This initiative is organised by students, researchers, and workers of different universities in Tuscany. This is a reply to the political violence and complicit silence around the genocide in Palestine and the repression of the solidarity movements across the world.
IT ALL STARTED ON 15th MAY 2024
Members of University of Florence, European University Institute and Scuola Normale Superiore launched the Encampment for Palestine in Piazza San Marco, renaming it Piazza Shireen Abu Akleh – in living memory of the American-Palestinian journalist killed in the Occupied Palestinian Territories by the IDF. The mobilisation was part of a transnational movement setting up Encampments across the world.
The genocide of the Palestinian people continues still today as Israel invades Rafah, the last safe refuge for over one million and a half people. In light of this catastrophe, we act in solidarity with Gaza and for the end of the occupation and apartheid system in Palestine.
During the Encampment the network developed:
🇵🇸Four shared demands for Palestine 🇵🇸
to the different University Institutions and developed a shared mobilisation strategy. After some of the requests were met the decision was to transform the Encampment into a permanent Assembly which meets every Wednesday in Piazza Shireen Abu Akleh (Piazza San Marco) and that is open to the entire city of Florence and connected with other experiences across Tuscany, Italy and the world. The goal of the Encampment was to have some of the demands acknowledged by the Institutions, while this new format allows us a more sustainable and continuous effort to ensure the implementation and the commitment of the demands.
The Toscana Aperta initiative
Therefore is a follow-up to the Encampment. And it is a strategy and a series of actions to define how the Demands for Palestine should be implemented. And to continue to put pressure on decision makers, both within universities and political bodies, to end the current genocide in Gaza and in general the freedom of Palestine and the universal right to self-determination and a sustainable and just peace.
This website collects the Archive of the Encampment in Florence, the reports and materials produced through the first Symposiums for Palestine and the recommendations to say:
No To ‘Institutional Neutrality’, to protect academic freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of protest, to ensure transparency on public funds, assets & relationships – not only with Israel but with any entity committing human rights violations and war crimes, and to protect the right to education and prevent scholasticide.
You will also find all the information about the organisations and individuals involved in the mobilisation and the information on how to join the initiative.
At this link you can find a presentation of all the formal and informal groups which populated the Square and that are part of this ongoing mobilisation (link page Intersectional Activism)
Additional resources:
– The four demands of the Florence Encampment for Palestine (link al pfd)
– The Booklet Florence Students Encampment – Demands and Political Documents (link pdf)
– The Report (LINK TO THE SYMPOSIUM REPORT ONCE IT IS READY)