Text by Aalto Students for Palestine
Original image by Artturi Jalli/Unsplash, edited by RASTER
On Monday the 5th of February we, members of Aalto Students for Palestine, had a meeting with Aalto University leadership regarding our letter addressed to them urging the university to take action in solidarity with Palestine. During the meeting, we discussed the main demands we had for the university and the university’s general stance regarding the unparalleled humanitarian crisis happening in Palestine. While we didn’t reach any definitive conclusions, and the university’s main argument to anything said was “We’re sorry but this is outside the scope of the university’s duties”, we do believe and hope that our meeting did awaken them and remind them of the core mission of higher education to act in service of humanity.
1. Statement from the University
The first demand that we had for the university was to provide an official statement about the current situation in Palestine. We suggested that the university doesn’t have to take a stance, but merely acknowledge the horrible events and express their support to students and staff that are affected. The school leadership refused to do so, stating that the school doesn’t get involved in any geo-political issues.
The leadership further stated that the school should treat every case equally, and as there are “many horrible things happening in the world”, they wouldn’t be able to show public support to all of them. When asked to name another “horrible event” of a similar scale that has taken place in the past 4 months – the University leadership was not able to provide any although they kept claiming their “hearts go to all staff and faculty that are suffering difficulties”. We urged the university to be consistent and play an active role in supporting its international academic community.
Keeping in mind university concerns and trying to make it easier for Aalto to provide support for impacted Aalto University community members, we suggested sending a simple and generic newsletter/email and reminding students and staff about existing Aalto support channels like “Starting point of wellbeing”. They refused this, stating that no extra support would be provided in this case as would be unfair to previous cases that received no extra recognition (E.g Sept. 22 in Iran and the 23’ earthquake in Turkey). Based on these discussions, we can only suggest the university reconsider its policies in regard to showing public support to its community. If the rules and policies were poorly designed in the past, maybe they call for a change so that the huge humanitarian crises that affect thousands of community members are acknowledged and adequate support is offered.
2. Ending partnerships with Israeli institutions
The second point we raised at our meeting was in regard to theethical review ofAalto University’s partnerships with Israeli institutions. Aalto has a bilateral student exchange partnership with Tel Aviv University Coller School of Management. Israeli universities are directly complicit in what the International Court of Justice has characterized as “a real and imminent risk” that Israel is in violation of the genocide convention. We presented the leadership with Tel Aviv University’s policy of giving financial support to its students participating in Israeli military operations in Gaza.We asked leadership if this described activity was in line with Aalto University’s values and ways of working. We did not get a definitive answer on this point. However, university leadership conceded that the actions we described were concerning and should merit a review of their current partnership.
The unique nature and direct relation of this genocide to Aalto lies in the university’s partnership with Israeli institutions that are taking an active part in the ongoing genocide. Thus, is it ethically correct for Aalto to “not take a stance” because horrible things are too many in the world to do something about them?
Additionally, we urge Aalto University to familiarize themselves and adhere to the principles of Boycott, Divest, Sanction framework (BDS), which was unknown to them when asked.
3. Support for Palestinian academia
Aalto University is a member of the Scholars at Risk (SAR) network. SAR published a call to action on December 18th calling for, among other things, its member institutions to support scholars and students from the region who are at risk; and protect and promote academic freedom and institutional autonomy. Aalto University leadership is aware of this call to action, but when pressed on any specific actions from the school, the President and Provost were unaware of any specific actions Aalto University has taken in response to this urgent call. University leadership went further to state that they have ruled out making any new partnerships in the “affected area”. We infer from this, that (due to plausible moral deprivation or economic interests) Aalto leadership does not view supporting Palestinian academics and educational institutions as reasonable.
4. Seminar and open discussions at Aalto
We proposed to organize a seminar in cooperation with Aalto University. The seminar would be a forum for an open community discussion framed by the issue of Palestine and the role of Academia in times of humanitarian crises. Our proposal was met with unexpectedly strong resistance. The very idea of discussing Palestine in an academic setting raised concerns by the President and Provost that people might be “offended” or ”harassed” and they practically put a taboo on discussions of the ongoing genocide in the university. They suggested that this type of event would be better organized somewhere outside of Aalto, because of the perceived difficulty to bring involved representatives together.
Even after explaining the academic and inclusive nature of the event, the leadership was quite negative about this idea. We hope that we find a way to collaborate on organizing this important seminar at Aalto and not “somewhere else”.
General conclusions
The leadership was verbally supportive of the proactivity of the Aalto Students for Palestine, repeatedly emphasizing how it is the “community that should be active” and “not the institution”. In stark contrast to the previous actions taken by some of the university staff, the leadership commended us for being active and stressed that the university is not suppressing or silencing the movement. Also, as the leadership stressed that the university follows the Finnish law on protests and public meetings, it can be inferred from their words that from now on demonstrating on campus will not be disrupted.
While stressing the horrible nature of the situation in Palestine, part of the leadership also stated that they “do not have enough information to take a stance on this’’. Considering the scale of said atrocities that have taken place in the past 126 days, alongside the fact that the genocide has been building up for decades, this level of ignorance should not be possible, particularly had the leadership read the list of references in our letter.
Calls to action and expectations from Aalto
Justice and peace do not result from inactivity but require concrete actions and commitment on both communal and institutional levels. While the university leadership believes that “freedom of thought includes freedom not to act or take a stance”, we know that with freedom comes responsibility and in the face of such horrific violence and injustice, inaction and willful ignorance is no longer an option. Aalto University is not a passive bystander, but a participant in an institutional framework supporting Israel’s criminal actions.
We reiterate our expectations from Aalto University:
- Acknowledge the critical situation in Palestine (without necessarily taking a stance) and send a simple email supporting all affected parties
- Review partnerships and end them in line with Aalto University values and Ways of Working
- Act on the Scholars at Risk Call to Action. Take proactive steps to provide support for Palestinian academia
- Adopt the principles of Boycott, Divest, Sanction
- Cooperate in organizing a community forum on the issue of Palestine and the role of Academia
We don’t believe anyone whose home country was met with a crisis in the past few years would be unhappy seeing Aalto expressing their acknowledgement and support towards people affected by the situation in Palestine. Aalto leadership should divorce itself from the false narrative that if they can’t support everyone everywhere, they have no obligation to support anyone at all.
The open letter we delivered to university leadership on 29.1. was signed by over 650 Aalto students, alumni, and staff. If Aalto refrains from following any of the points presented, Aalto University disregards the ethical actions to be taken, as well as a vast part of its own community.
We recognize that the institution is in a hard spot – this moment requires moral leadership and proactive efforts beyond what Aalto is accustomed to. It seems that there are some difficulties in deciphering what sort of institutional partners align with the university’s values and what constitutes consistent community support. Ideally in a healthy community, global and societal responsibilities are not left to weigh the shoulders of a few; individually provided mental help and wellbeing barely relieve symptoms when their actual cause (racism and settler-colonial violence) is actively ignored. The genocide unfolding live before our eyes is unprecedented in its scale. During the course of our meeting, the President of the university agreed that this case is new for Aalto as well. Unfortunately, the efforts from the university have so far been lacking. We believe that Aalto should view this lack as an opportunity for change and improvement, in order to act in accordance with the values Aalto University subscribes to as an institution. If the course of inaction (and lack of acknowledgement) continues, we can only wonder what kind of a world Aalto University seeks to bring into being?
Sincerely,
Aalto Students for Palestine
Aalto Students for Palestine is a collective demanding justice for the Palestinians. You can follow them on Instagram at @aalto_studentsforpalestine . If you would like to hear more about future events by Aalto Students for Palestine or contact them, email: AaltoStudentsForPalestine@proton.me .
RASTER.FI 