She has received messages from Jewish people who say: “I no longer dare or want to come to the UvA. Ten Dam also says she has received several messages from concerned students and staff. A number of Jewish scholars and students are also demanding this, NRC reported earlier this week.Īt the same time, Israeli and Jewish students with different views no longer dare to speak out at the UvA and feel unsafe, student rabbi Yanki Jacobs told the Volkskrant. Some seven hundred doctoral students, students, and staff have urged the UvA administration in an open letter to condemn Israeli actions against the Palestinians more strongly. She is concerned, “tremendously concerned.” First, about what has happened and continues to happen in Israel and Palestine – “horrific,” she feels, “degrading and heartbreaking.” But second, closer to home, about the university.įor the UvA, operating “safely and at a great distance from the war” is becoming noticeably more divisive. In that time, there has never been a conflict that, in Ten Dam’s words, “polarized so extremely quickly” at the UvA as the current situation in Israel and Palestine. Geert ten Dam has been president of the executive board of the UvA for about seven and a half years now.

We not who we are