Boycotting UK Universities
for their role in facilitating the genocide in Gaza-Palestine
The Gulf Coalition Against Normalisation (Gulf CAN) calls students and education actors from the Arab Gulf to boycott UK Universities involved in the active facilitation of the genocide in Gaza-Palestine.
UK Universities has not only refused to acknowledge the ongoing genocide in Gaza, but they play a direct role in funding and developing weapons systems supplied to the Zionist military. Unlike how they market themselves to international students as sites of academic freedom, UK universities have not only silenced it's students and staff from expressing solidarity with Gaza, but exerted physical violence against it's own students which renders those universities as unsafe places for pursuing knowledge. This use of violence - in defence of Genocide - took various forms including sexual harassment, and the removal of hijabs, and led to many students leaving universities harmed, some of which were admitted to hospital.
In light of the global student movement calling universities to divest and cease relationships with corporations benefiting from the genocide in Gaza, it has become imperative for students from the Arab Gulf to contribute to this movement. Particularly, given that scholarship programs and partnerships with local universities in the Gulf make a crucial source of income for UK universities.
The call extends to students and local educational entities engaged in the study abroad pipelines to take the moral stance and boycott the listed universities, which currently include:
University of Nottingham
Newcastle University
University of Leeds
Northumbria University
Queen Mary University of London
University of Portsmouth
University of Manchester
Manchester Metropolitan University
Coventry University
Criteria for listing Universities
The following criteria was considered in listing the aforementioned universities:
The extent of partnerships and investments in companies and agencies benefiting from the genocide
Based on data from Demilitarise Education, the Campaign Against Arms Trade, the Universities and Colleges Union, and through our own research.
Numbers of Gulf students enrolments
Based on data from the UK Higher Education Statistics Agency.
Universities' repression of students
And the existence of student movements resisting the universities' complicity in the genocide.
Criminal Liability Alert
The listed universities were alerted by the International Centre of Justice for Palestine (ICJP) of the risk of criminal liability over any investments held in both arms companies and Israeli settlements.
Spaces for Action
Ways for taking part in this project:
Students
Commit to not enrolling in the listed universities.
Communicate with the universities to explain the reasons for withdrawing enrolment.
For the already enrolled students: Join the student movement.
University Agents
Study abroad commercial agents to stop funneling students and end relationships with the listed universities.
Local universities to cut all ties and partnerships with the listed universities.
Ministries of Education
To remove the listed universities from international scholarship destinations until they commit to cutting all ties with weapons development companies, military partnerships, and divest from all companies benefiting from the genocide in Gaza, the Israeli settlements and apartheid system in Palestine.
The listed UK Universities have, so far, lost
from prospective students from the Gulf who decided not to enrol in universities that facilitate genocide
Pledge to boycott here
