‘Ashamed’ Amsterdam alumni to return diplomas after school cuts ties with Hebrew U.
Graduates, including a former Dutch Supreme Court justice and a former foreign minister, accuse UvA of capitulating to violent anti-Israel activists who occupied campuses last year
AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands — More than 50 alumni of the University of Amsterdam will return their diplomas on Friday to protest their alma mater’s decision to unilaterally cut ties with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
The board of the school, which goes by the acronym UvA, decided last week to put an end to the school’s student exchange program with Hebrew University because of what it calls “concerns about academic freedom” and the risk that academic cooperation could benefit the Israel Defense Forces.
But critics, including a growing number of Dutch politicians, accuse the university of bowing to the demands of violent anti-Zionist activists who occupied two of its campuses in the Dutch capital in May. Vandalism and violent clashes between police and masked rioters caused more than 4 million euros ($4.3 million) in damage.
At the time, UvA rector Peter-Paul Verbeek was heavily criticized for negotiating with masked protestors and not dismissing their demands to cut all ties with Israeli universities. Instead, the school agreed to set up a committee to examine its ties with outside schools.
The university said this month it had decided to accept the commission’s recommendations to end its cooperation with Hebrew University, as well as some Hungarian institutions. At the same time, it announced it would continue collaborating with the Chinese Scholarship Council, despite concerns of PhD students being forced to share information with Beijing or pledge allegiance to the Chinese government.
Detractors characterized the decision as a double standard toward the Jewish state. In a statement announcing the protest, the 50 alumni expressed “shame” over the school’s behavior.
“UvA should instead have taken measures to protect the safety of Jewish students who feel threatened by the explicitly anti-Zionist character of protests at the university,” the statement read.
Their diplomas “are no longer a source of pride,” the alumni added.
On Friday, the alumni will return their diplomas to UvA board chair Prof. Edith Hooge. This will be done on the school’s Roeterseiland campus, one of the sites that had to be cleared by riot police last year.
Among the alumni taking part are former Dutch foreign affairs minister Uri Rosenthal, who initiated the campaign, former deputy chief justice of the Dutch Supreme Court Ernst Numann, and Ronny Naftaniel, founder of the Center for Information and Documentation on Israel.
Another notable participant is Keyvan Shahbazi, an Iranian writer who fled to the Netherlands in 1983 after being tortured by the Islamist regime in Tehran.
Rosenthal is currently chairman of the Iran Free Committee, for which he was put on an Iranian terror list. Many Dutch Persians can be seen at pro-Israel protests.
“The quality of universities degenerates when they cowardly have their policies dictated by professional activists who often have no connection to said universities,” the alumni statement said.
The Times of Israel Community.