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BUILDINGS at the University of Glasgow now bear calls to “divest now” and “free Palestine” after campaigners targeted the institution again today.
While no organisation has yet taken responsibility for daubing the university’s Victorian buildings with red paint, it is the latest in a series of protdst actions pressing the university to cut its ties with arms companies that supply the Israeli military.
Despite repeated calls from staff, students and its owner rector, British-Palestinian surgeon Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah, the university continues to hold investments worth £6.8 million in arms companies linked to the Israeli military and to receive a total of £60m from 23 research grants tied to weapons production.
Confirming that Police Scotland had been in attendance, a spokesperson for the university said: “The University of Glasgow upholds the right to freedom of expression, including the right of staff and students to engage in peaceful demonstrations.
“However, we do not tolerate criminal activities or those which interfere with the rights of others to go about their business in peace.
“As an institution, we stand against hate or harassment of any kind.”
It’s hard to understand how minor divisions can come to dominate the process of building a challenge to the rule of the rich when the desperate need for a vehicle to fight poverty and despair is so abundantly clear, writes MATT KERR
