Students return to camp at a Lisbon college, but protest does not stop classes | Gaza

Academic activities proceeded normally despite the protest over the end of the war in Gaza and the use of fossil fuels that is occupying the atrium of the Faculty of Psychology of the University of Lisbon.

The students set up eight camping tents in the building’s courtyard, pasted banners and posters with the messages “End Genocide”, “End Fossil by 2030”, “From Lisbon to Rafah, Palestine Will Win”, “Student Resistance Bloc — End to police repression”, “Our future above fossil profits” or “100% Renewable Electricity”. In the early afternoon of Wednesday, May 8, the number of tents rose to 14.

In a response sent to Lusa on Tuesday night, Luís Miguel Carvalho, director of the Institute of Education, and Telmo Mourinho Baptista, director of the Faculty of Psychology, said that the institutions were surprised by the student protest, which occupied a building shared by both schools at the University of Lisbon. “No authorization was requested to hold the protest”, they stressed, adding that “so far the normal functioning of the activities has not been called into question.”

“The management spoke to the students and clarified that, as communicated this Tuesday to our academic communities, they favor the coexistence of the protest demonstration with the development of the planned academic activities”, they highlighted.

Speaking to P3, Vasco Pereira, member of the Student Justice in Palestine collective at FSCH, the college where he studies, said that the protest was planned over the last few weeks, inspired by the international student movement at universities in the United States, Europe, Latin America and Australia.

The Faculty of Psychology was not alerted not to prevent the camp from taking place, says the Anthropology student.

“We wanted the occupation to have a shock effect and that’s why we didn’t notify the college management. The objective was to be able to set up the tents without having the police waiting for us and to attract the attention of the student community to join us”, he explains. After the occupation, reveals the 21-year-old, the management announced that “it would not call the police to disperse the students”.

“Peaceful protest” with debates, dinners and concerts

​Classes have not been cancelled, but this does not mean that the students who are participating in the protest are attending them. Vasco Pereira highlights that “this is not a concern for the protesters” who are calling for an end to the war in Gaza.

Catarina Bio, 21, spokesperson for the occupation, explained to Lusa that the protesters promoted a “political program to explain how the problem of fossil colonialism and the problem of genocide that is happening in Gaza are exactly the same: this system that puts profit above people’s lives.” The students, she explained, are determined to remain camped and have organized themselves into working groups.

Ocupa.FPUL

Ocupa.FPUL

Vasco is one of them. On Tuesday night he was one of 70 students who joined the camp. In addition to the Faculty of Psychology and the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences (​FSCH), the protest also brings together students from the Faculty of Law, ISCTE, Nova Medical School and some secondary schools in Lisbon.

“We had a community dinner to meet new people and this afternoon we will have a talk with a Palestinian professor about life in Gaza and, in the evening, a concert. It is a peaceful protest with a good atmosphere. We encourage students and non-students to join us.”

This Wednesday, May 8th, there are close to 30 protesters who continue to occupy the entrance to the institution with tents.

The FSCH student also says that the camp at the Faculty of Psychology has no end date. The next objective, he says, is to “expand” the demonstrations to other locations and universities.

Protests continued on Tuesday in several European cities, such as Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam or Geneva, in some cases repressed by police forces and with the arrests of dozens of activists. This Wednesday, students from the University of Porto are gathered at Praça de Gomes Teixeira, next to the Rectory building.