Boycott Debate
Wednesday the 19th from 17:00h to 19:00h SSP organized a debate between Omar Barghouti, Han van der Maas and Yolande Jansen.
Omar Barghouti is a founding committee member of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) and a co-founder of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. He received the Gandhi Peace Award in 2017.
Han van der Maas is Professor of Psychological Methods and Distinguished Research Professor of Complex Systems in the Social and Behavioural Sciences at the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences at the University of Amsterdam. He is the principal author of a recent petition that speaks out against the bloccades and occupations that have been part of the student protests.
Yolande Jansen is Associate Professor of Social and Political Philosophy at the Department of Philosophy at the University of Amsterdam. She also is a Special Professor for the Socrates-foundation at VU University, where she holds the chair for ‘Humanism in relation to religion and secularity’.
The debate was moderated by Maja, a third year’s AUC student that has been active in SSP since the beginning.
The statements for the debate were:
- Are student-led BDS-related mobilizations in solidarity with Palestinians justified?
- Should Dutch universities react to the ICJ warning of a plausible risk of genocide in Gaza?
- Universities are educational, not political, institutions. Wouldn’t taking a stand on Gaza undermine their neutrality and mission?
- The occupations of university buildings have led to more Dutch support for Israel, not less. Polarization does not increase the chances of a cease-fire or a long-term two-state solution.