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Student mobilization for Link gains space in British universities. On the campus of one of them, SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies) in London, it is possible to see several tents accompanied by Palestinian flags.
Some students, many of them masked, sit in a circle, on blue sheets, next to the tents where slogans calling for a ceasefire hang, while others store supplies.
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According to Yara, a 23-year-old former student, more than twenty students participate in the movement at this university center.
Other fields with similar characteristics emerged at several British universities, an extension of what happened on American campuses.
The objective, explains Yara for the AFP, it is “putting pressure on the (British) administration to comply with the students’ demands”, bringing to light the role played by complicit companies in what the student calls “Israel’s illegal colonization economy and arms trade”. .
– “Solidarity Camp” –
The University of Warwick, in central England, pioneered this movement with a “Gaza solidarity camp” on April 26.
Then, tents began to appear at universities in Newcastle, Edinburgh, Manchester, Cambridge and Oxford.
In Edinburgh, a group of students began a hunger strike to demand a ceasefire in Gaza.
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In Cambridge, several orange tents can be seen, neatly lined up around King’s College, founded in 1441.
The university said in a statement that it respects freedom of expression and the right to protest, adding that it will not tolerate “anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and any other form of racial or religious hatred.”
With protests in the United States sometimes provoking violence and Jewish students expressing concern for their safety, Conservative British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak wants to avoid similar scenes in the United States. UK.
This Thursday, Sunak called on UK universities to continue to be “bastions of tolerance”, during a meeting with their leaders to talk about student safety. Jewish students.
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The Community Safety Trust, an association that ensures the safety of Jewish community sites, speaks of “an unprecedented level of anti-Semitism” since the Hamas attacks on October 7 and the Hamas response. Israel.
More than 1,170 people, most of them civilians, were killed in that Hamas attack, according to a count compiled by AFP based on Official Israeli figures.
The Israeli military response left around 35,000 dead, mainly women and children, according to the Israeli Ministry of Health. Hamas.
SOAS students received support from former left-wing Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn on Wednesday.
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The former Labor leader stressed that the university must “recognize that students have strong, legitimate and valid opinions”.
Suspended from the Labor Party, Jeremy Corbyn has been accused of allowing anti-Semitism to spread within his party, having in the past described Hamas and its Hezbollah allies as “friends”.
– “It doesn’t matter” –
Yara, who has been at the camp since its inception earlier this week, said students plan to stay “as long as it takes” for the university to accept their applications.
“The first night was very rainy, wet and muddy,” he says.
“But honestly, no matter how uncomfortable it is for students to camp outdoors, it is only a small part of the conditions Palestinians experience in Link“, To add.
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A 19-year-old law and international development student, who has only participated in protests so far, says he wants to join the camp this weekend.
“I don’t think I can wait until I graduate, because people are dying,” says the student, who did not want to be identified. “I said I would be here because they need people. And here I am”, he concludes.
Source: Elcomercio
I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.
