WARNING: UK universities to face the consequences over Israel ties?

Right, so much coverage continues to come out of the US as the protests against the genocidal Israel regime continue to be seen across social media, playing out in real time, as the police have invaded campuses and reportedly have actually stood aside to allow pro Zionist counter protesters to physically attack those protesting against the genocide in Gaza, but above all, protesting the links their universities may have through their business links to the Israeli regime and how they may be benefiting from a nation committing some of the worst atrocities many of us have ever seen. Just how far will things end up going, how much further escalation will we see in these US attacks against their own citizens for daring to hold a viewpoint others do not like? That isn’t democracy and what is being defended is utterly indefensible.
However here in the UK, where similar protests have been taking place in Universities across the country, legal notices have been sent to the universities themselves if they too have been identified as having pro Israel ties and never mind countering their protests, if they don’t address these links, they now face prosecution for criminal liability. That is what I call supporting student protest. How about we see some of the same in the US?
Right, so US violence on university campuses continues to shock and appal people bearing witness to the scenes being recorded on social media, being broadcast by eyewitnesses and the people being attacked, as pro Israel counter protesters drive that violence against students peacefully protesting their University’s ties to the Israeli regime, demand a say in ending those ties, those links that they do not wish to be associated with and the thought of ever standing against Israel no matter what they do for some people is just utterly anathema to them, to the point they are prepared to get violent, to invite violence and to drive police intervention. In the last several days we have seen for example at Northeastern University, the Daily Beast reported that 100 protesters were arrested because someone was heard to shout a phrase implying the unaliving of people of Jewish persuasion, I’ll put it like that to avoid getting censored, which gave the police cause to go in and make arrests, yet not actually of the person who said it, because as footage showed, that person was actually holding an Israeli flag and was amongst the counter-protesters.
At the University of California, a young man called Aidan Doyle, he’s a YouTuber too, took to social media to explain how he had been trying to stop Zionist counter protesters from removing a barricade, which resulted in him being pulled in amongst them, where he recounts then being set upon, being hit with a rock, was hit in the leg with a hammer, slashed at his arm and pepper sprayed him. He also commented on seeing 19 year old girls having fared far worse, their faces covered in blood. Despite all of that he was committed to returning, calling for peace in Palestine and the dismantling of the Israeli regime.
Now there will certainly be people thinking watching this, well yeah, whatever you would say that, he would say that we know who’s side you are both on in this, to which I’d argue that if you’re the sort of person to sneer at others who simply want the genocide the end, you need to have a long, hard look at yourself and by all means check out Aidan’s face and injuries on his YouTube channel, Aidan Doyle Politics.
As bad as most of what we are witnessing is, there has been some good news, there has been some success on the students part in the US, for example Brown University is going to hold a vote on their students divestment demands in October, so they have now dismantled there camp – people power can have an effect, though lets see how that vote goes before we celebrate too much.
Many of the people on these campus protests, not just students, but lecturers and professors as well are themselves Jewish and this is what is upsetting the likes of Benjamin Netanyahu the most, because it undermines his arguments that these campuses are not safe spaces for Jews, just as we’ve seen the same false reasoning levelled against the Palestine protests in London each weekend.
Of course the student protests have spread to UK campuses too, campus camps like those we’ve seen in the US have now been set up at Uni’s here, including in Manchester, where students have set up what they are calling the somewhat long winded, but very much on point camp called the ‘Manchester Resistance Camp for Palestine to pressure UoM to cut its ties with Zionist entities and weapons manufacturers.’
Their demands are that the University end it’s partnership with BAE Systems, who make parts for Israeli F-35 jets and to end it’s ties with Tel Aviv University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
More camps besides this one in Manchester have popped up too, in Bristol, Leeds, Sheffield and Newcastle, with more coming in Swansea, Lancaster and Edinburgh. It’s becoming a growing movement and potentially a growing problem for those here still ardently on the side of the Zionist regime, not least the Universities themselves, so could we end up seeing scenes such as those we’re witnessing in the US?
Well you can never rule anything like that out, but the students here in the UK have something on their side that those in the US don’t necessarily and that weirdly, is the law, or at least some people acting on behalf of it.
As of yesterday, the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians,, or ICJP, which is based here in the UK, based in London, had written to 82 of the 140 British Universities, warning them that their university officers could have committed a criminal offence if their institutions had profited from investments linked to weapons that have been used to commit war crimes. British Universities, just like their American counterparts, also invest money in companies, have shareholdings, generate returns for the university, therefore divestment demands from students should hardly be surprising, but between these 82 institutions, there are investments, not just in BAE Systems as aforementioned as is the case in Manchester, but also in Elbit Systems, who for example built the drone used to kill the World Central Kitchen aid workers some weeks ago now and also Caterpillar, who of course supply plant equipment to the regime. Any British university with investments in any company seen to be profiting from Israel in what it is doing in Gaza, risks being found complicit.
The ICJPs Senior Legal Officer, Dania Abul Haj told Middle East Eye that:
‘Investment in these companies was already morally bankrupt… In the current circumstances, it is beyond belief that universities, which are educational institutions, paving the way for future generations of leaders and politicians, would continue to invest in them.’
And it is. If I knew I could be profiting from a nation committing such widespread genocide, that was acting in such an indiscriminate and inhumane manner, I wouldn’t want to touch them with a bargepole, but then I wouldn’t have wanted to invest in a nation which is an illegal occupier and oppressor of other people’s lands as Israel certainly has been since 1967.
You have to think about this for a minute too, it shouldn’t just be the students appalled by what is happening in our Universities here, but all of us too. All these kids who go to University, pay enormous sums, rack up enormous amounts of student debt, the funding that they pay into the Universities for their tuition is coming from the public purse, it’s our money. Knowing that the University in question might be using that to invest in a company aiding in the genocide of Gaza right now are you happy about that? Is that good use of your money? As far as kids looking at going to University, I daresay if there wasn’t so much competition for places this might be a bigger issue, but it would I imagine certainly affect some kids choices as to where they choose to go for their further education, if they know one of their options is a potential investor in genocide versus another who might not be.
Will British universities act to divest, or would they rather get dragged to court and it possibly being made public the extent of their Israeli investments? Seems a no brainer to me, but then, pro Zionists don’t appear to let rational thought dictate their actions, I guess we’ll see just how pro Israel some of these institutions are by what they choose to do next.
Of course how much you’ll hear about it is another matter, with the media seemingly intent on burying a lot of this news, and even if they do cover it, what mainstream slant will they put on the story, seeking not so much to just report the news, but to shape opinion instead. They seem to have few qualms about complicity in many cases as this video recommendation will tell you all about and I’ll hopefully catch you on the next vid. Cheers folks.