Protesting students urge University of Geneva to call for cease-fire, condemn Israeli genocide in Gaza

By Muhammet Ikbal Arslan

GENEVA (AA) - Students of the University of Geneva, who have been staging a pro-Palestine demonstration since May 7, demanded their university call for a cease-fire and condemn the Israeli genocide in Gaza.

Swiss student Elisabetta, who asked not to give her surname, told Anadolu: “We are here in solidarity with Palestinians and to condemn the genocide in Gaza.”

Mentioning that they have six demands in total, she said two of them are about “stopping any relation between the university in Israel and the University of Geneva.”

“We are also asking the university to call for a cease-fire and to condemn the genocide in Gaza,” she stressed.

Indicating that the protesting students are sleeping and eating in the protest camp, Elisabetta stated: “If they don’t accept our main demands, we are staying here until they do.”

Moroccan student Amira said they are protesting “to raise awareness about the genocide going on in Gaza.”

She underlined that they want their university to “take a position on what’s going on” and “speak about genocide going on in Gaza.”

“We also want them to cut ties with Israeli universities and we want them to stop all collaborations with this apartheid state,” she emphasized.

“We will stay, we will not leave until they hear what we have to say,” she warned, adding: “We will occupy this university as long as they don’t recognize the genocide going on.”

She stressed: “We really have to give everything we have to save Palestinians.”

Adam, a French student of Moroccan origin, also said that they have been holding this demonstration for the last five days “in solidarity with Gazan people who are being murdered right now.”

“We are ready to do whatever it takes to defend our cause,” he stated. “We will stay until our demands are met.”

Turkish student Nurevsan emphasized: “We are here to make our voices heard, to demand an end to the slaughter in Palestine.”

“We demand our school to take a definite position, and cut ties with Israeli universities,” she stressed.

Israel has waged an unrelenting offensive on the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by Hamas on Oct. 7 which killed some 1,200 people.

More than 35,000 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, mostly women and children, and 78,400 others injured, according to Palestinian health authorities.

Over seven months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins, pushing 85% of the enclave’s population into internal displacement amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January said it is "plausible" that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and ordered Tel Aviv to stop such acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

*Writing by Merve Berker in Ankara