UCU at the University of Nottingham (UoNUCU) stands in solidarity with students, who began an encampment on Jubilee Campus outside the Advanced Manufacturing Building on Friday 10 May. We support their call for:
1) full transparency about University of Nottingham involvement in the arms trade,
2) an end to all partnerships with companies involved in arms manufacturing and a transition to sustainable and ethical alternative partnerships,
3) the provision of bursaries for Palestinian staff and students; and
4) a contribution to the reconstruction of the education system in Gaza.
We welcome students’ actions condemning Israel’s ‘plausibly genocidal acts’ in solidarity with the Palestinian people. We admire their resolve to speak up when so many people in the West stay silent.
We reiterate the words of UCU’s Black Members Standing Committee, ‘that calling attention to the systematic discrimination of Palestinians and/or criticising the Israeli government for its contravention of international law must not be conflated with antisemitism’.
Further, we remind our members, and university management, that UCU stands in solidarity with Palestinian liberation. This includes a commitment to protect students and staff under attack for supporting the cause of the Palestinian people.
As UCU at the University of Nottingham we fully support the right to peaceful protest and urge the University to ensure students’ right to free speech, protest and assembly on campus. We, moreover, call on university management to engage in constructive negotiations with the students around their demands.
Solidarity!
UCU committee at UoN, 14 May 2024
More information:
Prof. Andreas Bieler, UCU President at UoN, 07955 143829 or Andreas.Bieler@nottingham.ac.uk