ManUni Occupation – Solidarity with Gaza

In four days time people from across the country will gather at Manchester University to stand up for Gaza and to support the waves of student occupations which have swept the country. The eyes of the Palestinian Solidarity Movement in the UK will be watching us. And so will be the vice chancellors, the government, and the Israeli embassy.

The demonstration on Wednesday is not simply a fight to support the Manchester Student occupation and their just demands over Gaza. Its a fight in which the strentgh of the student solidarity movement is being tested, a fight in which the power of occupations is being decided. Our battle is your battle. If the biggest University in Western Europe with the longest occupation in the country wins then it will send shock waves across the world; proving that students can influence their university’s policy, and showing that all the while Gazan children sleep in the rubble of their former houses people across the world will never stop fighting.

We have held two massive student meetings on campus; both clearly showing our anger at Israel’s latest war on the Palestinians.  At the end of each meeting we have exploded on to our campus reclaiming it from those who sell the weapons which oil Israel’s war machine. We need to continue to show our disgust at our University which refuses to condemn the bombing of Palestinian educational facilities, and would rather throw money at the companies which benefit from the bombing of refugee camps, hospitals, and schools.

Its time that we decisively broke the back of those who would rather see our aid for Gaza rot in University buildings than see it go to some of the most oppressed people on earth. Our Vice Chancellor thinks Palestine is isolated and that we will soon dissapear. On Wednesday show him that on the contrary-Palestine will never die and our aid will be sent.

Alternative american HiphopRock band Flobots visited the students in the occupied Simon Building to show support and solidarity for their efforts! Supporting Punk band Anti-Flag, critically acclaimed Flobots who have opened for acts like Rage Against the Machine, Matisyahu, Public Enemy, The Coup, Lyrics Born, and Immortal Technique sat and chat with the students and commended their occupation. Lead MC, Jonny 5 cited “Your courage and persistence are an inspiration to people everywhere! Thank you for helping to spark a movement that could very well help turn the tide and make peace and justice possible where it seemed impossible. Keep standing your ground but also reaching out to people on all sides!”

The group having left, later rejoined the occupation to help with banner painting for the National Demo (Tuesday 4th March, Manchester Students Union, Oxford Road)! The band commence a 2 and half week tour of England.

Hey everyone, If you are around at all there are some interesting meetings today.

At 2.30 media workshop- how important is the media for Palestinian activists? How can we use it to our advantage?

5.00.  planning meeting. The demo for gaza is in 5 days time. Its vital that people dont turn their back on Gaza during this period. The bombings continue, as does Israel’s blockade. We are going to be postering and having stalls to build for the demo to make it as big as possible, come along, get ideas flowing, and get involved!

9. Debke workshop. Learn Debke! Come along for food, debke, and fun.

Professor Alan Gilbert, President
The University of Manchester
Oxford Road
Manchester
M13 9PL
president@manchester.ac.uk

Dear Prof. Gilbert,

We write to you as Israeli academics and students who are horrified by the destruction of educational establishments in Gaza and the ongoing restrictions imposed by our government on Palestinian students unable to pursue their studies in the West Bank and abroad.

We wish to express our support for students at Manchester University and elsewhere, who are drawing attention to the gross violations of academic and human rights in Gaza. We have seen their list of demands and feel that it is in the interest of an established and reputable university such as Manchester to address their concerns productively and to demonstrate that it is committed to upholding human rights. We strongly believe that without some pressure from outside Israel and without concrete support for Palestinians nothing will change in our part of the world. For us, Manchester students and students across Britain and the US are providing an inspiring example of commitment and decent human compassion, which others should emulate.

We urge you to express solidarity with our beleaguered Palestinian colleagues and to recognize the legitimacy of the students’ concerns in Manchester and elsewhere.

Sincerely,

Matan Boord, M.A. student, Haifa University
Dr. Raya Cohen, Tel Aviv University
Adi Dagan, M.A., Historian
Prof. Rachel Giora, Tel-Aviv University
Prof. Eva Jablonka, Tel-Aviv University
Mor Kandlik Eltanani, M.A. student, Tel-Aviv University
Dr. Orly Lubin, Tel-Aviv University
Eilat Maoz, B.A., Tel Aviv University
Dr. Anat Matar, Tel-Aviv University
Dr. David Nir, Physicist
Prof. Adi Ophir, Tel-Aviv University
Dr. Kobi Snitz, Technion, Haifa

The occupation is continuing into the third week. We have plenty of activities planned for the next few days, come along! Please feel free to drop in at any time for tea or coffee!

Here is the timetable for the next couple of days:

Tuesday

3.30pm – Workshop on Media

7.30pm – Film showing: Private (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0420090/)

Wednesday

5.30pm – Visit Palestine Workshop/ discussion

7.30pm – Film showing: Shorts from Divine Intervention & Others

Thursday

5.30pm – Negotiations Workshop

7.30pm – Workshop on debate and history On

Friday we will have a debke workshop/cultural evening. Details to follow shortly!

The Whole World Is Watching, Gilbert!

If there is a lesson to be learnt in the last few weeks it is this: attempting to silence our struggle, to silence our endeavour, to stop us from showing solidarity with the people of Gaza, merely results in even greater determination, and even more resolve.

When we organised an emergency general meeting, the supporters of Israel and its inhumane actions distinguished themselves in their anti-democratic attempts to silence our stance, to shamefully silence our desire to express legitimate outrage at the continuing oppression of Palestine and its people. Their answer came one week later when, out of disgust at the attempt to sabotage democracy, over a thousand people turned out to reclaim our union and take the power back!

Our generation is determined to succeed where others have failed. We have been compared to 1968, but we are determined to create a new benchmark, one which is based on success rather than myth. We are conscious that we are masters of our destiny and that we are contributing towards a small chapter of history, a history which is part of the long struggle for Palestinian freedom.

We have now entered our third week in occupation; three weeks, the same amount of time the people of Gaza spent sheltering under their homes in the face of the Israeli onslaught. They emerged from underneath the rubble of their schools, hospitals and homes. When they buried their dead, they dusted themselves down, looked to the sky, and raised their hands in defiance, declaring themselves Palestinian, that they exist.

We will never forget them — we are inspired by them.

Given the inadequate response so far by the management of the University of Manchester, it would appear that they may be reading the Israeli rule book on negotiations, what with their unilateral declarations and conditions. That being so, it is obvious that they are not listening to us. What do they think we mean when we declare: ‘in our thousands, in our millions, we are all Palestinians!’

As far as we are concerned the university can have their Israeli rule book, because we are reading a better book: the Palestinian manual of resistance.

Therefore we call upon all students, all academics and all concerned citizens from across the country to join our struggle. On Wednesday 4^th March 2009, we will take our message to the management to ensure that the university meet every one of our demands, to make Spring 09 the defining moment in the history of previous student movements.

We will not rest until the cries of the oppressed people of Palestine no longer reach the sky!

Sundays are often a day of rest but we, the students of Manchester have been busy as ever. As we maintain the space, the Action Palestine National Conference is taking place in London and we eagerly waiting for feedback in response to the occupation. During this we continue our campaign to pressure and educate the students of Manchester. The space, as well as being a symbol of defiance to the Vice-Chancellors inability to engage in a reasonable and fair dialogue, is a thriving utopia of learning and education; a banner making factory in addition to a place where radical new ideas and thoughts are constantly being exchanged. We have recently made a new banner which focuses on Gilberts supposed ‘impartiality’ that the university must remain apolitical. But we say, SILENCE IS A POLTICAL POSITION! By actively making the decision not to withdraw from the arms trade, such a political position is heavily explicit. A meeting was had to discuss the prevailing week and there is a renewed air of activity. We have divided into smaller committees to discuss next steps of action. The main priority being the National Demonstration on the 4th March at 2.00pm outside Manchester Students Union, Oxford Road. We await the news from the national conference. Can we take this opportunity once again to apologise for the lack of new posts. Because of the plethora of activity, it has been difficult to update the blog but we assure this will not be the case from now on.

Onward toward Victory for Gaza!

In ignoring the democratic motion, stating that the students are mandated for direct negotiations by Student Union policy, Alan Gilbert, the Vice-Chancellor and President remains in deadlock with the occupying students.

The student occupied Simon Building has now endured to just over 18 days. Now the longest running University Occupation of all the 21 UK University Occupations so far. This comes about as the Vice Chancellor and President of Manchester University, Alan Gilbert, continues to avoid direct verbal negotiations with the occupying students. In his lettered dialogue over the past week, the Vice-Chancellor managed to concede to offering the students a chance to give a 15 minute presentation of explaining their demands providing that they would stop the occupation, followed by dialogue with the Student Union Executive.

The students have communicated over and over again that they would only leave the occupation providing they would have a sincere commitment from the Vice-Chancellor to engage in serious negotiations upon the student demands. The students replied expressing concern over the Vice-Chancellor interpretation on the motion of the emergency general meeting that was passed in overwhelming majority on the 11th of February. The motion states that the union must provide “unequivocal support for the occupation so far as it keeps the current demands, remains non-violent and maintains its intention not to disrupt the education of peers…” and also to “…support and aid the occupation in its negotiations with the university.” The students add that we act upon behalf of the student body and therefore it is the duty of the Vice-Chancellor to engage with us suitably, and that if the people of Gaza can endure warfare for 3 weeks, they can certainly stay in occupation for much longer.