In late October, police entered the PhD offices at 27/28 George Square and questioned students about the memorial posters displayed in the windows, depicting about 60 Palestinians killed by Israel. Days later, the posters were all removed without notifying the students.
The memorial had always been a bit of a beacon for me, the one public display of solidarity amid overwhelming silence from the university about the genocide against Palestinians. When showing my younger sister, who is considering applying for Edinburgh, around the campus, she was relieved to see it; Edinburgh has not done too well with its reputation of complicity, from warning students to “think carefully” about protesting, to refusing to engage with the Edinburgh University Justice for Palestine Society (EUJPS). But these windows, facing out towards the Main Library, were confrontational in remembering those who were lost, and they made this swirling pool of ignorance and complicity around unimaginable violence feel less deafening. Now, the vigil has been removed, most likely thrown in a recycling bin.
The university seemingly took this action on the basis of student safety. But the issues of student safety have become weaponised through selectivity. Whose safety does this protect? Certainly not the safety of Ben Law, a pro-Palestine student who was attacked with a knife while campus security stood idly by after they had been warned about the weapon. The police were called into the PhD offices because a staff member identified a poster of a “Hamas member.” When students queried this, the police pointed to Anas Al-Sharif, an Al-Jazeera journalist killed in an Israeli airstrike in August this year. There is no credible evidence that Al-Sharif was a Hamas operative. Police did not even bother checking before entering and questioning students.
Over 78 PhD students petitioned in response to the police visit, stating that police entering their offices to question them, without prior notice or campus security present, is a safeguarding issue. If the university is concerned with safety, it should have extended the notice they received of the visit to their students, many of whom are on student visas.
Just yesterday, The National reported that on 5 November, a senior member of staff assaulted a student handing out pro-Palestine leaflets and gloated about getting the posters removed. If there is truly a concern with student safety, then I expect the university to start with its staff assaulting its students.
Interestingly, UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) claims to be behind the removal of the vigil. It argued that the vigil goes against the urban planning laws set out in section 186 of the Town and Country Planning Act (1997), section 149 of the Equality Act (2010) and the Hate Crime and Public Order Act (2021). When looking through the Edinburgh council complaints register, the case was closed when it concluded a breach of only the urban planning law.
As it stands, there is either a member of our senior staff that is a member of UKLFI, or the university is prioritising “student safety” only when it is reported by an external organisation that seeks to actively suppress all support for Palestine. I personally do not feel safe when the university prioritises the safety concerns of people that seek to criminalise resisting a genocide. Surely a display of photographs, of mostly children who have been murdered in a genocide, is important to help us humanise those lost.
It is not the sharing of these images that threatens our safety. It is the commission of genocide and the efforts to draw a curtain over the thousands killed that threatens us all, threatens our right and ability as students to ask hard questions. It does not make students feel ‘safe’ when police are questioning students, asking for their names and contact information because of a vigil; it does not make us feel safe that police are accusing journalist Anas al-Sharif of being a Hamas operative, when there is no substantial evidence to support the claim; it does not make us feel safe that the only way we can express solidarity is through sharing social media posts and joining a society that the University actively distances itself from.
Photo by Ulia Makoveeva for The Student
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“Think Carefully”: The University’s Hypocrisy on the Gaza Memorial and Student Safety
In late October, police entered the PhD offices at 27/28 George Square and questioned students about the memorial posters displayed in the windows, depicting about 60 Palestinians killed by Israel. Days later, the posters were all removed without notifying the students.
The memorial had always been a bit of a beacon for me, the one public display of solidarity amid overwhelming silence from the university about the genocide against Palestinians. When showing my younger sister, who is considering applying for Edinburgh, around the campus, she was relieved to see it; Edinburgh has not done too well with its reputation of complicity, from warning students to “think carefully” about protesting, to refusing to engage with the Edinburgh University Justice for Palestine Society (EUJPS). But these windows, facing out towards the Main Library, were confrontational in remembering those who were lost, and they made this swirling pool of ignorance and complicity around unimaginable violence feel less deafening. Now, the vigil has been removed, most likely thrown in a recycling bin.
The university seemingly took this action on the basis of student safety. But the issues of student safety have become weaponised through selectivity. Whose safety does this protect? Certainly not the safety of Ben Law, a pro-Palestine student who was attacked with a knife while campus security stood idly by after they had been warned about the weapon. The police were called into the PhD offices because a staff member identified a poster of a “Hamas member.” When students queried this, the police pointed to Anas Al-Sharif, an Al-Jazeera journalist killed in an Israeli airstrike in August this year. There is no credible evidence that Al-Sharif was a Hamas operative. Police did not even bother checking before entering and questioning students.
Over 78 PhD students petitioned in response to the police visit, stating that police entering their offices to question them, without prior notice or campus security present, is a safeguarding issue. If the university is concerned with safety, it should have extended the notice they received of the visit to their students, many of whom are on student visas.
Just yesterday, The National reported that on 5 November, a senior member of staff assaulted a student handing out pro-Palestine leaflets and gloated about getting the posters removed. If there is truly a concern with student safety, then I expect the university to start with its staff assaulting its students.
Interestingly, UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) claims to be behind the removal of the vigil. It argued that the vigil goes against the urban planning laws set out in section 186 of the Town and Country Planning Act (1997), section 149 of the Equality Act (2010) and the Hate Crime and Public Order Act (2021). When looking through the Edinburgh council complaints register, the case was closed when it concluded a breach of only the urban planning law.
As it stands, there is either a member of our senior staff that is a member of UKLFI, or the university is prioritising “student safety” only when it is reported by an external organisation that seeks to actively suppress all support for Palestine. I personally do not feel safe when the university prioritises the safety concerns of people that seek to criminalise resisting a genocide. Surely a display of photographs, of mostly children who have been murdered in a genocide, is important to help us humanise those lost.
It is not the sharing of these images that threatens our safety. It is the commission of genocide and the efforts to draw a curtain over the thousands killed that threatens us all, threatens our right and ability as students to ask hard questions. It does not make students feel ‘safe’ when police are questioning students, asking for their names and contact information because of a vigil; it does not make us feel safe that police are accusing journalist Anas al-Sharif of being a Hamas operative, when there is no substantial evidence to support the claim; it does not make us feel safe that the only way we can express solidarity is through sharing social media posts and joining a society that the University actively distances itself from.
Photo by Ulia Makoveeva for The Student
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