A petition which calls on Radboud University in Nijmegen to take measures against university professor Harry Pettit, has been signed more than 12,000 times in a few days. The signatories accuse Pettit of “glorifying violence, hate speech and incitement”, which causes “feelings of fear and insecurity”.
The university lecturer recently came into controversy with statements on X about Israel. For example, according to the ANP news agency, he wrote that it is time to “finish what the Palestinians started on October 7” and called the large-scale terror attack by Hamas on that day “a lawful act of resistance.”
The signatories of the petition call on the university’s executive board to “publicly distance itself from the statements mentioned” and to report the teacher, because they believe his statements may be punishable. They also request the university to temporarily suspend the teacher.
Minister
Recently, outgoing Minister of Education Gouke Moes (BBB) also joined the discussion when he joined the WNL talk show Café Kockelmann said he wants the university to file charges against Pettit. If that does not happen, he threatened to take “steps on the escalation ladder”. He did not clarify what he meant by that.
Pettit then announced via
According to Pettit’s lawyer, the minister’s interference affects academic freedom. With his statements, Moes exerted “unauthorized” and “criminal” pressure on the university board to “silence” his client, he wrote in the complaint, which was seen by NRC.
Two weeks ago, several hundred teachers and employees from various universities sent a letter to Radboud University in which they supported Pettit. Last week the university received another letter, this time from opponents, that contained similar wording to the petition.
Radboud University previously said it distanced itself from calls for violence, but also emphasized the importance of a “critical dialogue”. The Executive Board did not want to comment on individual cases to the ANP news agency.
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