hatred and discrimination against students.” The investigation, which is being conducted under confidentiality, is based on the General Regulations of USP, decree no. 52.906/1972, a rule issued under the bionic government of Laudo Natel.
This regulation was analyzed by the USP Truth Commission, chaired by the eminent professors Dalmo Abreu Dallari and Janice Theodoro da Silva, taking into account the pattern of human rights violations at USP during the dictatorship.
The final report issued several recommendations. Number 5 determined “Adjusting the General Regulations of the University, regarding disciplinary sanctions for faculty and students, in order to make them compatible with the democratic management of education, an integral principle of the Federal Constitution.”
Regrettably, USP did not comply with this recommendation to remove blatantly unconstitutional provisions from the regulations. Consequently, the prosecution invoked article 250 of the disciplinary regime: “Acts that violate morality or good customs” (a vague formulation that allowed the dictatorship to include whatever the authorities wanted under this label); “disrupting school work, as well as the functioning of the USP administration” (denying the right to strike, enshrined in the 1988 Constitution); “promoting demonstrations or propaganda of a political, partisan, racial or religious nature, as well as inciting, promoting or supporting collective absences from school work” (this cunning combination aimed to repress any criticism of the dictatorship and prohibit student protests).
The current process is supported by the minutes of the student assembly of the Favo 22 Academic Center, of the molecular sciences course, on 10/10/2023, which decided on the continuation of the student strike then in progress. It contains a report on the situation in Palestine after October 7 in Gaza, published by the newspaper FSP on 24/10/2024, considered by the coordinator of the molecular sciences course and by higher authorities as a manifestation of hatred and anti-Semitism. In the report, besides criticism of Israel, there is nothing that constitutes a hate crime or anti-Semitism.
2.
In a report released last Thursday (14), the NGO Human Rights Watch considers that the repeated evacuation orders in the Gaza Strip, imposing forced displacement on the population, amount to a “war crime”. And it states that “Israel’s actions also appear to fall within the definition of ethnic cleansing” in the areas where the Army ordered Palestinians to leave without being able to return.
On November 8, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk released a report showing how Palestinian civilians bore the brunt of the attacks resulting from the initial “complete siege” of Gaza by Israeli forces, which destroyed civilian infrastructure and led to repeated mass displacement. This conduct led to unprecedented levels of killing, death, starvation and disease.
The International Court of Justice in The Hague, the UN's highest judicial body, has underscored Israel's international obligations to prevent, protect against and punish acts of genocide in orders since 2023. It has also declared Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories illegal, as are settlements by Jewish settlers in those areas.
The students’ report addressed all of these issues, which were confirmed by UN decisions and reports over the 12 months since its publication in that report. If the Commission of Inquiry, when examining the students’ report, fails to take into account what has happened in Gaza over the past 12 months, it will be committing a flagrant injustice, as well as an unacceptable anachronism.
We hope that our colleagues on the Investigating Committee will not be intimidated by pressure from interest groups that are trying to use the University of São Paulo's departments to further their political agenda. We urge our colleagues to exonerate the students from the accusations and penalties of authoritarian origin that are weighing on their careers to the point of making them unviable, setting an example of justice.
Carlos Augusto Calil, Professor at the School of Communications and Arts at USP, former municipal secretary of Culture of São Paulo (2005-12).
*Leda Paulani, Senior professor at the Faculty of Economics at USP, she was Municipal Secretary of Planning for São Paulo (2013-2015).
*Sergio Rosemberg He is a senior professor at the Faculty of Medicine of USP and professor emeritus at the Faculty of Medical Sciences of Santa Casa de São Paulo..
Originally published in the newspaper Folha de S. Paul.
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