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Delegation of UK students prevented from reaching Gaza on board of HOPE FLEET
www.actionpalestine.org/from-palestine/free-gaza-boat…kers-kidnapped/
Today Israeli Occupation Forces attacked and boarded the Free Gaza Movement boat, the SPIRIT OF HUMANITY, and abducted 21 human rights workers from 11 countries. A delegation of UK students are amongst those abducted. The passengers and crew are being forcibly dragged toward Israel.
Cynthia McKinney, a former U.S. Congresswoman and presidential candidate, who is amongst those abducted, said “This is an outrageous violation of international law against us. Our boat was not in Israeli waters, and we were on a human rights mission to the Gaza Strip. President Obama just told Israel to let in humanitarian and reconstruction supplies, and that’s exactly what we tried to do. We’re asking the international community to demand our release so we can resume our journey.”
The student delegation, coordinated by Action Palestine, a UK umbrella organization which facilitates grass roots coordination between Palestine groups and campaigning on campuses, was to meet with students and staff to explore ways of improving solidarity links with UK Universities and Student Unions. The delegation aimed to highlight difficulties and educational needs due to the blockade and amongst the devastation of the Israeli bombing of December and January.
Schools, Colleges and Universities in Gaza were severely damaged during the bombing and many students were killed or injured. Other vital educational supplies are being deprived – according to UNWRA, Israel’s continuing blockade is also preventing ink, paper and other learning materials such as crayons and colouring books from entering into Gaza.
The delegation was to visit Al-Aqsa University, the Islamic University, the Al Azhar University and the Al Quds University. The information and networking gained from the delegation’s meetings with Universities in Gaza would have helped strengthen international student and education focused solidarity campaigns, in particular the academic boycott.
Gaza’s 1.5 million inhabitants were enduring their worst conditions for over 40 years according to aid agencies last year, with 80 percent of the population dependent on food aid, due directly to the Israeli blockade depriving normal food, infrastructure and medical supplies. As life became increasingly hard with death and malnutrition, Israel then launched an air and ground attack in late December and early January that killed a further 1300 people, over 300 children. Many thousands more were injured and the vast majority of the casualties were civilians. Over 4,100 houses were destroyed and a further 17,000 seriously damaged. 50,000 people are now homeless, tens of thousands lacking power, water and sanitation, as well as food and medical
treatment.
The Free Gaza Movement, a human rights group, sent two boats to Gaza in August 2008. These were the first international boats to land in the port in 41 years. Since August, four more voyages were successful, taking Parliamentarians, human rights workers, and other dignitaries
to witness the effects of Israel’s draconian policies on the civilians of Gaza. On December 30, their boat, the DIGNITY was rammed three times while 90 nautical miles out, in international waters, on its way to deliver emergency medical supplies to the people of Gaza, while
they were under the infamous attack by Israel. Contact them at www.freegaza.org.
One of our delegates, Adie Mormech features on the following video about the preparation for
the boat: www.youtube.com/gazafriends
For more information please contact: Naji 00972599791585
from BNC http://www.bdsmovement.net/?q=node/429
PSCABI-Gaza, Occupied Palestine
29 May, 2009
“Gaza today has become the test of our indispensable morality and common
humanity.” Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) National Committee
The Palestinian Students’ Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel (PSCABI) calls upon freedom-loving students all over the world to stand in solidarity with us by boycotting Israeli academic institutions for their complicity in perpetuating Israel’s illegal military occupation and apartheid system. We note the historic action taken by thousands of courageous students of British and American universities in occupying their campuses in a show of solidarity with the brutally oppressed Palestinian people in Gaza. We also deeply appreciate the decision by Hampshire College to divest from companies profiting from the Israeli occupation. Such pressure on Israel is the most likely to contribute to ending its denial of our rights, including the right to education.
In this regard, we fully endorse the call for boycott issued by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, PACBI, in 2004.[i]
We emphasize our endorsement of the BDS call issued by more than 170 Palestinian civil society organizations in July 2005.[ii]
We also support the Call from Gaza issued by a group of civil society organizations in the second week of the Gaza Massacre (Gaza 2009).[iii]
Our goal, as students, is to play a role in promoting the global BDS movement which has gained an unprecedented momentum as a result of the latest genocidal war launched by Israel against the occupied and besieged Gaza Strip. We address our fellow students to take whatever step possible, however small, to stand up for justice, international law and the inalienable rights of the indigenous people of Palestine by applying effective and sustainable pressure on Israel, particularly in the form of BDS, to help put an end to its colonial and racist regime over the Palestinians.
We strongly urge our fellow university students all over the world to:
(1) Support all the efforts aimed at boycotting Israeli academic institutions;
(2) Pressure university administrations to divest from Israel and from
companies directly or indirectly supporting the Israeli occupation and
apartheid policies;
(3) Promote student union resolutions condemning Israeli violations of
international law and human rights and endorsing BDS in any form;
(4) Support the Palestinian student movement directly.
To break the medieval and barbaric Israeli siege of Gaza, people of conscience need to move with a sense of urgency and purpose. Israel must be compelled to pay a heavy price for its war crimes and crimes against humanity through the intensification of the boycott against it and against institutions and corporations complicit in its crimes. As in the anti-apartheid struggle in solidarity with the black majority in South Africa, students concerned about justice and sustainable peace have a moral duty to support our boycott efforts.
The Palestinian Students’ Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel (PSCABI)
Endorsed by:
Progressive Student Union Block;
Fateh Youth Organization;
Progressive Student Labor Front;
Islamic Block;
Islamic League of Palestinian Students;
Student Unity Block;
Students Affairs (University of Palestine).
[i] http://www.pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=869
[ii] http://www.bdsmovement.net/?q=node/52
[iii]
http://www.odsg.org/co/index.php/component/content/article/1100-a-call-from-gaza.html
Boycott campaign “now reaching critical mass” say activists
The University and College Union, representing approximately 120,000 teaching and related staff in colleges and universities in the UK, today passed a number of strongly-worded resolutions in support of the human rights of the Palestinian people and condemning Israeli atrocities in Gaza.
The motions had been submitted by a range of bodies within the union.
Motion 24, from the National Executive along with two branches in Further Education colleges, condemned the Israeli military attacks on Gaza and called on UCU to affiliate to the national twinning campaign; to organise events
to mark the UN International Day of solidarity with the Palestinian People on 29th November; and to collect information on academics and students prevented from travelling to or from Palestine.
Motion 25, from the Disabled Members’ Standing Committee, pledged solidarity to Palestinians left injured by the Israeli assault in Gaza.
Motion 26, from UCU Scotland, agreed to disseminate the report of the President of UCU Scotland, who had recently taken part in the STUC visit to Palestine. That visit had resulted in an endorsement of Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) by STUC Congress. The motion also welcomed the student campaign for disinvestment from arms companies such as BAe.
Motion 27, from the Black Members’ Standing Committee, called for “recognition of the democratically elected Gaza government” and for Israel to be tried for human rights violations.
All the above motions were carried overwhelmingly, as was Motion 28 from two regional committees of UCU. This motion demanded that the British government ban “arms sales and economic support to Israel”, called for a ban on imports of all goods from illegal Israeli settlements in the OPT and demanded the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador. Controversially, Congress also voted overwhelmingly for an amendment to this motion which affirmed support “for the Palestinian call for a boycott, disinvestment and sanctions campaign” despite a statement from the General Secretary that on legal advice this amendment would be treated as being “void and of no effect” if carried.
Motion 29 was brought by two branches at universities and one at an FE college. Tom Hickey, proposing the motion on behalf of a University of Brighton branch, stated that his branch wished to amend its own motion, changing the words “Congress affirms support for the Palestinian call for a boycott, disinvestment and sanctions campaign” to “Congress urges branches to discuss prior to Congress 2010 the Palestinian call for a boycott, disinvestment and sanctions campaign”. Hickey explained that this change was only being made in order to accommodate the current legal advice and prevent the motion from being ruled “void” like motion 28. This was accepted by Congress, who voted to support both the amendment and the motion. The outcome is that UCU has voted to host a Trade Union conference in the Autumn to “investigate the lawful implementation of the strategy, including an option of institutional boycotts”.
Sue Blackwell, a BRICUP member who is on the National Executive Committee of UCU, commented,
“This was a smart piece of tactical voting by supporters of academic boycott of Israel and other forms of BDS. We made it quite clear that we support BDS in principle, whatever the law says about implementing it. There is nothing illegal in discussing boycott campaigns, and we will now be doing just that along with activists in other unions, including people from Scottish TUC who have just passed a BDS resolution at their Congress.”
Hickey suggested in his summing-up speech that the time had come for UCU to obtain a court ruling to settle the question once and for all and to put a stop to the legal threats to which the union has been subjected over the past few years. He expressed his “extreme disappointment” with members of his own union who resorted to such threats instead of pursuing their arguments through the union’s internal democratic processes.
BRICUP members will now be encouraging trade unionists to attend the forthcoming BDS conference in order to broaden the campaign.
BRICUP’s fringe meeting before the start of Congress heard speeches from Ewa Jasiewicz (co-ordinator of the Free Gaza Movement), Samia al-Botmeh (BirZeit University, Palestine) and Prof. Haim Bresheeth of the University of East London. At the meeting, a statement was read out from a group of Israeli academics who were calling on international colleagues to boycott their institutions. “We are now reaching critical mass”, said Blackwell. “Boycotts, disinvestments and sanctions against Israel are breaking out everywhere, from South Africa to Norway and even within Israel itself. BRICUP is very proud to be playing a part in the growing campaign alongside our Palestinian brothers and sisters and their supporters worldwide.”
Dr. Amjad Barham, President of the Palestinian Federation of Unions of University Professors and Employees, is attending UCU Congress as an official guest of the union. He will address Congress tomorrow (Thursday).
[ends]
Notes for Editors
1. Please note: while we believe that the motions have been accurately summarised above, this press release represents the views of BRICUP and not of UCU.
2. The full text of all the motions, except for late motions and late amendments, can be read here on the UCU website:
http://www.ucu.org.uk/circ/html/UCU180.html
3. The PACBI (Palestinian BDS campaign) press release is here:
http://www.pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=1017
4. The national Twinning campaign website is at:
http://www.twinningwithpalestine.net/
The Free Gaza Movement website is at:
http://www.freegaza.org/
Mona Baker
Radical Philosophy 155 (May-June)
http://www.radicalphilosophy.com/default.asp?channel_id=2193&editorial_id=27992
At the end of December 2008 a wave of protest occupations swept across UK university campuses in response to the Israeli attacks on Gaza. The ‘occupation movement’ started on 13 January 2009, when students at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London occupied the Brunei Gallery and issued a list of demands in connection with the atrocities committed in Gaza and the University’s links to the arms industry. The national media largely failed to report on the SOAS occupation and others that followed. But the occupying students spread the word themselves, and managed their own publicity via Facebook, Wiki, blogs and YouTube.
During the occupation of King’s College London the following week, the students emailed academics asking for help in two ways: by writing to the principal of their university to express support for the occupation, and by going to talk to them during their occupation. This pattern of engaging academic staff directly in the protests repeated itself across the various occupations that soon followed. The lecture rooms they occupied were turned into spaces for dialogue and reflection, for engaging with issues they felt deeply about but knew they would be challenged on and hence needed to educate themselves in. The space was kept open to all: any student or member of staff could walk in and out, could listen to talks and discussions and contribute to them. In Manchester, the students even engaged the security officers who were stationed outside the occupied space to keep an eye on them – so successfully in fact that some of the officers took to wearing Palestinian keffiyehs, like the students.
Between 13 January and 6 March 2009 there were at least twenty-seven occupations at UK university campuses: School of Oriental and African Studies, London School of Economics, Essex, King’s College London, Birmingham, Sussex, Warwick, Manchester Metropolitan, Oxford, Leeds, Cambridge, Bradford, Queen Mary, Sheffield Hallam, Nottingham, Strathclyde, Manchester, Glasgow, Goldsmiths, Edinburgh, University of East Anglia, University of the West of England, St Andrews, University of East London, University of Arts London, Plymouth and Cardiff. Newcastle and Kingston reportedly also engaged in occupation, but little reliable information is available on these two. The shortest occupation, at Oxford, lasted a mere seven hours and ended with significant and immediate concessions from the University administration, including agreeing to the provision of scholarships to Palestinian students and a commitment to examine and reconsider university investment in companies that have links with the military. The longest, at Manchester University, lasted thirty-one days, beginning on 4 February and ending on 6 March.
Students’ demands varied slightly from one occupation to another, but a number of demands featured consistently. These include a demand for scholarships to be granted to Palestinian students and, in some cases, to Israeli students who refuse to serve in the army; a statement to be issued by the university administration expressing support for the right of Palestinian students to education and/or expressing solidarity with the Islamic University of Gaza, which was specifically targeted in the latest attack; various forms of aid to be sent to educational institutions in Gaza that have suffered destruction in the attacks, including the Islamic University; some form of fundraising effort on campus to provide support for the people of Gaza, with many occupations specifically calling for a DEC day of fundraising to be visibly promoted by university administration (the BBC had incensed the British public at large by refusing to televize an appeal for Gaza by the Disasters Emergency Committee in early January, and many of the student occupations in London and Scotland were accompanied by occupations of BBC offices to protest this decision); commitment to examining university investment portfolios with a view to divesting from companies implicated in the arms trade and in the occupation of Palestinian land; and ensuring immunity from reprisals for students involved in the occupation. Some occupations also demanded one or other form of boycotting Israeli goods and services, especially on campus. In Scotland, all occupations demanded that the (national) contract with Eden Springs to provide bottled water on campus be revoked. (Eden Springs is a UK company with unethical links to Israeli firms that source their water from the occupied Golan Heights.) In Birmingham, the boycott agenda included a demand not only to withdraw all goods illegally produced on Israeli settlements from university retail and catering outlets, but also to close the university account with Lloyds TSB and withhold renewal of its lease on campus because it had instructed the Islamic Bank of Britain, in its capacity as a clearing bank, to terminate the account of the Palestinian charity Interpal.
On many campuses, the occupying students managed to pass motions in support of several or all of their demands, strengthening their hand in negotiating with the university administration. For example, the SOAS occupation demand for an end to military activity on campus was backed up by a student union motion to the same effect. One of the concessions the occupation consequently won was the right for students to hold activities in the Brunei Gallery for free, instead of having to pay the £1,000 per day fee previously demanded by the administration and routinely waived for the Ministry of Defence.
Not all occupations succeeded in securing all of their demands. Nottingham, Sheffield Hallam and Birmingham were particularly heavy-handed in dealing with student occupations, using the police either to threaten to remove them (in Birmingham and Sheffield Hallam) or actually to remove them by force (in Nottingham, where outrage at the treatment and threatened deportation of Hicham Yezza remains high), without yielding to any demands. In Sheffield Hallam, students were also threatened with suspension. However, most occupations have ended in partial success, so far as demands are concerned. In Cardiff, for instance, the University agreed to divest all shares from BAe Systems and the aerospace arm of General Electric. Several universities agreed to provide scholarships to Palestinian students, though most tended to wrap this up within a package of scholarships to students in war zones in general.
But the achievements of the occupation movement extend well beyond concessions secured in relation to student demands. One has been managing to expose the hypocrisy of university administrations. When the director of the LSE refused to issue a condemnation of the attacks on Gaza, claiming that the university does not take positions on political issues, the occupying students were quick to remind him that he personally made an overtly political statement in May 2007 condemning a UCU resolution on Israel, and that previous LSE administrations had condemned South African apartheid and the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989. Another achievement is the successful alliances students forged with academic staff that are likely to endure in future and strengthen the activist base on campus. But perhaps the most significant achievement has been the shock waves the action sent through the system – from one end of the country to the other, and beyond, even inspiring two occupations on US campuses (at Rochester and NYU). Educational institutions in this country can no longer take their students for granted – especially on the issue of Palestine.