An encampment has been constructed in Oxford in protest of Israeli action in Palestine and calling for the University to “end complicity with genocide”. Students, faculty, and staff have gathered to demand that the University reveal and divest funding into Israel and arms companies, as well as boycott all institutional connections with Israeli universities.
Positioned in front of the Pitt Rivers Museum, the encampment was established early Monday morning and is in coordination with a similar protest in Cambridge. It has been organised by the newly founded Oxford Action for Palestine (OA4P).
In a joint statement with Cambridge for Palestine (C4P), OA4P told Cherwell: “we refuse to accept our universities’ complicity in Israel’s war crimes against the Palestinian people – and we refuse to stand by while they justify Israel’s campaign of mass slaughter, starvation, and displacement.”
The encampment in Oxford comes after a string of similar movements at other universities across the world, including Yale, Harvard and UCLA, where 132 were arrested and rubber bullets used against the students.
A student participating told Cherwell: “It’s not even 10am and we’ve already had dozens of people join us in the building of a beautiful community in our Liberated Zone, and more people stream in from the street with each passing hour. It’s an honour to stand alongside people who care so deeply for Palestinian Liberation and demand that the genocide in Gaza must end.
“Our university is complicit in Israel’s genocide, occupation and apartheid – and as a coalition of students, staff and faculty we say no more [emphasis added by student]. After seven months of overwhelming support for Palestine on campus, we call on [the Administration] to take action that’s long overdue.”
The group has made seven demands of the University, primarily relating to the assets and investments held. They demand a disclosure of all University assets and a divestiture of all holdings in arms companies and companies “complicit in Israeli genocide, apartheid and occupation of Palestine”.
OA4P has said: “Oxbridge’s profits cannot continue to climb at the expense of Palestinian lives, and their reputations must no longer be built on the white-washing of Israeli crimes. Today we join the university students, faculty, and staff across the globe who refuse to continue business as usual while our institutions profit from genocide.”
It is also demanded that the University and its subsidiaries end all banking with Barclays. This comes after a protest in January outside the Oxford branch in protest organised by the Oxford Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
A boycott of institutional relationships with Israeli universities has also been demanded. This consists of the ending of exchange programs, joint projects and conferences. They also demand that the Univerisity “end research, career, and procurement partnerships with companies and institutions that are complicit in Israeli genocide, apartheid, or occupation.”
Demands relating to changes in University investment include adding an ethical restriction against investing in companies that are “complicit in Israeli genocide, apartheid, and occupation” and utilising an ethical investment review process to have decisions adhere to ‘justice-based guidelines’”.
The group demands the University provides financial and material means to rebuild Palestinian universities, establish a long-term task force to recommend how best to rebuild the higher education sector in Gaza and allocate resources to support Palestinian students such as exchanges, joint projects and scholarship programmes.
The University has been approached for comment.
