A sit in has been carried out in Hiba Abu Nada Theatre (formerly Gordon Aikman) has been claimed by the Edinburgh University Justice for Palestine Society (@eu_jps). The primary goal of this action is to pressure Fringe companies so they in turn pressure the University of Edinburgh to divest from companies with Israeli links. The University of Edinburgh currently has financial holdings which directly and indirectly fund arms companies, military technology, and companies otherwise supporting or supplying the settlement, apartheid system and murder of Palestinians.

 After a year of consistent student action on campus, in response to which the University has taken no decisive actions towards divestment beyond empty gestures and dead-end bureaucratic processes, we are forced to recognise that the only way to make our university act is by affecting it financially. By renting out its lecture theatres and student spaces during the Fringe, the University makes significant profit. The University does not pay tax on this profit through a charity scheme, in which the private company University of Edinburgh Accommodation Ltd. acts as an intermediary to collect the rent before donating it to the University proper, obtaining tax refunds in the process. Fringe companies renting from the university have leverage over the University as a major source of income. By signing this petition in support, you, as the people and performers that make up the Fringe, can make a difference.

This is a protest action meant to target the University of Edinburgh for its continued investment in the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Additionally, in the last month, the University removed a memorial set up in honour of Palestinian martyrs on campus, and invited the Israeli ambassador, who had a tour in very place the memorial was set up. The Fringe is one of the world's largest arts and culture festivals, priding itself on being "the world's greatest platform for creative freedom". To live in a world where we can celebrate creative expression and freedom, we must stand against the systemic, colonial and existential violence enacted by the state of Israel, which threatens the lives of Palestinians and their rich history and culture. Art and culture should be about people, not profit. Profit cannot be prioritised over the human lives that the University's direct and indirect investments in arms companies, military technology, and illegal Israeli settlements. Fringe companies have a responsibility to stand against such violence and speak out against the University's profiting from their art to fund genocide. 

This action comes from an appreciation of and love for the humanity and life that art, theatre, and performance celebrate. We hope you will support us in our struggle for peace and justice in the face of an ongoing genocide. It is due to the University of Edinburgh's financial, obstinate complicity in genocide that we take these measures.

This is a divisive moment in time where we are strategically being pit against each other; where protest against genocide is considered violent and disruptive, while the genocide itself is dismissed as irrelevant in the context of an arts festival. Let us not draw a border between protestors and artists, workers and audiences. Let us recognise the inspiring ethos of the Fringe, centring and platforming creativity and art - that should not be dependent on large venues and reserves of money. 

While it would be easy to disregard our action and to only see the inconveniences and disruption, it is becoming increasingly clear that it is only through these types of actions, which put financial and reputational pressure on the University, that we can achieve change. This action has been by no means our first choice but rather part of a longer effort and timeline of actions over the past several years. Yet the University has continued to equivocate; continued to use the violence of bureaucracy to ignore us; and continues to profit from genocide and apartheid. It is their inaction which has led us to these measures and will continue to make us act. 

This action falls within a framework of a longer divestment campaign targeting complicit University investments and research links. Over course of the campaign, research supplemented with detailed work carried out by students and faculty at the School of Business and School of Law, has allowed us to build a clear and accurate picture of the University’s complicity in the ongoing genocide through its investments (a link to this research is attached below). 

Key targets of our campaign include the University’s holdings in Amazon and Alphabet (Google’s parent company), amounting to over 7.6 million pounds. These two companies are contracted by the Zionist occupation forces as part of ‘Project Nimbus’ to provide them with massive cloud computing services. In Gaza, this is powering AI targeting systems - fed by mass surveillance of the population - which are murdering thousands of Palestinians with minimal oversight. In the West Bank, Project Nimbus is also enabling the unlawful collection of data on Palestinians and their surveillance on a massive scale. This greatly contributes to the occupation’s ability to control every aspect of Palestinian life in the West Bank and allows it to escalate its ongoing illegal project of settlement, colonialism and forced displacement on Palestinian land.

This University also uses BlackRock to manage over £55 Million of its money. BlackRock largest investor in Lockheed, Northrop - providing fighter jets used to commit genocide in Gaza (for more information see the petition linked below).

It is also crucial for the continued and future safety of all students and faculty, especially Palestinian, that no Israeli military or political personnel are allowed to be invited, be accepted as students, or become members of staff/faculty in the light of the widespread and systematic crimes against humanity committed in the ongoing genocide in Gaza. As a University of Sanctuary, the University has duty to protect its community from violence. We fear the future of this community in the current certain future where Israeli soldiers currently involved in the genocide in Gaza can become part of the Edinburgh University campus. 

Please join us in our action. Sign the petition. Join the campaign, help us put pressure on Assembly and the University's fringe venues in order target the University's profits and reputation and pressure them to divest. We have renamed Gordon Aikman in honour of the Palestinian martyrs and the generation of artists targeted by the Zionist state. We name the building the Hiba Abu Nada Theatre, after the writer and poet whose last Facebook post reads:

 Gaza’s night is dark apart from the glow of rockets,

quiet apart from the sound of the bombs,

terrifying apart from the comfort of prayer,

black apart from the light of the martyrs.

Good night, Gaza.

It is this which compels us to act in fulfilment of our human duty to the Palestinian people, who, as we speak are facing and resisting genocide, settler-colonialism and apartheid in Gaza and the West Bank.

Links:

Petition drafted in November detailing the University's investments:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IBaFpx6Q7xKgwpQBEvCez6IluHCOBjCT/view?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAabM1W88Pu5CxFoZRoe8gQkMog6fih5i99vXgCZO5EEcXUJTwvROOFjMiH0_aem_ZmFrZWR1bW15MTZieXRlcw

Death toll in Gaza and West Banks since start of genocide:

https://www.pcbs.gov.ps/site/lang__en/1405/Default.aspx

University of Edinburgh’s Legal Obligations towards Divestment:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vwqR6qRFDAFkWtTinIXAmMT3EyDbwQfrq9VBsOJUe2k/edit#heading=h.7djydqsq2vfz