‘Calm down’ is the sound after a scuffle at the controversial Israel symposium at the VU

A symposium at the Vrije Universiteit where speakers promoted the Israeli narrative about the horrors in Gaza ended in a scuffle on Thursday morning. A professor affiliated with the Hague-based Israel think tank Thinc reacted when a VU professor prevented him from using his phone to capture a pro-Palestinian VU employee in the room.

Filming was not allowed during the symposium, titled The Risks of Weaponizing International Law. Loosely translated: the risks of using international law as a weapon. Of the panel members who spoke at the Amsterdam University on Thursday morning, three out of four expressed the Israeli position that there is no question of genocide against the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip. Many genocide experts qualified Israel’s actions as such.

The International Court of Justice, which has yet to rule on this, was also criticized as biased and anti-Israel. Israeli military historian Danny Orbach, one of the speakers, even called it “not a court at all.” Dutch lawyer Geert-Jan Knoops also spoke, he gave a talk about the legal framework surrounding the determination of genocide. “It is indeed a court,” says Knoops. “With professional judges.”

The atmosphere was tense in advance due to announced actions, although for a long time there was little noticeable difference on the third floor of the central VU building where guests gathered in a secure wing. Demonstrations had been announced, but there was no sign of that inside either.

The meeting was open to VU students and employees at the end, when the list was almost full with invitees. According to Jessica Roitman, initiator and professor of Jewish studies at the VU, this is “unfortunately” necessary for safety reasons. Jewish students and teachers, Israeli and otherwise, regularly feel threatened on university campuses, according to a recent report by the Task Force on Combating Anti-Semitism.

Scuffle

Emotions flared in the room during the contribution of military analyst Andrew Fox, a British veteran who called the violence used by the Israeli army “terrible” but legitimate. In the view of some pro-Palestinian VU employees, he did not adequately answer a question about the dehumanization of Palestinians by Israel. “Hamas dehumanized himself“, Fox said. He was right to say that then Defense Secretary Yoav Gallant had said that Israel is fighting “human beasts.”

“That is not an answer,” shouted a VU lecturer in keffiyeh from the third row. It was the prelude to a scuffle. „Shut up,” said a broad-shouldered visitor to the VU lecturer, “or I will drag you outside.” When the VU lecturer raised this threat with the moderator, the Thinc-affiliated professor in the front row picked up his phone, apparently to film. A VU professor next to him, who had recently started talking about dehumanization, stopped this with his hand. The man then hit the VU professor’s glasses off the nose with the phone.

„Calm down“, said moderator Steven Zipperstein, also affiliated with Thinc. “We are all adults, we are serious professionals. Take a deep breath everyone.” The Thinc-affiliated professor declined to comment on his rant. After the coffee break, the professors involved still sat next to each other.

Compliments

Knoops outlined the perspective of “holistic interpretation” in assessing genocide, which is currently pending in a case against Myanmar and may influence the case that South Africa is pursuing against Israel before the International Court of Justice. Afterwards he complimented the questions from the critical VU employees, such as those about dehumanization in Israeli rhetoric.

Roitman acknowledged afterwards that the contributions to the symposium were one-sided, but called this “understandable” after dozens of panel discussions at the VU in which the ‘other side’ was highlighted. According to her, she does not get a platform. “Within the academic context, speakers are invited based on their expertise; it is then up to the academic debate to critically weigh and question positions,” the VU said in a response to questions from NRC about this.

The VU facilitated the symposium. Knoops was invited by Thinc, an organization that claims to highlight “abuse” of international humanitarian law in the legal issues surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. According to Roitman, this does not mean that the organization lay with Thinc.

Another speaker was Anne Herzberg from the self-appointed watchdog NGO Monitor. Like Orbach, she cracks the foundation for many claims about Israel made by UN leaders. According to the organization, these rely on reports from Amnesty, for example. “Four hundred pages of rubbish,” Herzberg called the report with which Amnesty concluded in 2024 that genocide had occurred. NRC recently wrote about NGO Monitor’s entanglement with the Israeli government, an article she called “slanderous” after being asked about its independence.

Trial balloon

According to Maurice Crul, professor of sociology, this symposium should not have gone ahead. He demonstrated in advance with a number of colleagues from the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities. “This is a first trial balloon at one of the few universities that has not stopped international collaborations with Israeli universities.”

Dean Gregor Halff finally spoke. He was “hopeful” but, he said, “I also end with deep concern,” naming the scuffle. “We must keep trying, keep practicing dialogue without forms of intimidation and physical confrontation. That is a responsibility that this university takes.” Afterwards he could not say what consequences his faculty attached to the incident.

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