Protest Camp for Gaza at the University of Vienna and Counterdemonstration

🚨 Update 🚨 May 9th – last night 11:20 pm the police raided and dismantled the encampment 😱

Since Monday May 6th, six to eight tents are set on the Campus of the Vienna University to remind the passers-by that one of the cruelest war is taking place in Gaza with the support of Western countries. The protesters group, “Palestine Solidarity Encampment Vienna”, published clear demands:

In the time I spent there, there were paroles like “Free Palestine” or “No justice no Peace”. On the banners you could read “Student Intifada Camp”, “Hands off Rafah”, “No Feminist Struggle without Palestine” or “Stop Arming Israel”.

The conservative Education Minister Martin Polaschek had clear words against the protests on Monday evening: “There is no place for anti-Semites and extremists at Austria’s universities” said Polaschek to the Standard, as if the student Encampment had anything to do with anti-Semitism! He added, “Freedom of science applies in our country, but we have zero tolerance towards any form of extremist and anti-Israeli attitudes. I therefore strongly condemn all activities and protests that relativize terrorism, incite hatred and denigrate people.” Pure defamation!

Today May 8th, I was on the Encampment and did not notice any paroles that could be understood as anti-Semitism or would relativize terrorism. I spent some time with representatives from “Not in our name” and “Judeobolschewiener✡innen” who stayed behind a banner where one could read “Jews against Genocide”. On another one, larger, one could see:

At noon, the Union of Jewish Students gathered for a few hours in the same Campus area, 50 meters away, to protest against this Encampment. At least 100 members of the police stood between the two demonstrations. On their banner, the Jewish students had “Rape is not Resistance!”

These counterdemonstrators where about 20, most of them had their face hidden because they didn’t want “to be filmed by the Iranian TV”, as they told me. Some them had an LGBT-Antifa flag, others a large banner with “Jin Jiyan Azadî” (“Woman, Life, Freedom” in Kurdish) in big letters a below, “Against Islamism, Fascism and Patriarchate”. As if the people concerned with the humanitarian disaster in Gaza were Islamists, Fascists and Sexists!

I talked with Alon Ishay, head of the Union of the Jewish Students I met earlier in November at a talk-show on the Austrian TV (YouTube). I aksed about the meaning of “Rape is not Resistance!”, he told me he was there because of the call for intifada, which, in his view, means terrorism. When I reminded him the word rather meant in a Palestinian context “civil uprising”, he stayed on his believes.

On the same day, the University of Vienna sent to its employees an email condemning the peaceful occupation of a small green area of the Campus:

« The University of Vienna firmly distances itself from the “Pro Palestine Protests” on campus. According to the assessment of the executive, an eviction is currently not possible. The University is continuing to examine all legal options in consultation with the police.« 

Quite a violent tone against 50 to 100 students who are just peacefully expressing their concerns about the actual bombings and killings in Gaza, angry against the many injustices taking place in the historical Palestine. Just like the German government, its Austrian counterpart is blindly supporting the actual extreme-right warmongers in Israel, not aware that “Nie wieder” (Never again) should also apply to what Palestinians are enduring.




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Published on May 08, 2024 07:18
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