Members of the Edinburgh University Justice for Palestine Society (EUJPS) occupied the Gordon Aikman Lecture Theatre in the morning of the 24 March, disrupting teaching scheduled in the university’s largest lecture hall.
An anonymous occupier shared with The Student that the occupation is meant to pressure senior management to fulfill a list of demands, which EUJPS has shared in an official statement:
“We occupy [Gordon Aikman Lecture Theatre] with the following demands:
- Immediate divestment from Amazon, Alphabet and Microsoft and an end to the Leonardo PHD programme;
- Reparations for the university’s historical complicity;
- The right to free speech on campus.”
The occupier added that EUJPS intended to “occupy the lecture hall for as long as possible, ideally until the end of the week,” to maximise disruption to teaching, pressure on university management, and awareness for EUJPS’ cause.
The society aims to raise awareness of the university’s historic and financial support of Israel, as well as the war-crimes it has committed in Palestine. EUJPS regularly holds disruptful protests meant to pressure the university to face “its complicity in the ongoing genocide of Palestinians,” as the statement specifies. It further highlights:
“There can be no business as usual during genocide. The university continues to use its students’ money to invest in and partner with companies that facilitate the mass killing of the Palestinian people.”
The University of Edinburgh’s own Decolonised Transformations: Confronting The University of Edinburgh’s History and Legacies of Enslavement and Colonialism report found that it is historically a “financially entangled” institution with Israel’s settler-colonial practices in Palestine. Further, the report found that senior university management has personally contributed to these injustices in the past:
“[Former University Chancellor] Arthur Balfour played a unique role in establishing and maintaining a century-long process of imperial and settler-colonial rule in Palestine through the 1917 Balfour Declaration.”
EUJPS has expressed “shame” towards Arthur Balfour in their statement, which was also shared on the society’s Instagram.
It remains to be seen how impactful the occupation will be, as the university was quick to provide a back-up timetable for all classes scheduled in the Gordon Aikman Lecture Theatre today, with details for the rest of the week likely to follow.
Second-year Politics, Philosophy, and Economics student Ana-Carina told The Student she feels passionate about EUJPS’ cause, but remains “unconvinced that occupying lecture theatres is the best way to cause disruption because it’s more of a mild inconvenience,” rather than meaningful impact. She added that collective action is needed:
“[Impact] takes mass action like getting a whole class to not sit an exam. That’s the kind of thing that’s been done in other unis and really puts management under pressure, but not everyone here cares enough or wants to take that risk.”
At the same time, Ana-Carina expressed concern that occupying lecture halls may actually decrease support among less passionate students.
A spokesperson for University of Edinburgh told The Student:
“Obstructing access to any university building is unacceptable. While we recognise and respect the right to protest, we also have a duty to ensure the safety of our community and uphold our students’ right to study and employees’ right to work.”
Image by Cordelia Murray-Brown for The Student