Students across London walk out for Palestine over university investments

Last week, students across London walked out of class as part of a national day of action for Palestine, organised by various pro-Palestine groups.

Protest group UCL Action for Palestine walked out to demand “an end to UCL’s investments in genocide and collaborations with arms companies.”

Protestors met outside SOAS campus and heard speeches from members of the political spehere such as Jeremy Corbyn, and South African activist and former politician, Andrew Feinstein.

Several London universities, including UCL, have faced protests demanding divestment from companies such as BlackRock.

Birckbeck for Palestine protestors marched alongside the LSE crowd.

The StopTheWar Coalition said on Instagram the walkouts were partly a protest against “the attacks on students and staff in Britain for their pro-Palestine activism.”

“Advice on arrest” cards given out to protestors in case they are arrested

One staff member from LSE also brought up the issue of casualisation, with staff on “precarious” and “short-term contracts”, which they said LSE uses “to discipline staff for dissenting from views.”

They said: “Many staff don’t necessarily feel comfortable standing up and saying their views of the issues at LSE because there’s a fear of being made unemployed.”

A banner held by two protestors from LSE.

Jeremy Corbyn spoke to protestors, and could be heard saying: “You know what? Minds are opening up, ideas are opening up, imagination is growing, and we are there.”

Jeremy Corbyn addresses the crowd at SOAS

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Andrew Feinstein also spoke to the crowd, saying: “Astonishingly, my former boss Nelson Mandela, if he was alive today, he would not be allowed to express his long-held views about Israel as an apartheid state, worse than apartheid South-Africa on property belonging to the University of London.”

Pro-Israel counter protestors hold a banner which reads: “Stop the lies. There is no genocide in Gaza.”

Both Feinstein and Corbyn were interrupted by a smaller group of pro-Israel counter-protestors, with one shouting at Corbyn: “Stop with your lies, stop with your fucking lies.”

The pro-Palestine group responded by applauding loudly for Corbyn.

Feinstein said: “It is quite extraordinary that people holding the Israeli flag do not want to allow a Jewish person to speak”

Feinstein, who is Jewish himself, was interrupted by protestors chanting: “Terrorist supporters must not speak.”

He responded saying: “Isn’t it extraordinary? I hear some weird things in my ear.

“It is quite extraordinary that people holding the Israeli flag do not want to allow a Jewish person to speak; do not want to allow the son of a Holocaust survivor to speak; do not want to allow someone who has lectured at Auschwitz on genocide prevention to speak.”

One student from LSE told The London Tab the protests were “very personal” for them.

The student explained: “My family got displaced because of genocide and war in India.

“I feel like I then have a responsibility to take a stance against it because decolonisation somewhere is decolonisation everywhere and you’re contributing to the larger movement.”

A UCL spokesperson said: “We have an ethical investment policy which sets out red lines in relation to companies in which we will not invest.

“Our two fund management companies are both signatories of the UN Six Principles for Responsible Investment. Our policy on ethical investment is overseen by the Investments Committee of our governing body, UCL Council, which includes student representation.”

The London Tab reached out to SOAS, LSE and The University of London, but they did not immediately respond to requests for comment.