Minister talks to ten students about Palestine protests

Could students express themselves safely? How did the demonstrations impact students? How good was the provision of information? These were the questions addressed by the Minister of Education, Eppo Bruijns, last Monday in a meeting with ten students from Amsterdam, Utrecht, Leiden, Groningen and Nijmegen, among others. They had been asked by the ministry to inform him about the atmosphere at their respective universities during the pro-Palestine demonstrations last spring.

The question was also received by the Utrecht University Council. Sven Hospers (VSP) and Anne (PvdUs) registered to participate in the meeting. Sven thinks it was an interesting conversation. "The minister was open and sympathetic to students' opinions." He noticed that most students sided with the demonstrators and felt that the executive boards of their universities did not listen enough to the activists. They also condemned the police actions that took place in several cities."

"These insights are certainly valuable, but the picture painted there was rather one-sided. The voices of students who were not involved in the protests were disregarded. We have tried to present that perspective on behalf of Utrecht students. For example, some students believe that the UU administration did listen to them and make an effort to talk to activists. Other students believe the administration should take dangerous situations, such as blocked emergency exits, into consideration.”

The minister did not voice an opinion himself, but at the end of the one-and-a-half-hour conversation, he said that the ministry would never impose a boycott on Israeli or Palestinian universities. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Education states that the minister plans on organising such conversations more often. “Sometimes with students, other times with employees. We do our best to get as multifaceted a picture as possible of what is going on at universities.”