The University of Siena revokes authorisation for a 7 October conference with Francesca Albanese and Ilan Pappé

A conference on the Palestinian question entitled "J'accuse", organised by the student association Cravos and scheduled for 7 October 2024 at the University of Siena, lost its authorisation after the Academic Senate revoked permission to use the room. The speakers were to be the Israeli historian Ilan Pappé, Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, the Italian-Palestinian activist Karem Rohana and the geopolitical commentator Giuseppe Flavio Pagano. The project had been submitted in March 2024 under the university's own call for student initiatives, "Infondoècultura", which funded it; the academic committee approved it in May, and the rector formally authorised the event at the Polo Mattioli on 10 September.

At the Senate session of 17 September, three department directors, Gerardo Nicolosi (Political Science), Mario Perini (Law) and Cristina Capineri (Social, Political and Cognitive Sciences), raised a question that led to the authorisation being withdrawn. Cravos said it was informed without warning and with no possibility of appeal. Rector Roberto Di Pietra maintained that the event had not been cancelled but postponed: neither the format nor the scientific standing of two of the speakers was in question, he said, but the Senate had judged it inappropriate to hold the conference exactly one year after 7 October 2023, given the risk of political and media exploitation. He recalled that the university had repeatedly called for peace and a ceasefire, backed the recognition of a Palestinian state and supported refugee students from Gaza, and described the association's statements as an exaggerated and distorted reading of events. Pierluigi Pellini, director of the Department of Philology and Criticism, the only Senate member to vote against, said that preventing or postponing the event would objectively amount to censorship, in line with what he called the national government's illiberal policies.

Cravos denounced the decision as political censorship and refused to change the date, arguing that the anniversary was precisely the moment to put the events in context and open a dialogue on the suffering of both sides. Albanese and Pappé wrote to the rector asking him to reconsider, stressing that universities must remain open to respectful dialogue and complex discussion, and that denying students such a debate undermined freedom of expression and academic freedom. The Committee of Anthropologists for Palestine published an open letter describing a recurring pattern in Italian universities of granting authorisation and then withdrawing the room shortly before the event, and noted that postponing an event with international guests effectively makes it impossible. An online petition open to staff and students of all Italian universities called for the authorisation to be restored, citing Article 2 of the university's statute on pluralism and freedom of expression.

On 3 October, after a meeting between the rector and Samuele Picchianti, president of the Student Council and a member of Cravos, the students announced that the conference would go ahead on 7 October in the Aula Cardini without official authorisation. According to Picchianti, the rector did not grant permission but indicated that he had no intention of suppressing the event or calling the police.