Press Release from Dundee University Stop the War Society.

Friday 6th February, 3.10pm

Mass student campaign for solidarity with Palestine wins victories at Dundee University.

• Students are celebrating winning one of their central campaign demands. Following the Stop the War demonstration at Dundee University on Friday 29th January, DU Finance Committee agreed on Monday 2nd February to divest £200,000 of shares in BAe Systems, which supplies F16 fighter jet components to Israel, and to formally explore adoption of an ethical investment policy.
• 200 students at Dundee University Student Association Emergency General Meeting on 5th February overwhelmingly pass policy to
  1. campaign for DU divestment in BAe Systems and for DU to adopt an ethical investment policy, and;
  2. campaign for DU to terminate its contract for bottled water with Israeli owned Eden Springs, which illegally steals water from Golan Heights.

The world has spoken. Millions have marched against Israel’s massacre of the people of Gaza. The invasion has left about 1400 people dead, including at least 412 children. Many civilians have serious injuries because of Israel’s phosphorous weapons. Thousands have lost their homes, hospitals, schools and universities. Gaza’s infrastructure has been destroyed.

The bombs have stopped for now but Israel—supported by prime minister Gordon Brown and the BBC—continues the siege of Gaza. Israel is preventing desperately needed aid from reaching civilians through its murderous blockade by land, air and sea.

The BBC is complicit in this in its refusal to broadcast the DEC charity appeal for Gaza—and Gordon Brown has sent not aid ships but warships. DU is also complicit. Israeli firm Eden Springs steals water from the Golan Heights in the Occupied Territories and sells it in our university while Palestinians so often go without water for days. DU has a major shareholding of £200,000 in BAe Systems, a massive arms company that sells components to Israel for the F-16 fighter jets used to bomb Gaza.

Support for such firms profiting from the murder and oppression of Palestinians cannot and will not continue.

DU students demand that the university:

• immediately divest of arms manufacturer BAe Systems
• DU‘s Eden Springs contract must be cancelled
• pay for and facilitate 2 scholarships for Palestinians to study at DU
• send educational materials to rebuild universities in Gaza
• condemn the BBC for refusing to broadcast the DEC appeal for Gaza and hold a fundraising day for DEC Appeal on DU campus

DU Stop the War Society is calling on Dundonians to attend the Scottish Stop the War Coalition Conference in Glasgow on 21st February

Press contact for DU Stop the War Society:

Craig Kelly, c.z.kelly@dundee.ac.uk, 07549375517

DU Stop the War Society
WEB: Stop the war EMAIL: DUstopthewar@gmail.com