Civil Disobedience Action. 'Reverse' Teaching Strike

Initiative by workers of Italian Universities in support of the Palestinian people

Dear Rectors of Italian Universities, as workers of Italian Universities, we write this letter to ask you for a more decisive position regarding what is happening in Gaza and the West Bank. We believe this is fundamental for our role in the institutions where we work or with which we collaborate, whose statutes are inspired by the constitutional values of war repudiation that today, however, are completely disregarded.

In this regard,

CONSIDERING THAT:

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) on January 26, 2024, in response to the request presented by South Africa, issued an order recognizing that there is a plausible risk that Israel is committing the crime of genocide in Gaza, and indicated six urgent precautionary measures to prevent this from happening;

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) with Advisory Opinion No. 2024/57 of July 19, 2024 stated that the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories violates international law norms, concluding that Israel’s continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territories is illegal;

The Pre-Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) found reasonable grounds to accuse Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant of crimes against humanity and war crimes, and consequently the ICC in November 2024 issued arrest warrants against them;

The independent international commission of inquiry established by the UN Human Rights Council in its report of September 16, 2025 concludes that Israeli authorities and security forces have committed and continue to commit four of the five acts provided for in Article II of the 1948 Genocide Convention and that the only reasonable inference is the existence of genocidal intent;

Recent events have confirmed the genocidal process against the Palestinian people with a number of victims that, according to reliable sources, are between 70,000 and 80,000 direct confirmed deaths and over 680,000 total estimated deaths steadily increasing due to the strategy of inducing death by hunger, thirst and lack of medical care; and that of these deaths, by the Israeli government’s own admission, more than 80% are civilians - as documented by “The Guardian” based on IDF data -, of which the majority are young people and children;

The total occupation operation of Gaza is now underway, which is the continuation of an increasingly evident strategy of cancellation of the Palestinian population, consistent with the settler colonial regime and the apartheid system perpetrated in the Occupied Territories. To all this is added Israel’s latest decision (August 2025) to build a new colony that will divide the West Bank in two. In particular, for some time, the Israeli government has systematically targeted educational and care institutions in Palestine, schools, universities and hospitals, as demonstrated by unassailable documentation from numerous governmental and non-governmental international organizations worldwide regarding the death of many doctors, journalists, teachers, artists, including our friends and colleagues;

Analyses show the continuous and growing commercial exchange in weapons and military investments between Israel and the rest of the world, including European countries, Italy included, as evidenced by the latest report (June 30, 2025) by UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, and by the long series of reports published by Palestinian human rights organizations, without significant interventions by public Universities specifically regarding dual use and the increasing application of scientific research in military fields;

To this scenario, European Universities react tardily and timidly, often also inconclusively. A clear case is the management of Iupals research scholarships, effectively blocked by a series of unmanageable requirements for those in a war zone (administrative compilations, distance courses required for language learning and so on), but above all made inapplicable by the Israeli government that unilaterally controls the borders and does not let even Palestinians who have obtained regular visas from the countries they must go to leave;

Therefore, faced with the historical conjuncture in which European institutions and the instruments of international and humanitarian law show alarming weakness, inertia and connivance;

Faced with the normalization of the ongoing genocide;

Faced with the ongoing resistance of the Palestinian people and those who personally continue to work for life in Gaza, and collecting the invitation of Palestinian teachers who, with various open letters to colleagues around the world, have strongly asked for support for educational and training institutions in Palestine, as communities are trying to organize to keep this training alive and oppose the cancellation policy;

Given the limited results of numerous appeals, including the open letter to CRUI written by a group of Italian-Palestinian academics, and the important network mobilizations - starting from the initiatives of the RUP network - already carried out by academic and non-academic researchers, as well as the consequent positions taken by Universities and individual departments;

Supporting other forms of mobilization within universities, trade union strikes and more generally forms of civil society mobilization, including the important action of the Global Sumud Flotilla to break the siege of Gaza,

WE CALL FOR CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE ACTION AND “REVERSE” TEACHING STRIKE

We will therefore modify the regular conduct of teaching activities in the first semester 2025-2026, putting at the center of lessons - in various ways and in collaboration with students - the current ongoing genocide and possible forms of resistance to it.

The objectives of this civil disobedience action and “reverse” teaching strike are to obtain that Rectors and Academic Senates of Italian universities commit to ensuring that:

• RELATIONS AND COLLABORATIONS between Italian Universities AND THE ISRAELI GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC AND PRIVATE INSTITUTIONS are SEVERED, since boycott, divestment and sanctions - in this case, following the legacy of Palestinian protest - remain important peaceful political instruments that can exert fundamental pressure in the evolution of conflicts and help external and internal forms of dissent;

• PROJECTS and every form of collaboration between Italian Universities with ENTITIES and COMPANIES directly or indirectly involved in the war industry are INTERRUPTED, both in production and in the arms market, undertaking a more serious and profound reflection on the demilitarization of knowledge spaces;

• An AD HOC FUND for collaboration in teaching and research capable of SUPPORTING THE PALESTINIAN EDUCATION SYSTEM is established, now severely at risk, through a dedicated scientific collaboration program, with the design and application of multiple exchange forms, for material and immaterial support of school education at all levels and all subjects of Palestinian civil society, who at this moment are fighting to preserve and implement their cultural production. In this framework of collaboration, strong support is requested so that mobility possibilities for Palestinian students of all levels are clearly guaranteed;

• Concrete action is exercised in the matter of MOBILITY JUSTICE, i.e., direct and substantial pressure by CRUI on the competent Italian institutions, such as the Foreign Ministry, so that Palestinians engaged in the cultural and research field - scholars, researchers, students, writers, intellectuals in a broad sense, and so on - in possession of specific research scholarships of various kinds and/or invitations from Italian universities, also thanks to collaboration with civil society, can actually move. We ask for a university channel for everyone, which includes different funding sources. And we ask that for the effective obtaining of such forms of hospitality, burdensome and almost impossible requests such as distance attendance of language courses and similar burdens, completely inappropriate for the historical moment, be suspended.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO JOIN THIS CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE ACTION AND “REVERSE” TEACHING STRIKE?

Workers will implement a series of actions including:

• DEDICATING PART OF LESSONS to deepening and debating with students on the ongoing genocide and related themes from historical, political, cultural and social perspectives;

• PARTIALLY REPLACING THE REGULAR CONDUCT OF THEIR LESSONS with OPEN SEMINARS IN SQUARES and/or other public places, within which what is happening in Gaza and the Occupied Territories is discussed, creating a NATIONAL NETWORK of common events and open self-training for everyone;

• STARTING LESSONS WITH COMMUNICATION OF THE REASONS FOR THEIR PARTICIPATION in the civil disobedience action and reverse strike, each according to content and languages deemed most appropriate (including silence), and including reading this document;

• SUPPORTING other MOBILIZATIONS AND STRIKES THAT WILL BE PROMOTED;

• ORGANIZING with their students AWARENESS ACTIVITIES such as EVENING FLASH MOBS, etc., in strong collaboration with civil society associations and student movements.

We hope this initiative pushes the institutions within which we operate to take a clearer position of contrast and condemnation of the genocide perpetrated by the state of Israel against the Palestinian population, without which university institutions would fail in their role and mandate, in respect for constitutional values and international law, making themselves complicit and conniving.

Organizations and Associations:

ParTeR - Participatory Teaching and Research, University of Parma ESS - Emancipatory Social Science Sociologia di Posizione SIAC - Italian Society of Cultural Anthropology RUP - Research and University for Palestine SIAA - Italian Society of Applied Anthropology Antropolog3 per la Palestina Sinistra Studentesca Universitaria, Parma CIAC - Immigration Asylum International Cooperation Center of Parma and province Casa della Pace di Parma Simbdea - Italian Society for Museography and Demo-ethno-anthropological Heritage Iris - Tools and resources for local development

First signatories:

Vincenza Pellegrino, University of Parma Martina Giuffré, University of Parma Sabrina Tosi Cambini, University of Parma Jacopo Anderlini, University of Parma Federica Sossi, University of Bergamo Monica Massari, University of Milan Federica Tarabusi, University of Bologna Barbara Sorgoni, University of Turin Giuliana Sanò, University of Messina Francesco Vietti, University of Turin Roberta Gandolfi, University of Parma Maria Molinari, University of Parma Alessandro Lutri, University of Catania Fabio Mugnaini, University of Siena Armando Cutolo, University of Siena Simonetta Grilli, University of Siena Filippo Lenzi Grillini, University of Siena Gabriella D’Agostino, University of Palermo Bruno Riccio, University of Bologna Anna Iuso, Sapienza University of Rome Nadia Breda, University of Florence Matteo Volta, University Milano Bicocca Anna Giulia Della Puppa, Sapienza University of Rome Fabio de Nardis, University of Salento Antonello Petrillo, University S.O. Benincasa Anna Simone, University of Roma Tre Giuseppe Ricotta, Sapienza University of Rome Giulio Moini, Sapienza University of Rome Maria Carolina Vesce, University of Messina Francesco Zanotelli, University of Florence Massimiliano Mollona, University of Bologna Cristiana Natali, University of Bologna Pietro Cingolani, University of Bologna Stefano Lucarelli, University of Bergamo Domenico Perrotta, University of Bergamo Loris Caruso, University of Bergamo Luigigiovanni Quarta, University of Bergamo Massimo Tommasoli, Italian Society of Applied Anthropology Davide Caselli, University of Bergamo Stefano Boni, University of Modena-Reggio Emilia Alessandra Gribaldo, University of Modena-Reggio Emilia Selenia Marabello, University of Modena-Reggio Emilia Martina Censi, University of Bergamo Roberta Bonetti, University of Bologna Paola Gandolfi, University of Bergamo Alessio Malcevschi, University of Parma Massimo Pietroni, University of Parma Marta Fana, University of Parma Paolo Gaibazzi, University of Bologna Alessandro Mancuso, University of Palermo Chiara Giubilaro, University of Palermo Lisa Chiara Fellin, University of Bergamo Giacomo Pozzi, University IULM Massimo Ghidini, University of Parma Barbara Bompani, University of Parma Simone Baglioni, University of Parma Nadia Monacelli, University of Parma Rossano Bolpagni, University of Parma Michele Maccari, University of Parma Maja Antonietti, University of Parma Aldo Schiavello, Centro di Ateneo Migrare, University of Palermo Giusto Picone, Centro di Ateneo Migrare, University of Palermo Tommaso Baris, University of Palermo Manoela Patti, University of Palermo Domenico Lio, University of Palermo Marco Bassi, University of Palermo Paolo Ragonese, University of Palermo Elena Mignosi, University of Palermo Daniela Cherubini, University of Parma Alberta Giorgi, University of Bergamo Simona Miceli, University of Milan Giulia Selmi, University of Parma Omid Firouzi Tabar, University of Padua Carlotta Mozzana, University Milano Bicocca Thomas Aureliani, University of Milan Luca Giliberti, University of Parma Federica Cabras, University of Milan Enrico Fravega, University of Genoa Angela Genova, University of Urbino Daniela Leonardi, University of Turin Niccolò Bertuzzi, University of Parma Annavittoria Sarli, University of Parma Sebastiano Benasso, University of Genoa Gaia Farina, University of Padua Alessandra Corrado, University of Calabria Annalisa Murgia, University of Milan Alessandra Vannucci, University of Turin Rosa Gatti, University of Naples Federico II Annalisa Frisina, University of Padua Luca Queirolo Palmas, University of Genoa Mariafrancesca D’Agostino, University of Calabria Franca Garreffa, University of Calabria Arianna Zottarel, University of Milan Daniele Garritano, University of Calabria Antonietta De Vita, University of Verona Alessandro Tolomelli, University of Bologna Fulvia Antonelli, University of Bologna Alice Scavarda, University of Turin Cristiana Ottaviano, University of Bergamo Didier Contadini, University Milano Bicocca Giovanni Ruocco, Sapienza University of Rome Ilenia Picardi, University of Naples Federico II Marialuisa Stazio, University of Naples Federico II Marilena Macaluso, University of Palermo Claudia Mantovan, University of Padua Claudia Della Valle, University of Urbino Maria Francesca Murru, University of Bergamo Chiara Carletti, University of Siena Federica Zanetti, University of Bologna Marco Deriu, University of Parma Michela Semprebon, University of Parma Alessandra Sciurba, University of Palermo

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