University of Lleida council votes against breaking ties with Israel

The council of the University of Lleida (UdL) has voted against breaking the school's ties with Israeli entities. 

The decision came after students, who have been camping on the campus for two weeks, presented a motion to the council. 

The motion received 26 votes against breaking ties with Israeli entities, but in favor of reviewing the existing ties, 13 votes in favor and three abstentions. 

UdL is the first university in Catalonia refusing to break ties with Israel after voting. 

Earlier in May the University of Barcelona (UB), and on Friday the Autonomous University of Barcelona's senates voted in favor of stopping all relations with Israeli entities.

Reviewing existing ties

The head of UdL, Jaume Puy, reminded people during a press conference on Friday, that the university published a statement in April saying they would review the academic relations they have with Israeli institutions "that may go against the principles of the UdL." 

"The university will maintain this position, but this does not exclude that relations might be broken in the cases that are being reviewed," Puy clarified. 

UdL currently has a project, about environmental sustainability, which includes the participation of an Israeli university, as well as Erasmus students and professional exchanges between institutions. 

Pay stated that they will ask for "information" from the people who are the subject of these initiatives and if necessary, they will act "accordingly". 

Disappointment among students 

After the results of the council's vote were known, the students protesting showed their "enormous disappointment."  

The decision "says a lot about the moral ethics we have at this university" and prioritizes the "economic interests" of the UdL instead of "human rights," the students told Catalan News Agency (ACN). 

The protesters have announced that they will hold a meeting "to decide what is right" and made it clear that "we will continue to apply pressure." 

When the rector, Jaume Puy, arrived to hold the press conference the protesting students shouted, "Israel murders, UdL sponsors," before allowing Puy to talk to media, starting the schants again after he finished talking.