Dear ACASA Board Members,

We are writing to you as the students and staff of the University of Amsterdam’s Centre for Ancient Studies and Archaeology. We want to voice our concern and disappointment with the university’s response to the protests happening since Monday afternoon. We hope that you, as our faculty’s ACASA board members, will join us in condemning the UvA’s choice of sending in the ME, i.e., riot police, onto students and staff. As workers who are directly involved with the administration of the university, you hold the power to inspire and negotiate.

The events of this week have shocked us greatly. We have listed four events that we deem to be endangering the safety of the protestors.

Additionally, many of the police brutality instances have been documented by the media and students themselves, yet the UvA evades its responsibility and the promise of “student and staff safety”. Some students from the ACASA were also present at the protests and witnessed the extreme acts of violence first-hand. Freedom of speech and freedom of assembly are democratic rights, and it is shocking to see the extensive violence used to suppress them. The university is an educational space which often calls its students “the future”. In ACASA, we have learnt how history and archaeology can be twisted to fit certain narratives, and we often condemn it in an academic space. We ask this question – why are the students, educated by the very university repressing them, not allowed to speak out when they see injustice?

As community members of a university with a worldwide reputation in what is deemed to be one of the safest cities in Europe, the ones that were not safe this week were the student and staff protesters. More than 150 people were arrested and released on Tuesday morning, and many are still in the police stations from Wednesday. The disproportional violence used by the police forces against peacefully protesting students and staff should not be tolerated. Moreover, the UvA Executive Board’s swift decision to call in the riot police on university body members is shameful and upsetting.

We write this letter to urge you to consider the severity of the events, and critically reflect on the repression of students by the university, as well as the police. You have a more influential voice in the administration of the university than students. Though we are small in numbers, our voices matter just as much. Even if we have differing views on the genocide in Gaza, we should all agree that police brutality, authorised by the university and city council against peaceful protestors, should not be tolerated.

It has also been addressed that, as a highly diverse academic community which aims to be transparent and tolerant in its claims and views, and inclusive despite differences of opinion, the concerned party writing this letter cannot claim to speak for the entire department. Everyone has the right to 'vehemently disagree with each other', as the most recent responses of the UvA's Executive Board reiterated, or to form no opinion at all. However, our concerns are focused explicitly on the fact that, due to the disproportionate response of the university to the recent events, trust and the possibility of a safe space for open dialogue has been affected in a way which will require great efforts from both parties to rebuild. Especially since there is an increasing number of claims in the media attesting to police brutality directed towards protesters and non-protesters alike. Nevertheless, this letter does not claim to speak for the whole department instead, it represents the people who deliberately chose to disclose their name.

We thank you for taking the time to read this letter, and we hope you will consider our concerns seriously.

Sincerely,

The Students and Staff of ACASA who chose to renounce their right to anonymity