The Oxford student encampment – an update

JVL Introduction

When this article was written, protestors in Oxford were about to celebrate their 40th night sleeping in tents in their student encampment.

Term has come to an end but, to the surprise of many, not the encampment: students simply refuse to abide by the terms of normalcy during a genocide.

AS Kendall Gardner says, “Those of us in the Oxford encampment…are not counting the weeks of term, but instead, the deaths that continue to mount, the hours under drones and quadcopters, the buildings razed to the ground.”

What comes over powerfully is the strong sense of a shared commitment to “our movement for Palestinian liberation”  and of the variety of activities – including a regular shabbat dinner, poetry readings, tech-ins and more  – that give expression to this commitment.

The students aims, as ever, are:

• full financial disclosure
• divestment from all arms companies and companies complicit in the Israeli occupation,
• an overhaul of the university’s ethical investment policy,
• boycott of institutional relationships with Israeli universities,
• an end to the university’s contract with Barclays, and
•  a commitment to a Palestinian-led rebuilding of Gazan higher education.

RK

This article was originally published by The Pickle on Fri 14 Jun 2024. Read the original here.