The Edinburgh University Justice for Palestine Society (EUJPS) held a rally in Bristo Square on 5 February to call for the university’s divestment in several businesses, including Amazon, Alphabet, and Microsoft.
In the most recent investment statistics from July 2025, the University of Edinburgh had investments in Microsoft valued at £8,006,028, in Amazon valued at £6,714,862, and in Alphabet valued at £2,412,663.
A University of Edinburgh Spokesperson told The Student:
“We support the right of members of our community to take part in peaceful and lawful protest on our campuses, and we unequivocally condemn the violence and suffering resulting from events in Israel and Gaza in recent years.”
Last year, Edinburgh University set up a ‘Responsible Investment Advisory Group’ made up of independent and external experts, following a consultation with students and staff across the university, aiming to “inform the University’s approach to responsible investment.”
Protestors were optimistic about their organisation’s ability to create an even larger student movement.
One attendee told The Student:
“Living in Edinburgh, so close to the university, has opened my eyes to how our country has been complicit in genocide.
“It is really nice to see people come together and show their support for Palestine and against growing racism in the city.”
When asked whether they would support a student-wide boycott of Amazon, Google, and Microsoft services, one protester stated: “That’s why we have to protest.”
They continued: “We don’t have a choice. To use our university emails, we have to use Microsoft.”
Another protester, when asked about the boycott, said she would “definitely support any kind of strike, any kind of boycott.”
She cited that these methods are “how historically structures of colonialism domination and empires have fallen and this is how they can fall again.”
The rally, originally scheduled to march to the Futures Institute, was forced to disperse early due to a medical emergency.
In July 2025, the UN Human Rights Council named Edinburgh as highly financially entangled with Israel:
“With both direct and indexed investments, the University ranks among the most financially entangled institutions in the United Kingdom.”
One of the key concerns among activists surrounding Amazon and Alphabet is their participation in Project Nimbus.
Amazon and Google — Alphabet’s subsidiary — signed Project Nimbus in 2021.
This $1.2bn (£884m) contract provides cloud infrastructure, AI, and other technology services to the Israeli Government and its military.
In 2025, The Intercept reported that Google knew it could not control how Israel used its technology.
The UN Commission of Inquiry 2025 report, in which it was concluded that Israel has committed genocide, stated that the Israeli military depended on cloud providers to interpret and store intelligence information and data.
Reports suggest the Israeli Ministry of Defence may be using Google’s AI tools for surveillance and targeting, potentially contributing to human rights violations.
Image by Mark Chan for The Student.