Pro-Palestinian campaigners disrupted Amazon’s stand at a University of Edinburgh career fair on Tuesday over the multinational company’s links to the Israeli military.
The protest by the Edinburgh University Justice for Palestine Society (EUJPS) caused the vendors representing Amazon to shut down the stall.
Taking to Instagram, EUJPS criticised Amazon’s provision of cloud services for Israel’s military and public sectors as part of a $1.2 billion deal signed jointly with Google.
EUJPS’ post references an investigation by the Israel-based +972 Magazine, in which sources claimed that Amazon’s cloud system allows the Israeli army to store intelligence on the Gazan population.
Military sources reportedly told the magazine that this intelligence has “on rare occasions” been used to confirm aerial assassination attempts in Gaza.
An anonymous group of Google and Amazon workers criticised the contract – known as Project Nimbus – in a 2021 opinion piece for the Guardian.
They wrote that:
“The technology our companies have contracted to build will make the systematic discrimination and displacement carried out by the Israeli military and government even crueler and deadlier for Palestinians.”
Protests by EUJPS earlier this year led the University of Edinburgh to announce in May that it would “make no new purchase in Alphabet and Amazon stock” for at least three months.
The three-month period coincided with a university-wide consultation on its Responsible Investment Policy that closed in August.
In their Instagram post, EUJPS said:
“Despite even the university itself freezing all new purchases of Amazon stock in recognition of their problematic nature, they’re still happy to platform them at our careers fair.”
“Since the university wasn’t willing to stand up for the rights of Palestinians, we did.”
The university had £4,903,586 invested in Amazon as of January 2024.
In a video of the protest released alongside their statement, the group said this money was “drenched in Palestinian blood”.
“The careers services are complicit for inviting these murderers into our institutions to recruit bright young minds like these.”
The group’s protest comes amidst a significant escalation in the conflict as Israel turns its attention to Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.
As of October 1, the Palestinian Health Ministry reported that over 41,500 people have been killed in Gaza since the 7 October attacks in Israel, which resulted in more than 1,200 deaths and 251hostages being taken.
A spokesperson for the University of Edinburgh told The Student that:
“Our Careers Service offers impartial support to students, helping them make informed choices about their future. As part of this, it provides information and access to a range of industries and professional networks.
“Whilst the escalating violence in the Middle East is extremely distressing, and we understand the strength of feeling and respect the right to protest, this does not confer the right for students to disrupt an event supporting the future career development of their peers, and we are disappointed that these actions prevented others from fully engaging with the programme.”
“A number of our students have complained to us that this was the case.”
“We have also been clear that disciplinary action may be taken should anyone breach our student code of conduct.”
“McEwan Hall, Bristol Square” by yellow book is licensed under CC BY 2.0.