University of Glasgow students walk out in support of a ceasefire in Palestine

Falkirk Herald

University of Glasgow students walk out in support of a ceasefire in Palestine  Students hold a rally at the University of Glasgow and then march to George Square to meet atthe city chambers to stand with Gaza.

Transcript

00:00 [Music]

00:07 Free, free, Palestine!

00:12 Join this university, we will not stand for their complicity in this genocide.

00:16 Join the student walkout.

00:18 Thank you very much for being here. As you know, this is a national day of workplace action

00:22 to stand with Gaza and to stand with the Palestinian people at a time of extreme need.

00:27 What we're seeing in Gaza is an attempted genocide by the Israeli state.

00:32 Palestine has been under occupation for 75 years and what is going on right now is nothing short of an attempt

00:38 at eliminating the Palestinian people from Gaza, pushing them into the desert in the Sinai

00:44 and eliminating any sense of a Palestinian presence in the historic land of Palestine.

00:49 This is a war crime. This is a war crime that has been recognized as such by the ICJ

00:55 and millions around the world have to say no to this.

00:59 You all have received David Duncan's email yesterday where he made a big deal about calling for a ceasefire.

01:05 But what does it mean to call for a ceasefire when you fund with British bombs and bullets

01:11 the weapons that Calformer students like Dima have had?

01:15 It means nothing, friends, and we have to be very clear that we will not stop

01:20 until this university divests wholeheartedly from the arms companies

01:25 which are entirely complicit in the genocide against the Palestinian people.

01:30 A couple of weeks ago the International Court of Justice handed us a political weapon,

01:36 a political weapon that says there is a case for genocide.

01:40 We have to take that case to our governments, to the Scottish government, to the British government

01:45 and to this university. That is our task.

01:50 But we also have to be clear that the British state is now signed up wholeheartedly

01:55 at the behest of the United States for ambitions of regional escalation.

02:00 We see it with the bombing of Yemen. We see it with the targeting by the US in Iraq with airstrikes.

02:06 Friends, they will not stop until they have their regional war.

02:11 What are we talking about now? We are talking about conscription.

02:15 They want to send young men, young women, young people off to fight their wars.

02:20 The importance of the anti-war movement has never been greater.

02:24 The importance of events like today has never been greater.

02:27 We have been marching for months and we have to keep marching.

02:31 But the importance now is to take the message of those marches into our workplaces,

02:36 into our campuses and into our communities. That is what today is about

02:41 and it is what we have an opportunity to do with the upcoming rectoral election at this university.

02:47 On the ballot is Dr Hassan Abu Sattar, a war surgeon who served in Gaza for 43 days

02:54 who had to operate without anaesthetic on Palestinian children

02:59 who had been deliberately targeted by the Israeli state.

03:02 We have an opportunity to send a message of solidarity with the election of Hassan Abu Sattar

03:08 as Glasgow University rector in March and I hope that all of you will join our campaign to do so.

03:14 This university has a proud tradition of electing anti-imperialists as rector.

03:20 We have elected Jimmy Reid, we have elected Winnie Mandela, we have elected Edward Snowden

03:24 and in March, God willing, we will elect Hassan Abu Sattar as rector in a strong showing of solidarity.

03:33 [Music]

03:39 [MUSIC]

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