The Italian-Palestinian writer from Pavia: «Universities as a bridge between Israel and Palestine»

I want to start by saying two things: the first is that I speak on my own behalf. I want to underline this just as I want to underline the fact that, in addition to being Italian, I have the status of a Palestinian refugee with Jordanian citizenshipsince my father, together with all his relatives, took refuge in Jordan when a good part of Palestinian villages were displaced following the birth of the state of Israel 76 years ago.

I would also like to say that I feel aimmense gratitude for those who, for weeks, have made it their personal priority to carry forward a cause that would otherwise have remained buried under headlines and news completely unbalanced in favor of only one side, not the Palestinian one.

I also feel admiration and a bit of envy for the tenacity and absoluteness with which the students advance their requests. I spent my adolescence in Jordan, in a Palestinian refugee campI was studying in an UNRWA school. These were the years of the Intifada, and when some demonstration was organized at school in support of relatives who remained in the occupied territories throwing stones, my father prevented me from participating; too dangerous, he told me. I didn’t understand and I got angry until I noticed how the day after the demonstrations a good part of those who had participated disappeared for a certain period and that when they reappeared certain topics became taboo.

Today I live in my native country, Italy, where there is freedom of expression and demonstration. I am no longer a teenager and I express my battles with the pen. Seeing the students in the Volta courtyard, I wondered what requests they made that the rector did not accept. I have read the petition dated May 29, 2024. In this document, Youth for Palestine asks the university to take a clear position of condemnation regarding the perpetration of human rights violations by the Israeli government against the civilian population in Palestine and, in particular, in Gaza.

What I think is that if many young people have a clear opinion regarding these facts it can only give us hope that the future can be better, at least than the present. Let’s be clear: until October 7th, the Palestinian question was no longer discussed. Perhaps in contemporary history books a chapter was dedicated to the birth of the State of Israel, but to find out more you had to be really passionate or have some Palestinian friend who could also show you the other side of the coin.

In just a few months, these young people have developed a clear culture and opinion, guided by a simple equation: you have taught us to repudiate violence and condemn the horrors of the past, that we are the champions of freedom and peace. So, just as we condemned Hamas for the violence of October 7, we condemn the violence and violation of human rights by Israel that has continued since then and which has produced the inhumane figures that we all know.

But Why is university intervention important? In my opinion, it is important first and foremost for human, civil and intellectual coherence, for the above equation. Furthermore, because, at the sight of universities razed to the ground, schools attacked with hundreds of refugees, women and children inside, professors and teachers killed, but also many young people and children left orphaned or mutilated or all things together, it is duty of academics to raise their hand and say: enough!

Thirdly, and here I differ from the students’ request: if it’s true that culture makes us better, then it is duty of universities to step forward. Not to boycott, but to act as a bridge, involving both Palestinian and Israeli institutes and intellectuals. Because there are Israeli intellectuals who repudiate what is happening in Palestine, and not from today. For several years, our university has undertaken some shared projects with the University of Bethlehem, just as the Municipality of Pavia is twinned with the Municipality of the city of Bethlehem. Relations with the Holy Land are nothing new for us people from Pavia. Why not think of our university as one leader of others who want to open a dialogue with the aim of exerting constructive pressure so that this horror ends and so that the young people of those territories can start to hope again.

I am aware that the word “dialogue” in this historical period may seem anachronistic. Today, there is a lot of anger, hatred, despair and death. However, it is precisely in these dark circumstances that we must act with greater clarity and foresight to achieve a permanent ceasefire. I therefore invite the rector and all academic institutions to take a courageous position and become promoters of a bridge between peoples. Only in this way can we hope for a future in which the young people of those territories can resume studying and living a dignified and peaceful life. Peace must start from the universities which have the duty to be on the front line in this battle of civilisation.

*Sara Mustafa is an Italian-Palestinian writer from Pavia