University of Bern stops Amnesty’s Palestine panel discussion

Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, was due to appear on the podium. Keystone-SDA

Amnesty International’s planned Palestine panel discussion at the University of Bern has been cancelled. The university has withdrawn its authorisation for the use of its premises, it announced on Friday.

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Monday’s event was fully booked. Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, was due to appear on the podium.

The university wrote to explain why the event could not be guaranteed to be balanced. The NZZ Online first reported on the case.

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Amnesty spokesperson Beat Gerber rejected the criticism in an interview with the Swiss News Agency Keystone-SDA. Albanese is an independent human rights expert who speaks out clearly in favour of the situation in the Palestinian territories, he said.

The university appears to have backed down under pressure from outside, Gerber said.

Translated from German by DeepL/ts

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