St Hugh's JCR - JCR Statement of Solidarity with the people of Palestine and the Oxford Action For Palestine (OA4P) Encampments
JCR Statement of Solidarity with the people of Palestine and the Oxford Action For Palestine (OA4P) Encampments
Motion 3: JCR Statement of Solidarity with the people of Palestine and the Oxford Action For Palestine (OA4P) Encampments
The JCR notes:
i. The present situation in Gaza is catastrophic; the International Court of Justice [1] has characterised it as plausibly amounting to genocide. The International Criminal Court has also applied for arrest warrants, including against Benjamin Netanyahu, and our own alumna Amal Clooney was involved in this. [2] It is hypocritical to benefit from her image without standing in solidarity with Palestinians.
ii. The ongoing offensive in Gaza can only be properly understood in the context of Israel’s ongoing apartheid regime against Palestinians [3], its illegal occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem and settler violence there [4].
iii. There is a grave and urgent threat to the future of higher education across Gaza. Having turned the universities of Gaza into detention centres before demolishing them, forcibly rendering Palestinian scholars, scientists, researchers and students homeless, Israel's campaign of scholasticide has turned its attention to eliminating future independent Palestinian educational life in Gaza [5].
iv. The University has called for the release of the Israeli hostages and for an end to the ongoing violence in Gaza but fell short of calling for the release of Palestinian prisoners held under administrative detention in Israeli prisons, many of them arrested as children [6], or an end to the Occupation.
v. As members of a historically women’s college, we cannot claim to stand against oppression without standing against the oppression of Palestinians.
vi. Following police violence on 23rd May 2024 against Oxford students peacefully protesting our university’s complicity in genocide and failure to meet with students for negotiations, the need for solidarity from the wider student body is clearly immanent. [7]
vii. OA4P has significant support from the Oxford community, including over 2500 signatures on the student solidarity open letter, over 600 on the staff and faculty open letter, and support from trade unions.[8]
viii. Common rooms at many other colleges have passed similar motions in solidarity with OA4P and their demands. [9]
[1] https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/192/192-20240126-ord-01-00-en.pdf
[2] https://cfj.org/news/amal-clooney-publishes-expert-report-supporting-icc-arrest-warrant-applications-for-crimes-in-israel-and-palestine/
[3] https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/04/27/threshold-crossed/israeli-authorities-and-crimes-apartheid-and-persecution
[4] https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/04/state-backed-deadly-rampage-by-israeli-settlers-underscores-urgent-need-to-dismantle-apartheid/
[5] https://twitter.com/ScholarsForPal/status/1783849744776773670?t=mcRKJT-YIwvTuXPCq659GQ&s=08
[6] https://www.btselem.org/administrative_detention
[7]https://x.com/_madeleinejane/status/1793609702779318323?s=46&t=w6zUkQESPx82H1bKlUukMg
[8] https://oxfordgazastudentsolidarity.wordpress.com/ https://oxfordgazastaffsolidarity.wordpress.com/ https://www.ucu.cam.ac.uk/joint-ucu-branch-statement-on-the-oxford-and-cambridge-palestine-solidarity-encampments/
[9] https://cherwell.org/2024/05/17/oxford-college-jcrs-pass-motions-in-support-of-pro-palestine-encampment/
The JCR believes:
I. Palestine and the indigenous peoples of Palestine should be recognised and their liberation fought for. The ongoing violence against the Palestine people has been occurring for the last 76 years and the current genocide should not go on without interventions and boycotts.
II. “Gaza solidarity encampments”, which emerged at Columbia University where it persisted for two weeks, is rooted in a decades-long movement for Palestinian rights in their homeland, and to hold Israel accountable for its illegal occupation of Palestinian territories [10].
III. The Oxford Action for Palestine encampments, formed on the 6th May at the Museum of Natural History and on the 19th May at the Radcliffe Camera, should be interpreted as “a public-facing global education project” [11]. We hope that the University’s leadership will treat this political expression as the opportunity for dialogue that it is.
IV. The encampments are a safe space for Jews, Muslims and people of other faiths and none; where shabbat dinners are held alongside Jummah prayers, and Passover prayer are heard alongside the Islamic adhan.
[10] https://www.ox.ac.uk/about/organisation/global-crises/university-response-israel-gaza-middle-east
[11] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/5/4/we-wont-stop-how-columbias-students-etched-a-new-gaza-protest-legacy
The JCR resolves to
Condemn antisemitism in all its forms.
Reiterate the demands of Oxford Action for Palestine to the College, which are to:
1. DISCLOSE COLLEGE ASSETS
6.1. Annually disclose a comprehensive account of College assets, including direct and indirect investments, land holdings, donations, and grants.
2. DIVEST COLLEGE ASSETS
6.1. Immediately divest College direct and indirect holdings in all arms companies.
6.2. Publicly pledge to completely divest College direct and indirect holdings in all companies that are complicit in Israeli genocide, apartheid, and occupation of Palestine within the next 5 years.
3. OVERHAUL INVESTMENT POLICY
6.1. Expand the ethical restriction on arms manufacturers to cover direct and indirect investments in all arms and military technology companies.
6.2. Add an ethical restriction to the Investment Policy on direct and indirect investments in companies that are complicit in Israeli genocide, apartheid, and occupation.
6.3. Integrate community stakeholders in ethical investment review processes to ensure that all investment decisions adhere to justice-based guidelines.
4. BOYCOTT INSTITUTIONAL RELATIONSHIPS
6.1. End all institutional relationships with Israeli universities, including exchange programmes, joint projects, conferences and other official links.
6.2. Pledge not to enter into future institutional relationships with Israeli universities as long as Israeli genocide, apartheid, or occupation is ongoing.
6.3. End research, career, and procurement partnerships with companies and institutions that are complicit in Israeli genocide, apartheid, or occupation.