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Referenda Case

All Student Vote (Spring 2025)

Warwick against genocide in Gaza

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Motion for SU to publicly call for a ceasefire and a just peace that realises the full rights of the Palestinian people under international law, condemn war crimes in Gaza and lobby for the University to do the same. 

This SU Notes:  

  1. The intensified bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza launched by Israel on October 27th under cover of a communications blackout, which in the words of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights have taken ‘this terrible crisis to a new level of violence and pain’[1]   

  1. That since October 7th at least 8000 Palestinians and 1400 Israelis have been killed, with the full extent of Palestinian deaths and casualties unknown, mass graves in Gaza full and the UN reporting that there are not enough body bags for the dead[2] 

  1. That officials of the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) have declared its “emphasis is on damage, not accuracy”[3], that “Gaza will eventually turn into a city of tents” and that “there will be no buildings.”[4], whilst the Israeli Defence Minister has described Palestinians as ‘human animals’[5] and an Israeli MP who until two weeks ago was Israel's public diplomacy minister has called for the 'Erasing all of Gaza from the face of the earth' and for Palestinians to 'enter Egyptian territory or let them die'  

  1. The repeated bombing of Jabalia refugee camp by Israel killing 195 people, the bombardment of the Islamic University of Gaza alongside schools, hospitals, homes and the levelling of entire communities [6]  

  1. Acts of collective punishment, indiscriminate killing and the use of white phosphorous by Israel constitute war crimes and have been condemned by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, whilst Israel has been found to be practising institutionalised racial discrimination against Palestinians that amounts to the crime against humanity of apartheid under international law, as identified by Palestinian civil society and reported by Amnesty International[7], Human Rights Watch[8], B’Tselem[9]   the United Nations[10] 

  1. In an escalation of its 16-year blockade on Gaza Israel has completely and cut off all electricity, food, and fuel from the population, of which almost half are children. 

  1. In an escalation of its 56-year occupation of the Territories [11] the Israeli military, police, and settlers armed by the state, have subjected Palestinians in the West Bank and across the country to brutal attacks[12] 

  1. The over 1.4 million people forcibly displaced in Gaza by Israeli’s military action[13], the Israeli government's proposal to push Palestinians in Gaza across the Egyptian border into the Sinai desert[14], in what has been described as a second Nakba[15] - the violent dispossession of the Palestinian people by Israel ongoing since 1948 in which they have ‘seen their land steadily devoured by settlements and plagued by violence; their economy stifled; their people displaced and their homes demolished’ as remarked by UN General Secretary António Guterres[16] 

  1. The potentially catastrophic human consequences of the ongoing escalation of this conflict into the wider region[17] underlined by the deployment of US aircraft carriers into the eastern Mediterranean and US strikes in Syria on bases used by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards[18] 

  1. The ongoing military equipment, political support and investment supplied by Britain to Israel[19], the tightening of ties with the new trade and security pact[20], and the long history of support for Israel’s displacement of the Palestinian people and violations of their fundamental rights dating back to the mandate of Palestine and the Balfour Declaration[21] 

  1. That British Universities invest approximately £450 million in companies and financial institutions which are complicit in the repression of Palestinian human rights by Israel[22] 

  1. The ‘Warwick Against the Arms Trade’ motion passed by the Student Union in Spring term 2023 which among other things commits it to lobby the University to cut ties with Rolls-Royce and Moog complicit in producing jets and equipment use by the Israeli military to attack Gaza, and ban arms companies from careers fairs[23]. - 

  1. Reports from the University and Colleges Union and National Union of Students,  that students and staff face increasing attempts to suppress solidarity with Palestine at UK universities[24] and the warning from the British Society for Middle East Studies[25] that ‘academics and students who have spoken out against war crimes and in solidarity with besieged Palestinians in Gaza have been subject to threatening responses… Several academics and students have received threatening communications, including death threats’. 

 

  1. The clear opposition to Russian aggression, solidarity with Ukraine and support for Ukrainian academics and students by the University of Warwick following the invasion of Ukraine and the absence of any such statements condemning Israel’s war crimes, bombardment and invasion of Gaza, illegal blockade, occupation and forced displacement of Palestinians and the absence of similar actions in solidarity with Palestinian academics and students [26]  

  

This SU Believes: 

  1. That, in the words of the recently resigned Director of the New York Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, ‘we are seeing a genocide unfold before our eyes’ and that ‘the European, ethno-nationalist, settler-colonial project in Palestine has entered its final phase, toward the expedited destruction of the last remnants of indigenous Palestinian life in Palestine’ [27 

  1. That as the former Director noted ‘the United States, the United Kingdom, and much of Europe, are wholly complicit in the horrific assault… actively arming the assault, providing economic and intelligence support, and giving political and diplomatic cover for Israel’s atrocities’, making pressure across British society essential to limit further human tragedy 

  1. To address the immediate humanitarian crisis there is an urgent need for a negotiated ceasefire in the state of Israel’s assault and blockade on Gaza which allows humanitarian aid into the strip and for the release of hostages, as well as a halt to all British arms exports to Israel 

  1. To address the root causes of this humanitarian crisis a just and lasting peace is needed which realises Palestinians’ right of return, all the fundamental rights of those living in and displaced from historic Palestine, and redresses the historic exploitation and oppression of the Palestinian people. 

  1. That the Palestine solidarity movement in Britain is facing an unprecedented wave of repression, including recent legislation suppressing the right to protest, the Boycott Divestment Sanctions movement, recent letters by the Education Secretary pressuring Vice Chancellors and UKRI, comments by the Home Secretary suggesting the police should crack down on legitimate and legal expressions of Palestine solidarity and widespread racism against Palestinians and misrepresentations of the movement and recent demonstrations in the media[28],[29] 

  2. That to extend solidarity to Ukrainians and not Palestinians is racist hypocrisy and all forms of racism at Warwick and in wider society must be opposed, whether anti-Palestinian, anti-semitic or islamophobic. 

  3. Given all this and the University of Warwick’s ties to Israel set out in notes we have a responsibility to call for a ceasefire, just peace, campaign to end the universities' ties with Israeli apartheid and resist any attempts to suppress our solidarity with Palestine 

  

This SU Resolves: 

  1. To publicly call for a ceasefire and a just peace that realises the full rights of the Palestinian people under international law, condemn war crimes in Gaza and lobby for the University to do the same 

  1. To lobby the university to adopt an ethical investment policy which commits them to not invest in companies that are complicit in human rights abuses including those against the Palestinian people and to break wider ties with such companies 

  1. To lobby the university to take practical action in solidarity with Palestinian academics and students including developing a scholarship programme for Palestinian students, relationships with Palestinian academics and twinning with Palestinian higher education institutions 

  1. To publicly set out what actions it has taken to date on the basis of its existing policy, such as Warwick Against the Arms Trade, to end the University’s complicity in Israeli apartheid. 

  1. To support campaigns, protests and actions in solidarity with the Palestinian people and against the ongoing war on Gaza at Warwick including but not limited to: 

    1.  Using SU communication channels including all student emails, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter posts to share information about such events and campaigns 
    2.  Coordinating transport to the national demonstrations in London organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. 

  2. To defend academic freedom and provide support to students censored, harassed, and/or disciplined for legitimate expressions of solidarity with the Palestinian people 

  1. To campaign against all forms of racism including anti-Palestinian racism, antisemitism and islamophobia at Warwick and in wider society 

  

  

 
 

[1] https://www.ohchr.org/en/statements-and-speeches/2023/10/gaza-continued-violence-not-answer  

  

[2]https://www.politico.eu/article/united-nations-not-enough-body-bags-gaza/ 

  

[3]https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/10/right-now-it-is-one-day-at-a-time-life-on-israels-frontline-with-gaza 

  

[4] https://nypost.com/2023/10/11/israeli-official-says-gaza-will-be-made-a-city-of-tents/ 

  

[5] https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2023/10/9/israeli-defence-minister-orders-complete-siege-on-gaza, https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-war-likud-mp-calls-gaza-erased-face-earth 

  

[6] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/10/830-dead-in-gaza-since-saturday-as-shelling-hits-school-hospitals-and-homes https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-gaza-hamas-war-palestine-rafah-latest-news-b2440171.html https://www.nbcnews.com/video/video-shows-israeli-bombardment-of-the-islamic-university-of-gaza-194874949705  

  

[7]https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2022/02/israels-system-of-apartheid/ 

[8] https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/04/27/threshold-crossed/israeli-authorities-and-crimes-apartheid-and-persecution 

  

[9] https://www.btselem.org/publications/fulltext/202101_this_is_apartheid 

  

[10] https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2022/03/israels-55-year-occupation-palestinian-territory-apartheid-un-human-rights 

  

[11] https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2022/03/israels-55-year-occupation-palestinian-territory-apartheid-un-human-rights 

  

[12] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67173344 

  

[13] https://www.ochaopt.org/content/hostilities-gaza-strip-and-israel-flash-update-19#:~:text=Displacement,in%2070%20non%2DUNRWA%20schools. 

  

[14] 

https://apnews.com/article/israel-gaza-population-transfer-hamas-egypt-palestinians-refugees-5f99378c0af6aca183a90c631fa4da5a 

  

[15] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/14/a-second-nakba-echoes-of-1948-as-israel-orders-palestinians-to-leave 

  

[16] https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/statement/2023-10-24/secretary-generals-remarks-the-security-council-the-middle-east-delivered#:~:text=The%20Palestinian%20people%20have%20been,their%20plight%20have%20been%20vanishing. 

  

[17] https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/israel-hamas-war-gaza-iran-hezbollah-wider-conflict-middle-east-rcna122652 

  

[18] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-67236438 

  

[19] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/israel-gaza-uk-arms-exports-airstrikes-b1851734.html 

  

[20] https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/mar/21/uk-and-israel-to-sign-deal-strengthening-tech-trade-and-security-ties 

  

[21] https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2018/11/2/more-than-a-century-on-the-balfour-declaration-explained 

  

[22] https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/british-universities-invest-ps450m-companies-complicit-israeli-crimes-report 

  

[23] https://www.warwicksu.com/referenda/motion/131/377/ 

  

[24] https://www.brismes.ac.uk/news/brismes-statement-on-the-attack-on-free-speech-on-uk-campuses 

  

[25] https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/12093/UCU--NUS-condemn-education-secretarys-Palestine-comments 

  

[26] https://warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/ukraine/, https://warwick.ac.uk/insite/news/intnews2/?newsItem=8a17841b8b14196e018b1545fb190924  

  

[27] https://x.com/mona_fawaz/status/1719359440162263493?s=46 

  

[28] https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/oct/10/people-supporting-hamas-in-uk-will-be-held-to-account-says-rishi-sunak    

  

[29] https://twitter.com/GillianKeegan/status/1712461243267829960?s=20 https://tinyurl.com/UKRIopenletter