Students of the University of Iceland and the Iceland University of the Arts went on strike yesterday, putting forward a series of demands regarding what they see as the institutions’ apathy towards, or complicity in, Israel’s military incursions against Palestine. Vísir reports that around 200 students gathered at Háskólatorg at the University of Iceland to make their demands heard.
Taking a clear position
According to a statement to the press, the student demands were the following:
1. “That the University of Iceland and all its departments take a clear stance against the genocide in Palestine and the cultural murder taking place in Gaza.”
2. “That the University of Iceland and all its departments disconnect all cooperation with Israeli universities and related institutions and not create new cooperative efforts.”
3. “That the University of Iceland make public all its and its departments’ connections to Israeli universities, institutions, companies or related parties and sever all connections with them at once.”
4. “That the University of Iceland takes an active role in re-building Gaza’s education system, increase cooperation with Palestinian universities, and otherwise support the education of students in Gaza, e.g. by offering them long distance learning at the University of Iceland.”
Icelanders supportive of Palestine
As reported, Minister of Social Affairs and Labour Guðmundur Ingi Guðmundsson of the Left-Greens recently became the first Icelandic minister to call Israel’s actions in Palestine a genocide, and voiced support for a motion from another party member for Iceland to impose economic sanctions on Israel.
Meanwhile, a recent Maskína poll showed that most Icelanders are supportive of the Palestinian cause, with 54.4% stating they sympathised much more with the Palestinian cause than Israel while 18.1% stated they sympathised somewhat more with Palestine.
