Members of Cambridge Palestine Solidarity Society (PalSoc) joined with students across the country on Monday to call on all UK universities to “end their complicity in Israeli apartheid”, the Middle East Monitor reported.
Students demonstrated to show their solidarity with the Palestinian people and demand the university review its ties “with all corporations implicated in illegal Israeli policies” and “immediately severe formal links and partnerships with BAE Systems, Caterpillar and all other companies or institutions deemed complicit.”
#FOA welcomes the motion on BDS passed at the Student Members’ Meeting at City yesterday.🙌
93% voted in favour of #BDS, the movement calling for boycotts, divestment and economic sanctions on Israel for its ongoing crimes of apartheid. @CityFOP_ https://t.co/vKRe7K9EQx pic.twitter.com/4GCxkgN9AW
— Friends of Al Aqsa (@FriendsofAlAqsa) December 2, 2021
“It is shameful that the University of Cambridge is amongst those with the highest investments,” Varsity reported the Palestinian Society saying,” standing at an estimate of £120,780,000 [$160,830,000].”
The action came as part of a larger movement across 30 universities in the UK whose students urged for divestment from apartheid Israel on International Day of Solidarity with Palestine.
Friends of Al-Aqsa (FOA), which called for the action, said UK universities currently have £450 million ($598.7 million) in investments that are “complicit in Israeli apartheid”.
30 UK Universities Face Calls to Divest from Companies Complicit in Israeli Apartheid https://t.co/qAkKflL8oO via @PalestineChron pic.twitter.com/hW6EKFwL3Q
— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) December 1, 2021
In 2020, the University of Manchester divested more than £10 million ($13 million) from companies complicit in Israel’s occupation of Palestine following years of campaigning by human rights groups. Companies affected include Caterpillar, a long-standing supplier of heavy machinery used to demolish Palestinian homes and infrastructure by the Israeli army.
(MEMO, PC, Social Media)