Sixty staff members and students paused work and study to draw attention to Gaza

Around sixty staff members and students paused their work and study at midday on Monday to draw attention to the situation in Gaza. The action included speeches, a noise protest and a jointly sung song. It was the second time this type of demonstration had taken place – not only on the Woudestein campus, but across the Netherlands.

Just like on the first Monday of September, the sound of whistles, clapping and a megaphone echoed across the campus at 12.00 noon. The noise began with the monthly test of the air raid siren and lasted a total of five minutes. Under the ‘wij werken hier niet aan mee’ (we are not cooperating in this matter), work was temporarily halted across the Netherlands at midday. The demonstrators believe the Netherlands should take action to stop the genocide in Gaza and that Israel must be held accountable.

Bo (24, master’s in Media, Digitalisation & Society) joined with a large group of fellow students. She had also taken part in the Red Line protest in Amsterdam on Sunday, which drew 250,000 people, according to the organisers. “I want to show my solidarity wherever I can”, the student explained. “At Sunday’s protest I ran into one of our lecturers, Isabel Awad. She told me there would also be a gathering on campus today.”

Just before Monday’s noise protest, the demonstrators paused to remember journalists killed in Gaza. Afterwards, assistant professor Natália da Silva Perez sang the song Little Flame by Carsie Blanton. Assistant professor Jeff Handmaker played guitar. Students and staff were given the song’s lyrics and invited to sing along.

Historian Da Silva Perez explained why she wanted to sing this song: “It’s about difficult moments in history, and what it means to live through hard times. Slavery is one of the themes in the song – that’s something I research myself. We wanted to sing together to inspire, to not lose hope. To keep the little flame alive, so to speak.”