Suggested people to email this to: Vice Chancellor, Board of Governors, Pro-Vice Chancellors, Students’ Union (sabbatical officer team, board of trustees, etc as SU’s are given money by universities) , Alumni Office, Equality Diversity and Inclusion Team, etc. Email addresses can typically be found on university and students’ union websites.
INSTRUCTIONS:
TEMPLATE
Dear (Vice Chancellor),
I am writing to you as a (FORMER OR CURRENT) student at (UNIVERSITY) regarding the violence that is unfolding in Palestine. As a result, I have felt inclined to question where my own actions and consumer choices may be fuelling this violence.
Firstly, I am deeply concerned by the recent offensive launched against civilians in Gaza, and the illegal blockade which Palestinians have been under for 16 years in Gaza.
As stated by Palestine Solidarity Campaign, “From the beginning of 2023 up to October 6th, the day before the offensive from Gaza began, Israeli forces had killed 240 Palestinians including 45 children, the highest level of killing since the UN began to keep accurate records in 2005.
Alongside these illegal killings, Palestinians in the West Bank have been subject to intensifying attacks by armed Israeli settlers, enabled and encouraged by Israeli forces. In one week alone 17 Palestinian villages were attacked, homes set ablaze, civilian people killed or severely injured. Applauding these pogroms, Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s Finance Minister, publicly called for an entire Palestinian village to be erased.
Beyond this immediate context, Gaza, with a population of over 2 million – of whom 50% are children – has been subjected to an Israeli-imposed blockade for the last 16 years. This collective punishment of an entire population is in absolute defiance of international law. It is worth remembering that 80% of the inhabitants of Gaza are refugees. These crimes are all aspects of a system of rule established over Palestinians since the foundation of the Israeli state via a process of ethnic cleansing that saw over 750,000 expelled or forced to flee from their homes, and denied them their right to return home.”
In 2020, it was found by Palestine Solidarity Campaign that over 100 UK universities invest in Israeli companies linked to violations of international law, to the tune of over £450m. As a student who is greatly concerned by the violence that is being inflicted upon Palestinians, I am dismayed and greatly disappointed to find that our universities are subsidising this violence through financial investments in such companies.
As an educational institution that has a duty to safeguard all individuals that exchange with your institution, and to uphold a standard of protection not only directly within your institution, but with the impact of your institution on both the local and global community. Furthermore as a fee-charging institution that I (PAY OR PAID) to attend, I am deeply concerned that you may be fuelling this conflict in the form of financial investments into such companies. This is not the case for all universities in the UK. For example, in recent years Manchester University began
divesting from firms that were complicit in Israeli violations of international law. Other students’ unions such as Goldsmiths, Manchester and Leicester have already committed to joining the movement and have been actively lobbying their university to do the right thing.
In regard to this, I am demanding that you take the steps to divest and boycott from Israeli companies that are fuelling this harm. I ask how you intend to move forward to ensure your university is not complicit in international human rights violations against the Palestinian people?
What steps have been taken thus far to ensure that your investments are ethical and do not contribute to the oppression of Palestinians?
The below is aimed at Students’ Union’s, feel free to edit this when writing to university chancellors, etc. For example on point 2. (To university): Put in an Freedom of Information request to your universities. (To students’ union): Urge them to put in a Freedom of Information request.
Furthermore, I am calling on the Student’s Union to represent the needs and concerns of students and take the following actions:
Answers to these concerns are legally permitted to myself by The Freedom of Information Act regarding where my fees are being spent as a fee-paying customer of your university, who is deeply concerned by the human rights violations being inflicted upon Palestinians.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Kind regards,
(NAME)