As of last week, student activist group Glasgow University Justice for Palestine Society (GUJPS) have taken action on campus, calling for the university to sever all ties with arms companies and enforce an academic boycott on the state of Israel. Glasgow University currently holds investments of over £6.8 million in 26 arms companies, including BAE systems, which GUJPS argue makes the university complicit in the atrocities committed in the ongoing genocide on Palestine.
On Wednesday 19th March, around 25 students from GUJPS occupied the Charles Wilson Building to demand the university sever ties with the arms industry. The University responded by calling police to campus, who blocked the entrance to the building, prevented food and water from reaching those inside and threatened to arrest the students involved.
Commenting on these events, one of the student activists said:
“The police have been called onto campus everyday for the past three days. This represents a dramatic escalation in how our University manages student protests and indicates their refusal to engage with their students and staff on the vital issue of divestment. Furthermore, their lack of communication with students on hunger strike shows their lack of care for the safety and welfare of students.”
Since Wednesday, university management have continued to respond to protests and actions on campus by unjustly increasing police and security presence, whilst simultaneously refusing to acknowledge the five students who are currently on day seven of hunger strike.
In a speech delivered at the Advanced Research Centre on Friday 21st March, one student on hunger strike said:
“The hunger strikers are forcing the university to face up to the reality of the death and misery that they are directly responsible for. If the university will ignore the forced starvation of Palestinians in Gaza then we will bring that reality to their doorstep.”
The university’s adverse response to these actions mirrors a concerning crackdown on student protests globally. Glasgow University student Hannah Taylor has been banned from campus following a non-violent protest with Youth Demand, where they sprayed water soluble paint over a University Building. This banning order means that they are unable to attend their lectures and may fail their degree before their disciplinary hearing. The University Rector Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah described the decision as “disproportionate and authoritarian” and called for the ban to be reversed. Students and citizens in the UK are increasingly facing disciplinary action from their universities for engaging in peaceful pro-palestinian activism. Gina Romero, the United Nations special rapporteur for freedom of peaceful assembly, has condemned the “deeply disturbing situation” across UK campuses, as she accused universities of taking “deliberate actions to curtail” their students’ rights.
Previously, the university launched a consultation on their socially Responsible Investment Policy (SRI) which was open to all students and staff. The results of the consultation revealed that 70% of respondents believed that the University should exclude investments in defence firms. Despite the overwhelming majority of these results last semester, the University’s new SRI Policy did not include divestment from arms companies. This decision was criticised by the Student Representative Council (SRC), who are holding a referendum on arms divestment this week. Voting will open on the SRC website and app on Wednesday the 26th March at 9am and will close at 5pm on Thursday 27th March. Full instructions on how to vote can be found on the SRC website here: https://www.glasgowunisrc.org/referenda/howtovote/ and the yes4divestment campaign here https://www.instagram.com/yes4divestment/ .
At 2pm yesterday, Monday 24th March, hundreds of students took to library hill in support of those on hunger strike risking their lives to campaign for divestment. An encampment has been established on University Avenue named the Dima Al Haj liberated zone, and student activists plan on remaining there until Glasgow University acknowledges their actions and divests from the arms industry. The university’s response to hunger-striking students is yet to be expressed , but their silence so far comes across as negligent and irresponsible. As a student body, it is now more vital than ever to show solidarity, use our voices and show strength in numbers by supporting our community.
Sophie Taylor-Davies (she/her)
qmunicatemagazine.co.uk 