By: Gašper Blažič
It seems that the political action at the Faculty of Social Sciences (FDV), which is already considered a breeding ground for leftist cadres, continues – even though news of the end of the faculty occupation came out last night. The radicals, representing the Slovenian branch of Hamas, have apparently succeeded in making the faculty leadership dance to their tune, and evidently, the leadership of the University of Ljubljana has also complied.
In light of the student protests in support of Palestine, the leadership of the FDV demanded yesterday an immediate cessation of cooperation with Israeli institutions connected to the arms industry from the University of Ljubljana. This is also one of the demands of the students occupying the FDV premises. Yesterday, they also met with the rector of the University of Ljubljana, Gregor Majdič.
The leadership of the FDV is blowing the same horn as the radicals!
The fact is that the wings of the Hamas radicals have now grown even stronger since they realised that the FDV leadership had bowed to them. In yesterday’s statement, the leadership of the Ljubljana FDV called on the University of Ljubljana (UL) to immediately terminate cooperation with Israeli institutions proven to be connected to the Israeli arms industry. “FDV demands from the University of Ljubljana the immediate termination of academic and economic cooperation with Israeli research and educational institutions (and companies) proven to have connections with the military-industrial complex of the Israeli state. We also demand the immediate termination of all agreements that the University and its members have with institutions in Israel or in the occupied Palestinian territories,” they wrote in a statement posted on the faculty’s website. “We are aware that military and financial support to the Israeli army enables the continuation of bloody massacres in Gaza,” they added.
Dean of FDV, Iztok Prezelj, stated days ago on behalf of the faculty’s leadership that they generally agree with the students and that the goal of the FDV leadership is to formulate possible common positions with them. In yesterday’s statement, the FDV leadership also expressed support and solidarity with the Palestinian people, whom, as they wrote, the Israeli state is committing genocide against, with over 35,000 people killed in the Gaza Strip, including more than 14,500 children. Of course, they refer to data from the Gaza Health Ministry, which is under Hamas control.
At the same time, FDV strongly condemned “all attempts to relativise the Israeli genocide and to conceal or minimise Israeli crimes in the name of ‘the right to self-defence’”. They also express support and solidarity with all students and employees of academic institutions “who are brutally suppressed for their opposition to the Israeli genocide against the Palestinian people”. In doing so, they encourage other member faculties of UL, including the UL rectorate, to publicly support a free Palestine, as stated in the FDV leadership’s statement.
With this, they followed the demands of the students who, since the middle of last week, have been protesting in support of Palestinians by occupying one of the lecture halls at FDV due to the events in Gaza. According to media reports, they ended the occupation of the faculty premises but announced that they would increase pressure on the University of Ljubljana. In their demands to the faculty and university, the students called, among other things, for the institutions to condemn the genocide in Gaza publicly and clearly and recognise the Palestinians’ right to liberation struggle against Israeli occupation. Among other demands to the university, they also demanded the termination of the ongoing project with the Israeli institute Technion, which is alleged to have connections to the Israeli arms industry.
University of Ljubljana also bows
Apparently, yesterday the leadership of the University of Ljubljana succumbed to pressure. As communicated from the rector’s office after the meeting, the Ljubljana university at the umbrella level has not concluded any international interinstitutional agreement with Israeli institutions. At the level of some UL members, several cooperation agreements were concluded a few years ago that were not time-limited, as well as agreements between the Faculty of Philosophy and the University of Tel Aviv, expiring in 2027, and between the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, expiring in 2026. However, within these agreements, no projects, exchanges, or other activities are taking place, they wrote in a press release.
Regarding the alleged cooperation with Bar Ilan University, which students have been calling for the abolition of since the beginning of the occupation, they emphasised that UL does not have a contract with the mentioned university. Instead, the Israeli university is part of a consortium of several universities led by the University of Strasbourg. If cooperation with the University of Strasbourg were to be terminated, it would prevent students enrolled in joint studies between the University of Ljubljana and the University of Strasbourg from completing their studies, they warned.
“The University of Ljubljana will continue to strive to ensure that the fundamental democratic right of every citizen to express protest is guaranteed in our academic community, taking care to cultivate public discourse and civic ethos that will be guarded against both Islamophobic and anti-Jewish positions. We will ensure that together with the students and our academic community as a whole, we advocate for world peace and condemn all forms of aggression and violence that deprive young people of the right to education and a future,” UL responded. The statement is less radical than that from the dean’s office of FDV, but evidently, Slovenian Hamas sympathisers have received assurance that the university respects them.
The big question is whether Slovenian Hamas sympathisers will stop at this. In the current government coalition, they have an important ally, namely the pro-Palestinian oriented Levica party, and even the former president of the Social Democrats, current Foreign Minister Tanja Fajon, is continuing with a new Middle East tour these days, aiming to convince the world of the urgent need for recognition of Palestine. Now the question arises whether the government and student radicals, together from both sides, will corner the University of Ljubljana (and then other universities) and discipline its members if they do not comply with the prescribed propaganda.
The radicals blatantly violated the university’s code, and the leadership took no action!
The fact that the faculty leadership allowed the occupation of the premises without taking any measures against the perpetrators demonstrates that all this, which has been happening at the FDV lately, is just the beginning of something broader. The radicals, led by Jan Vajgl, the son of retired diplomat and former Zares politician Ivo Vajgl, violated the University of Ljubljana’s code, which states: “Political or other agitation on university premises or within its area, the use of the educational process and university resources for political or other non-academic purposes, constitutes a violation of this code.”
A few dozen radical students occupied the largest lecture hall at FDV for several days, and their goals were more than obviously political. Among other things, they demanded that the university end all cooperation with Israeli universities and companies, that the history of occupation and apartheid carried out by Israel be recognised, and that the “legitimacy” of the terrorist organisation Hamas be “recognised”. During the occupation of the faculty, anti-Semitic slogans appeared, as well as badges with the image of the infamous dictator Stalin.
Not only did the leadership of FDV allow their protest without any action, but the university itself also permitted it peacefully. Moreover, yesterday they halted the protest after the university’s leadership allegedly acceded to all their demands, thus recognising the legitimacy of Hamas. This implies that, according to the principle of democratic centralism, all other members of the university, including the Faculty of Theology, will have to accept these demands as well.
