Rectors of all the Dutch universities, including UM rector Pamela Habibović, wrote an opinion piece in support of academic freedom, in which they said that is no longer a given. They are worried about a number of things, including internal pressure, alluding to the many pro-Palestinian protests and the polarisation surrounding the conflict in Gaza. “The freedom to think and express is under threat.” How has the board of Maastricht University handled this freedom? Is everybody allowed to protest there, both inside and outside the faculties, say what they want, or invite speakers as they see fit?
Step in
When Observant asked Rianne Letschert, President of the university, back in April 2024, whether people were allowed to demonstrate on university premises, her answer was absolutely. As long as teaching and research are not disrupted, as student group Free Palestine Maastricht had done shortly before. Letschert said that “a limit was reached”. How firmly that limit was adhered to was revealed over a year later. On 13 May 2025, another pro-Palestinian protest marched through the city centre, including through the Faculty of Law. Classes were disrupted, but it was tolerated. Because, as dean of the Law faculty Jan Smits said on the day, it didn’t last long and stepping in would only have led to more of a fuss. “I only do that if people’s safety is threatened,” he explained.
Navigating the issue to avoid escalation, in other words, an attitude mirrored by the Board in this instance. That same week, it announced that it would be “very careful” about allowing external speakers on the politically laden topic of Gaza (events involving internal speakers, be it students or staff, would still be permitted). The reason given was that it isn’t possible to guarantee people’s safety. First, they want to know what went wrong on 12 March, when pro-Palestinian students disrupted a lecture by pro-Israeli speaker Rawan Osman; the investigation is still ongoing, with no end date given as yet. What is clear in hindsight, though, is that the location – on the ground floor of Tapijn and with a lot of windows – was not well chosen.
Kestenbaum
And so, for safety reasons, Jewish-American activist Shabbos Kestenbaum was recently not allowed to speak on UM premises. Much to the disappointment of organisers, student association IJAR, who felt their freedom of expression had been violated.
At the same time, Palestinian photo journalist Mohammed Alzanoon was relaying his experiences in Gaza at the dialogue platform OmniUM in Tapijn Z. He is in the Netherlands as part of the Safe Haven programme of the Amsterdam research institute NIAS. UM is a financial partner of the programme, and so the board considers Alzanoon an internal speaker. Other pro-Palestinian events also took place in the meantime, as their speakers were also ‘internal’.
Giving in
Why the safety of those events can be better guaranteed remains unclear. You can certainly hold these internal speakers to the university’s code of conduct, as rector Pamela Habibović said to Observant, but that wouldn’t necessarily deter activists from protesting outside the building and beating on the windows, as happened on 12 March. It makes UM vulnerable to accusation that they are giving in to the demands of the loudest group (something that Habibović categorically denies when asked).
In the meantime, pro-Palestinian students continue to organise walk-outs because they are completely fed up with this “institutional silence”. After all, they have been asking the board at Maastricht to condemn the actions of Israel in Gaza and to cut ties with Israeli institutions since day one. When a statement was released in November 2023 after some hesitation – the board initially said that no statement on Gaza could sufficiently cover all the nuances of the situation – “all actions that resulted in innocent victims” were condemned. That’s not enough, said the activists: “Why is the university not addressing the genocide?”
‘Freezing’ ties with Israeli institutes in advance of further investigation was also not enough for the pro-Palestinian students. The special research committee didn’t start its investigation until last month.
UPDATE June 6: Initial findings are currently on the Executive Board's desk; the university community will be informed by July at the latest. A final report should appear “after summer break,” the committee reports on the UMployee intranet and in the central student newsletter.
Dialogue
What about the dialogue the board was so keen to have on Israel and Gaza? That is also still struggling to get off the ground. Attempts to hold a ‘dialogue table’ in early 2024 were cancelled because there was deemed to be a “high chance of disruption”: the proposed moderator had received “an alarming email from Students for Palestine”. There has also been no formal, regular dialogue between activists and the Executive Board, a spokesperson for the university confirmed. An added complication there is that, unlike in some other university cities, the various pro-Palestinian groups in Maastricht have no joint spokesperson and are not always easy to approach. Who is the board supposed to talk to exactly, President Letschert complained in Observant last year. “I have had contact with some of the protesters, but others are not part of Free Palestine Maastricht, or don’t even study at the university.”