Queen Mary UCU affirms our unwavering solidarity with the Palestinian people in their struggle for liberation.

We express our sadness and devastation at the recent immense suffering and loss of life in Palestine and Israel and we unequivocally condemn the murder of civilians, no matter their religion or nationality.

We understand that many in our community will be affected by these events and we extend our support to all of them, especially to those students and colleagues who may have lost loved ones or whose loved ones are under direct threat of attack. 

As we contend with our grief and horror, these feelings remain contextualised in the unequivocal solidarity we have with Palestine. We see the current violence as endemic to the structures that see Palestinians as less than human, that conceptualise the siege of Gaza as normal, that enable the ongoing and everyday containment, displacement and death of Palestinian people.

Palestinians have been under occupation for 75 years. Gaza has been under a brutal blockade since 2005, which has starved one of the most densely populated areas in the world of food, medicine and building materials. From the start of the year until 7th October 2023, Israeli forces had already killed 240 Palestinians including 45 children; and settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank have increased. The tightening Israeli siege is now preventing all humanitarian aid, power, water, fuel, or food from entering Gaza while the bombardment proceeds and the number of Palestinians killed continues to rise. Israel is committing collective punishment against the people of Gaza with the full support of the British government. There can be no lasting or just peace under the ongoing conditions of the Israeli siege of Gaza, or of Israeli occupation, colonisation, and apartheid across Palestine. These are conditions which Palestinians have a right to resist. 

Queen Mary has stated its zero tolerance to racism and its commitment to being an inclusive university.  Yet the university statement on the Middle East and the Principal’s email (dated 10th October) affirmed a narrative that entirely ignored the deaths in Gaza and the ongoing occupation of Palestine. In ongoing communications from the university (including student services), the genocide in Gaza is relegated to a ‘humanitarian crisis’. We call on the University to provide support and resources for Palestinian students and staff, and make a statement condemning the siege, illegal occupation and bombing of Gaza. 

We support the rights of students and staff to express their solidarity with Palestinians at a time when the freedom to do so is increasingly being curtailed by universities and the British government. We affirm UCU’s national policy to protect students and staff who find themselves under attack for supporting the cause of the Palestinian people.

In line with UCU’s national policy, we also call on British universities, including Queen Mary, to implement the Palestinian call for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions. There can be no genuine academic freedom under conditions of siege and apartheid.  

We support and heed the call of the open letter of the Birzeit Union of Teachers and Employees and stand in solidarity with academics currently in Palestine, especially in light of the Israeli bombing of the Islamic University of Gaza. We call on the British government to cease its support for Israel’s discriminatory and colonial regime and withdraw Royal Navy ships deployed in recent days to the Eastern Mediterranean, end arms sales and UK military support to Israel, support which only serves to deepen the conditions from which violence and injustice emerge. We also call on the British government to call for a ceasefire and to establish humanitarian aid to Palestinians, who need this support now more than ever. We encourage members to donate to Medical Aid for Palestinians. Finally, we resolve to support, publicise and send the branch banner to the day of action on Friday 20th October in solidarity with the call issued by Palestinian trade unions and the National March for Palestine at Marble Arch on Saturday 21st October organised by Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Friends of Al-Aqsa, Stop the War Coalition, Muslim Association of Britain, Palestinian Forum in Britain, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.