Harry Pettit, lecturer in Human Geography and one of the loudest pro-Palestine voices on campus, is filing charges against outgoing Minister of Education Gouke Moes. The latter is guilty of abusing his authority, according to Pettit, in calling on the University to press charges against the lecturer last week.

‘It is unacceptable for a Minister to publicly pressure the University to press charges, thus indirectly pushing the Public Prosecution Service to prosecute’, said lawyer Adem Çatbaş, who is acting as Assistant Professor Harry Pettit’s counsel, in an interview with De Volkskrant. According to the lawyer, this undermines the rule of law and freedom of expression, and qualifies as malfeasance.

Pettit’s is pressing charges in response to statements made by Gouke Moes (BBB), outgoing Minister of Education, Culture and Science at the Café Kockelmann talk show last Friday. In this broadcast, the outgoing Minister indicated that he had reminded Radboud University of an agreement made with universities that they are to report crimes. Moes said he suspected that Pettit of being guilty of criminal offences. If no charges were filed, the Minister announced in the talk show that he still had access to an ‘escalation ladder’ such that he could take up the matter with the Supervisory Board and the Education Inspectorate, among others.

By criminal offences, he was referring to lecturer Pettit’s tweets from 10 days ago, in which the human geography lecturer wrote that “this is not the time to stop the resistance, but to finish what the Palestinians started on October 7th”. The tweets received a lot of attention online and in the media.

Abuse of power

For Pettit, the Minister’s statements were the last drop. He points to Section 365 of the Penal Code, which deals with abuse of authority by a public servant. According to the Assistant Professor, that is what Moes is guilty of.

‘I decided to push back, in the hope that it might give courage to others to keep speaking up’

‘We see governments, who have been complicit in the genocide, becoming increasingly authoritarian in cracking down on people who speak out against Zionism, or speak up for Palestinian resistance’, he said to Vox, explaining his decision to press charges. ‘Through this, they hope that we become scared and retreat. But we cannot do that. We must show now more than ever that we stand behind Palestinian resistance. I decided to push back, in the hope that it might give courage to others to keep speaking up.’

Pettit did not contact the University before filing his report and he is pressing charges in his own name. Radboud University was not informed about the charges, a university spokesperson says. The university will discuss the matter with Pettit, according to the spokesperson.

Previous interference

This is not the first time the Minister has interfered in the work of the British lecturer. As one of the loudest pro-Palestinian voices on the Nijmegen campus, Pettit is frequently mentioned by politicians. A few weeks earlier, Moes already promised in a House of Representatives debate to talk to Radboud University about Pettit. In a written response, the Executive Board referred to this comment as “inappropriate”. “This kind of meddling affects the independence of our University.”

Professor Emeritus of Constitutional Law Paul Bovend’Eert also called Moes’ pressure to file charges ridiculous. ‘The Minister of Education has absolutely no recourse in this situation’, he said in an interview with Vox. ‘It is up to the Executive Board to decide whether an employee has gone too far or not. That may or may not lead to measures being taken.’ He also dismissed the Minister’s escalation ladder as nonsense. ‘Such matters are not within the Minister’s competence’, said Bovend’Eert.