Document institucional Facultat 18

The University of Barcelona on the Situation of the Palestinian People: Faculty 18 Initiative

A Long-standing Commitment to Peace, Democracy and Human Rights

The University of Barcelona has a long-standing commitment to defending the academic values of peace, democracy and human rights. This commitment reflects the mission of the university itself, as stated in its Statutes and within the legislative framework that governs the institution.

This agreement has been the foundation of actions that, for decades, the University of Barcelona has undertaken in response to situations worldwide that have violated fundamental values. These actions range from solidarity and cooperation initiatives with populations affected by conflicts or structural injustices, to emergency response programs for sudden wars or natural disasters, and collaboration programs for the physical, social and political reconstruction of societies affected by crises.

The types of actions are organized around the following axes:

Academic collaboration programs
Refuge and hosting programs
Research and knowledge transfer programs
Cooperation and solidarity programs

The University has also served as a platform and forum for advocacy, deliberation and evidence-based reflection in the face of situations that undermine peace, democracy or human rights. These actions are institutional in nature and focus on both local and international contexts.

The University of Barcelona and the Situation in Gaza

Regarding the Palestinian people, the conflict with Israel and the events since October 2023, the University of Barcelona has acted consistently with this approach. These actions are part of a consolidated trajectory of engagement with the region and its populations.

In the latest crisis, the University’s response has been coherent with this trajectory:

At the time of the Hamas attacks on October 7–8 and the start of Israel’s total war strategy:
Upon confirmation of the potential risk of genocide and ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian people in Gaza:

The following links include all the actions we have carried out during this period, as communicated to the university community:

However, the situation of the Palestinian people and the violation of the values of democracy, peace and human rights by the Israeli government make it necessary to take new steps. The situation of genocide and ethnic cleansing in the Gaza Strip, recognized by a broad majority of accredited international institutions, together with the worsening occupation and apartheid in the West Bank, demands an even stronger response to maintain coherence with university values and the University’s trajectory in this field. This situation, in light of the appeal to the international community expressed by the rectors of the three public universities in Gaza, calls upon us not only as a committed institution and community, but also directly as an academic institution.

Background: UB’s Response to Sarajevo

The most direct precedent for responding to genocide or ethnic cleansing was the episode of Sarajevo and Bosnia in the 1990s.

Despite significant differences, there are parallels between Palestine-Bosnia and Gaza-Sarajevo regarding the ethical and humanitarian values violated. The common denominator is the indiscriminate aggression against an unarmed population and the systematic destruction of civilian infrastructure and social structures—actions described by the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948): «with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group […] killing members of the group, causing serious bodily or mental harm, imposing living conditions intended to destroy the group».

In Bosnia, this included the prolonged siege of Sarajevo, the systematic use of rape as a weapon of war, and the physical extermination of human groups based on their belonging to a specific community, as occurred in Srebrenica. In Gaza and Palestine, it includes the constant toll of deaths, injuries and mutilations caused by indiscriminate shootings and bombings, the severe impact on children, collective punishment and forced displacement. In both cases, the academic community, and particularly the University of Barcelona, has responded by standing with the victims.

UB’s actions in these situations have focused on seeking collaboration with other actors and institutions, primarily the Barcelona City Council. This was the case in Bosnia and Sarajevo, accompanying and complementing the actions of District 11, one of the most innovative and effective initiatives in municipal cooperation and solidarity. These actions included establishing relations with the University of Sarajevo for academic cooperation in a context of siege and war; implementing an initial program to host refugee students, which later continued and remains active; involving academic experts; collaborating in humanitarian aid convoys; and providing institutional support and solidarity.

Faculty 18 Initiative

In the summer of 2025, the Barcelona City Council reactivated in Palestine the District 11 project, replicating the model launched by Mayor Maragall in 1995 to contribute to Sarajevo’s recovery, with the aim of increasing technical cooperation with Palestinian cities. The University of Barcelona, consistent with its role as a reference institution and aligned with the Barcelona initiative, has decided to launch the Faculty 18 initiative in coordination with the City Council and the District 11 project. This is a pioneering tool in the academic sphere, symbolic and institutional in nature, that establishes a permanent link with the three public universities in Gaza, other Palestinian universities and their academic communities. It also seeks to bring together all ongoing actions under a single institutional umbrella, improve coordination, mobilize and optimize resources, increase public impact, and involve other actors, especially from the academic field.

The Faculty 18 project consists of:

A centralized service to articulate academic responses that help maintain university education and research activity for people affected in Gaza.
A single support space for individuals from Gaza hosted under the UB Refuge program.
A single platform for resource mobilization, both from the UB community and external agents, to finance actions in response to the situation, especially regarding reconstruction needs once the genocide ends.
A tool for coordinating and channeling projects—both cooperation and knowledge transfer—promoted by the UB community to address the situation in Gaza.
An institutional and academic advocacy platform regarding the situation of the Palestinian people in general and Gaza in particular.

Initial actions within Faculty 18, in addition to maintaining and strengthening existing commitments and actions, include:

Creating a website to gather all initiatives, accompanied by a local and international awareness campaign.
Organizing academic activities for debate and outreach, as those already held since October 2023 at UB, to provide visibility with academic rigor and propose scenarios for building a future based on a just and lasting peace.
Implementing initiatives to respond to the current situation and the future reconstruction of the university system in Gaza.
Launching a fundraising campaign to finance projects aimed at rebuilding the university system in Gaza, in collaboration with UNRWA or other UN agencies, or international humanitarian organizations.
Proposing the award of an honorary doctorate to an international figure recognized for their fight against genocide and for a just and lasting peace.
Linking various existing institutional initiatives (such as the creation of the Sant Jordi poster by the Faculty of Fine Arts) to advocacy and awareness efforts regarding the situation of the Palestinian people.