Open letter to the Presidential Board and the AStA of Johannes-Gutenberg-UniversitÀt Mainz
We, the Students for Palestine Mainz, have formed in response to the genocide against the Palestinian people to show solidarity with Palestinians as well as the worldwide student protests. Together, we aim to educate and mobilize students regarding the catastrophic situation in Palestine. We condemn Germany's silence and complicity and hereby call on JGU to take a clear stance and position itself against the genocide that is being financed and conducted with German weapons and German money.
We demand an end to the support of Israeli war crimes through the disclosure of the final use of all research results achieved in collaboration with Israeli institutes. This requires the disclosure and severance of all (especially economic) connections to all (both German and Israeli) groups, institutions, and companies that are connected to the Israeli military and are thus demonstrably actively involved in the genocide. Furthermore, we expect JGU to dedicate itself as intensively and quickly as possible to the academic remembrance and reappraisal of the shared history between Germany and Palestine. This should include a Palestine Studies professorship with teaching positions and educational opportunities.
Additionally, we demand a public declaration in which the university leadership expresses solidarity with the protesting students and university staff. The disproportionate police violence against peaceful protests must be condemned in particular. Universities must create spaces where freedom of speech and criticism of prevailing conditions are not only possible but supported and encouraged.
Furthermore, the genocide against the Palestinian people must be recognized as one. In this regard, we refer to the ICJ ruling of January 26, 2024, following South Africa's genocide lawsuit. Consequently, the university should advocate for a ceasefire, an end to the occupation, and the investigation of Israeli war crimes, and take a firm stand against the ongoing German arms deliveries to Israel.
In our self-understanding as an antifascist, anticolonial, and antiracist organization, we stand clearly against any form of anti-Semitism, as well as anti-Palestinian and anti-Muslim racism. Therefore, it is essential for us that JGU acknowledges the structural anchoring of anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian racism in public debates, society, and the educational system. Employees and students who exercise their right to assembly and free speech must be protected and supported by the university.
Lastly, we advocate for a political campus where, in particular, the AStA must recognize its power to act and actively engage on behalf of the students it claims to represent. In this regard, we strongly condemn the repressions from JGU that have increasingly taken place in the last months. Recently, the Roundtable Antidiskriminierung issued a statement clearly showing how racist prejudices and generalizations are silencing critical voices, which threatens the opportunity for diverse discourse at JGU.
The university's house rules currently prohibit general political activity on campus. Universities, as educational institutions, should not be completely neutral, apolitical spaces; rather, they should allow and support debates and controversies. We demand the replacement of this ban with a right to general political activity and events at the university, as well as the demilitarization of JGU through a civil clause. The expulsion of students or termination of employees' contracts due to their stance on the genocide, as has been threatened at other German universities, is an antidemocratic practice that can in no way be justified at our university.
We hereby invite you to engage in a dialogue with us through a panel discussion, round table, or similar format.
Contact
E-Mail: [email protected]
Instagram: @studentsforpalestinemainz
The undersigned support the demands formulated in this open letter to the Presidential Board and the AStA of JGU Mainz.