How is the new Minister of Education going to react to pro-Palestine protests?

Is the new Minister of Education turning over a new leaf? Not when it comes to pro-Palestine protests at universities. So far, Minister Eppo Bruins is continuing in the same vein as his predecessor, Robbert Dijkgraaf, as is apparent from his reply to a motion and answers to written questions posed by MPs.

More than forty thousand casualties have been reported in Gaza so far, as a result of the ongoing strikes by the Israeli army following Hamas' terrorist attack on October 7, 2023. Several protests by students and members of staff have happened at Dutch universities, demanding them to cut ties with their Israeli counterparts and other Israeli institutions. In the protesters' view, Dutch universities are complicit in genocide by deciding to maintain these partnerships.  

Those opposing the protests criticise the acts of vandalism and anti-Semitic statements that happened in some of the demonstrations. Some members of Parliament fear that Jewish students might be intimidated by the protests.

Monitoring
Before the summer break, most MPs asked the Minister of Education to report any education institution that “does not offer students freedom, safety or accessibility”. Using the same calm tone his predecessor Robbert Dijkgraaf deployed in such cases, Bruins outlined the problem with the motion, saying that the minister is responsible for the higher education system as a whole. Therefore, he doesn’t have any information about safety and accessibility per institution.

However, most MPs would like him to report on this. That’s why the minister will sit with universities and universities of applied sciences to figure out a way to obtain insights into safety and accessibility “while endeavouring to keep things feasible and limit their administrative burden”.

Like his predecessor, it looks like Bruins wants to protect universities from the interference of worked-up MPs. This is also indicated in his answers to parliamentary questions about protests at the Rietveld Academy, a university of applied sciences focused on fine arts and located in Amsterdam.

Rietveld Academy occupied
Activists occupied a space at the Rietveld Academy for weeks. At some point, they also put up a banner carrying the controversial slogan "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free." Critics interpret that slogan as a call to wipe Israel off the map. Some even say that a Hamas brochure was distributed in the cafeteria.

Rietveld's Executive Board doesn’t know anything about such a brochure, Bruins states in response to questions asked by MPs on the subject. As for the banner, it has been removed. “I can imagine that students might feel unsafe due to these slogans. I am very sorry about that.” He expects the Executive Board to be mindful of this.

Other than that, the students complied with the rules set by the academy. “They left voluntarily when the academy asked them to in the context of the summer closure.”

A controversial directive on demonstrations issued by the association of Dutch universities says that occupations aren’t allowed, but Bruins explains that individual executive boards may deviate from the directive. “It is up to the board to judge what is necessary to guarantee safety in any specific local situation.”

The board of the Rietveld Academy let the occupiers be because similar demonstrations in other institutions ended with violence. “That was not my call to make”, writes Bruins.

“Keep going forward”
The new minister lists several promises that his predecessor, Dijkgraaf, made about safeguarding the safety of Jewish students and staff. For example, the ministry is studying whether complaint procedures are sufficiently attuned to reports of anti-Semitism. “I intend to keep going forward with these plans,” states Bruins.

In short, his answers indicate that he is standing up for protesters, board members and those who find their interests compromised. Even though much is expected to change with the arrival of the new government, some things may stay the same.