Belgium’s University of Ghent (UGent) decided to sever ties with three Israeli pedagogy and research institutions in response to overwhelming Pro-Palestine protests that call for divestment from all firms complicit with ‘Israel’.
The institutions include Holon Institute of Technology, MIGAL Galilee Research Institute and the Volcani Centre, which carries out agricultural research, according to the university’s rector, Rik Van de Walle.
The decision to divest from these institutions meets with Pro-Palestine protests against Israel’s deadly offensive in Gaza, resulting from the students occupation of parts of the university earlier this month.
The University decision was welcomed by the pro-Palestine protesters as they told Belgian broadcaster VRT that they would continue their occupation of parts of the university “until UGent breaks its ties with all Israeli institutions”.
On May 13th, the University of Cambridge’s wealthiest constituent college, Trinity College, also declared it has decided to divest from all pro-Israel arms companies following a vast wave of pro-Palestine students’ protests.
In an open letter, more than 1,700 Cambridge staff, alumni, and students signed a letter expressing their immense support for students’ protest encampment that pressured the university to end any potential complicity in Israel’s war on Gaza.
In fact, the Brown university had a domino effect on other universities after it finally conceded to the students’ demands and agreed to conduct a referendum to be the first US university to consider divesting from the Israeli occupation.
Brown University was the first point of confrontation and the seed of the student uprising that blossomed at Columbia and spread across 26 other American and European universities.
After 7 months of continuous sit-ins, protests, occupying university buildings and declaring an open hunger strike, the students of Brown University has ultimately wrested their victory reached a deal with the university administrators to divest from all Israeli companies.
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