The University of Glasgow has been seeking to deter and repress anti-genocide protesters. But students continue to step up their resistance to the institutions links to death and destruction in occupied Palestine.
Glasgow University faces protests
For months, students have been protesting against the university’s £6.8m worth of shareholdings in arms companies complicit in Israel’s war crimes, despite overwhelming opposition from students and staff. And now, following the institution’s decision to call in the cops to help repress dissent, the campaign is only growing stronger.
As the National reported, students with links to Glasgow University Justice for Palestine Society (GUJPS) have now “set up tents on the grass outside of the university’s library” until the university commits to divestment. This follows on from the student occupation of the Charles Wilson Building last week, which prompted the university to call in the police. And it comes as five students continue a hunger strike. Monday 24 March saw hundreds of students protest outside the library in solidarity with the strikers and the call for divestment.
Students have named the encampment the “Dima Al Haj Liberated Zone” in memory of World Health Organisation worker Dima Alhaj, a former Glasgow university student whom Israel murdered in 2023 “alongside her six-month-old baby, her husband and her two brothers”.
Glasgow Uni have called the police to clear out anti-genocide protestors occupying the Charles Wilson Building in response to Israel’s renewed bombing in Gaza. This is a serious escalation in the repression of Palestine activists in Scotland. 300+ now protesting outside plz join pic.twitter.com/MS5j4gDOA2
— Jade (@JadeEckhaus) March 19, 2025
Glasgow University today, admirable students sitting down for Gaza
Glasgow Uni MUST divest from arms companies. pic.twitter.com/tdC2BsB6Tn
— GGEC (@ggectee) March 20, 2025
New student encampment for Palestine set up at Glasgow University
Students stepping up in response to university management calling the police to intimidate them on campus. We will not stop, we will not rest! #FreePalestine @STWuk pic.twitter.com/qrDv1iThh5
— Glasgow Stop the War (@GlasgowStopWar) March 24, 2025
For the sixth day, students at Glasgow University continue their hunger strike demanding their university divest from insistions complicit in the Israeli genocide in Gaza. They have also organized a solidarity encampment on campus as an act of protest. pic.twitter.com/jqxkCYGZD6
— Al-Jarmaq News (@Aljarmaqnetnews) March 24, 2025
In response to Glasgow Uni calling the police to try to intimidate them students have responded by setting up a Palestine encampment. We won’t stop protesting until Palestine is free pic.twitter.com/sIdBfKPCzh
— Jade (@JadeEckhaus) March 24, 2025
The University and College Union (UCU) has opposed the institution’s involvement of police officers in repressing protests:
No Cops on Campus.The University and College Union Glasgow (UCUG) is gravely concerned at the response of the university’s governing bodies to peaceful student protests relating to divestment and the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
— UCU University of Glasgow (@ucuglasgow.bsky.social) 2025-03-25T14:49:11.294Z
Jewish staff members have expressed their support for the divestment campaign and anti-genocide protesters:
UCU Glasgow support for PalestineIn light of today’s protests on campus, the UoG Jewish Staff Network has also issued a statement of support for the GUJPS campaign for divestment (slide 2).@glasgowstopwar.bsky.social
— UCU University of Glasgow (@ucuglasgow.bsky.social) 2025-03-19T19:04:30.457Z
Meanwhile, down in Cambridge
At the University of Cambridge, meanwhile, protesters from the Organisation of Radical Cambridge Activists for Environmental Liberation (ORCA) and other groups took action against the institution’s hosting of an event involving “oil companies, fossil fuel lobbyists, mining companies and insurers providing services to the arms and fossil fuel industries”. In a press release, the activists accused the “Nature Action Dialogue” event of trying to greenwash “the reputation of companies responsible for the devastation of our climate and environment”.
They stressed that:
From Drax and Nestle to HSBC and Aviva, many of the companies attending today are responsible for war, genocide and environmental devastation around the work.
In particular, they highlighted that “infamous fossil-fuel investors HSBC”:
invested $192 billion in fossil fuels between 2016 and 2023 – and also has £831.5 million of investments in companies supplying Israel as it continues its genocidal onslaught on Gaza, which so far has resulted in the deaths of at least 50,000 Palestinians.
Insurance giant Aviva, meanwhile:
has over $880 million invested in arms companies which supply Israel, a fact which has been highlighted by new activist group Boycott Bloody Insurance in the context of the Gaza genocide.
Protesters disrupted events from both outside and inside the event, aiming to inform attendees and passers-by about the companies’ involvement in fuelling death and destruction.
BREAKING Activists have disrupted a greenwashing conference at Cambridge Uni!Today @uniofcam.bsky.social & @unep.org invited top polluters & genocide funders to chat about climate solutions.How can the Uni or UN be trusted when they're in the pockets of violent, colonial corporations?
3. HSBC: Invested $192 billion in planet-killing fossil fuels between 2016 and 2023.HSBC also invests £831.5 million in companies supplying Israel as it continues its genocidal onslaught on Gaza – which has so far killed at least 50,000 Palestinians.3/3
Featured image supplied
By Ed Sykes
This post was originally published on Canary.