“Everyone is suddenly so interested in how we walk,” Ellen De Meuter (18) says laughing to a friend. Together with about a hundred other students, she walks through Jozef Plateaustraat on Monday afternoon. At the initiative of the action groups End Fossil and Students4Palestine, the students are on their way to a Ghent University building that they want to occupy. De Meuter laughingly points to the many cameramen and journalists who closely follow their journey. Unlike many other activists, she and her friend do not have a sleeping mat, backpack or tent with them. “But later I will go back to my room to get a blanket,” says the philosophy student.
Finally the group stops about a hundred meters further, at the University Forum of Ghent University – better known as the UFO. They will occupy that place until Wednesday, says Siska* (23), who studies political science and speaks for the two action groups organizing the occupation. The activists want to put pressure on the university to cut its academic ties with Israeli institutions and invest in its sustainability policy. “A clear signal that Ghent University cannot ignore,” De Meuter agrees. She will stay until Tuesday. “Afterwards I have a test, and I have to go to my niece’s birthday party.”
Steaming tomato soup
Less than five minutes after the group arrived in the entrance hall of the UFO, someone started loudly chanting pro-Palestinian slogans. Someone else waves a Palestinian flag, and soon the entire group joins in shouting. From “UGent, you can’t hide, you’re supporting genocide!” to “What do we want? Climate justice. When do we want it? Now”. A little later the controversial “From the river to the sea” will also be heard through a megaphone. A handful of students are now hanging homemade posters against the windows. About fifteen other students set up their tents in the same spot.
One of them is Esther*, a 24-year-old Arabic studies student. She is standing close to her blue tent, where she will sleep with three fellow students. “I was on exchange in Egypt when the war broke out in Gaza,” she says. “There I saw how deeply affected people were by the conflict. I also know how unequal the balance of power is and saw how emotional the conflict is. I brought that feeling here.” She plans to stay until the end of the occupation. “Hopefully so. You never know when they’ll break camp, but I suspect not. In that respect, I have a lot of confidence in Ghent University and the police, it will not get to the point here as in the US.”
The organization itself also seems convinced of this. During the occupation they planned workshops and speeches, and in the middle of the hall, members of the cooking team opened wooden tables. They serve steaming tomato soup from large pots, and students can also grab a pear from one of the cardboard boxes next to it. These are donations from organizations, but there are also volunteers who cook meals, says a boy who does the dishes. Not much later, Judith Spotbeen (67) from Ghent arrives. She takes a bottle of fruit juice and a liter of water from her backpack. “If I were a little younger, I would join them myself,” she says, pointing to the tents. “But now I couldn’t get out of that.” (laughs)
“Links protest”
Yet not everyone understands the protest. At one of the side entrances, a group of four boys look around confused. “We were on our way to the Okay opposite here when we passed by and saw the tents against the windows,” says Jerko Verstuyft (17), who is in his first year of commercial studies. “These are special scenes. I would like to speak to someone, because we wonder what the intention is.” When the group hears that the occupiers are demanding an academic boycott of Israel and at the same time more sustainability measures, Verstuyft raises his eyebrows. “What is the link between Palestine and a more sustainable policy?”
His friend Ilias Sorgeloos (18), who is in his first year of law school, is especially curious about how the university will respond. “I don’t want to say anything about my views here,” he says, “but the occupation is clearly quite left-wing. I wonder if the university would react the same way when it came to far-right activists. How long should they be allowed to stand here with their tents and wave their flags?”
End Fossil and Students4Palestine explicitly emphasize that they are party independent. Rumors are circulating on X that the occupation is linked to Comac, the student association of the PVDA. “But that is not the case,” says spokesperson Siska. She also emphasizes that the occupation had been planned for a long time and was not inspired by the protests in the US. “Although it remains inspiring that academics and students around the world are taking action.”
It is not yet known what the students will do if their demands are not met by Wednesday. , but there is currently no question of an extension of the occupancy. Ghent University previously announced that the university board “never gives permission to occupy a building”. Anyone who does take such actions must at all times respect general rules, such as the use of stewards. Ghent University does not plan to stop collaborations with Israeli institutions for the time being.
*Siska and Esther are pseudonyms.
