The University of Edinburgh’s Old College has been occupied by the Justice for Palestine Society (JPS).
In an Instagram post, the society demands that the university divest from Israeli-linked companies and “sever all research collaborations affiliated with Israel.”
Justice for Palestine has previously claimed that the university invests £39 million in these companies, which include holdings worth £30 million in Blackrock – the world’s largest asset manager – as well as holdings in Amazon and Booking.com.
It has research collaborations with the Israel-based AI firm Anyvision and the weapons manufacturer Leonardo.
The group’s encampment in the Old College follows previous multi-day occupations in the university’s Gordon Aikman Lecture Theatre and 40 George Square building.
In the post, the group labelled the institution “Lord Balfour’s University” in reference to the former Prime Minister (1902–05) and University of Edinburgh Chancellor (1891–1930) Lord Arthur Balfour.
As foreign secretary, Balfour issued the 1917 Balfour Declaration supporting the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
According to Nicola Perugini, an associate professor at the university, Balfour’s “racialised understanding of global order constituted the backbone of the 1917 Balfour Declaration, which created a new imperial legal framework in the Middle East.”
Writing in a 2022 blog post, Perugini asked:
“Why don’t we publicly acknowledge that the man that has been appointed to enhance our global academic reputation for forty years, was also a key political-intellectual actor in the production of a racialised imperial order that has dispossessed so many peoples?”
As part of their demands, JPS are calling on the university to “denounce its historic role in the settler colonization of Palestine and its imperialist ties”, as well as remove its painting of Balfour housed in the Old College.
A separate painting of Balfour at the University of Cambridge – where he was also Chancellor – was “slashed” and sprayed red by a different group of pro-Palestinian protesters in March.
The Justice for Palestine society demands that the university pay reparations towards rebuilding Gaza “equal to the profits of its investments in Israel” and publicly condemn “Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people”.
It also calls on the institution to provide scholarships to students in Gaza and ensure “no person who participated in genocide” can join the university.
The society has criticised the universities’ “policing on campus,” with a sign outside the encampment stating that they “will not engage in conflict or bad-faith debate and arguments.”
Image via Ellen Breen