Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Bradford Students occupy University Boardroom in solidarity with Gaza.

bradford student | 27.01.2009 13:33 | University Occupations for Gaza

Following a midday rally in the centre of campus, over 80 students took occupation of the university's boardroom. The previous week, students had voted to submit various demands to the university relating to the Gaza conflict but the Vice-Chancellor has yet to respond fully.


In the light of a lack of action on behalf of the University of Bradford following the union general meeting of Thursday 22nd, we the students, have issued a renewed set of demands concerning the conflict in Israel/Palestine:

The University of Bradford must:

1. Issue a statement condemning the violence caused by the Israeli occupation of Palestine, and calling for the siege to be lifted on all sides.
2. Twin with the Islamic University of Gaza and erect a plaque to this effect.
3. Treat Palestinian students as home students and therefore charge them home fees.
4. Refuse to stock or contract with companies who support the Israeli occupation. This includes Nestle, Coca Cola, Walkers and Evian.
5. Pressure Lloyds banking group to act as a clearing bank for Interpal, or agree to transfer its custom to a more ethical bank.
6. Provide full financial transparency, and disinvest from any and all companies who support the Israeli occupation.
7. Support actions taking place on campus making people aware of the issues, with no repercussions for any participants.
8. Pressure the government to support an inquiry on whether Israel is responsible for committing war crimes.

bradford student

Additions

update 17:47

27.01.2009 18:36

Students from the University of Bradford began an occupation of the university in an urgent move to demand action from the institution. This comes as Israel today broke their assurance of a ceasefire by launching air attacks and a ground offensive, once again into Gaza.

Over 80 students took over the university board room, adjacent to the vice chancellor’s office, following a rally at midday today. There have been over a dozen successful occupations in other universities across the UK showing solidarity with the Palestinians victims.


The chief executives of the university have spent the afternoon in discussions with the whole group. they have verbally conceded to somedemandsbut refuse to confirm in writing.

The appalling Israeli action has killed over 1,300 Palestinians and injured thousands. Tens of thousands of civilians have been left homeless. Head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency in Gaza, John Ging, is now joining international calls for an investigation into the war crimes of the recent action, wherein Israel stands accused of using banned weapons such as phosphorus bombs, attacking medical facilities, including the killing of 12 ambulance men in marked vehicles, and killing large numbers of policemen who had no military role, amongst other atrocious crimes.

Sophia Coles-Riley, a student union officer said “Students here at Bradford are appalled at the occupation of Gaza. We feel that our university should take action to support the people of Palestine. The University’s response so far has not answered our concerns. We intend to continue the occupation until our demands have been adequately responded to.”

bradford student


we're staying overnight

27.01.2009 20:12

The university made several concessions but students did not feel that they could accept the offer on the table. So, looks like we're staying overnight.

The uni are insisting that only current students can stay overnight but those who do have Bradford student cards are free to come and go tonight. (aka Bradford students come on down!)

bradford student


Bradford Blog up and running

27.01.2009 21:57

The Blog for Bradford is up and running. The VC's offer was rejected and the group are making preparations for an agreement tomorrow. the VC has been very good but the students are demanding one more point to be included before the demands are settled.

 http://occupied-bradford.blogspot.com/

bradfordboy
mail e-mail: bradford4gaza@gmail.com
- Homepage: http://occupied-bradford.blogspot.com/


morning negotiations

28.01.2009 08:51

We've all been up till 6 (helping the cleaners), printing and distributing flyers and posters and talking to the local press. The VC dropped by this morning and this is where we're at. He has said he won't back down from anything he offered yesterday but he has done research and is aware that he has made the best offer of all the VC's who dealt with occupations. He won't negotiate with the whole group any longer and wants a delegation to negoatiate with. He also says he will not negoatiate with the delegation unless the remainder of the group leave the boardroom. We are very close to agreement now given he has informally agreed to one of the key sticking points.

bradford student


Bradford MP supporting the occupation

28.01.2009 09:48

A letter recived today from the local Bradford MP to the occupation.

Kelly Ready
University of Bradford

28 January 2009

Dear Kelly,

I am writing to express my solidarity with your protest.

We all need to protest about what Israel has done in Gaza. We must have an inquiry into possible war crimes.

I support your demands in that the University of Bradford must:
1. Issue a statement condemning the violence caused by the Israeli occupation of Palestine, and calling for the siege to be lifted on all sides.
2. Twin with the Islamic University of Gaza and erect a plaque to this effect.
3. Treat Palestinian students as home students and therefore charge them home fees.
4. Refuse to stock or contract with companies who support the Israeli occupation. This includes Nestle, Coca Cola, Walkers and Evian.
5. Pressure Lloyds banking group to act as a clearing bank for Interpal, or agree to transfer its custom to a more ethical bank.
6. Provide full finical transparency, and disinvest from any and all companies who support the Israeli occupation.
7. Support actions taking place on campus making people aware of the issues, with no repercussions for any participants.
8. Pressure the government to support an inquiry on whether Israel is responsible for committing war crimes.

Good luck, you have my support.

Yours sincerely



MR MARSHA SINGH MP
Bradford West Constituency
Posted by Ninostradamus at 00:00 0 comments

bradfordboy
mail e-mail: bradford4gaza@gmail.com
- Homepage: http://occupied-bradford.blogspot.com/


final stage of negotions, we're nearly there!

28.01.2009 11:18

We have entered into final negotiations with the Vice Chancelor of Bradford University. We are very close to coming to an agreement!

This morning around 6am, the 20 students who were occupying the boardroom set about finalising preperations for the upcoming day. We debated our new counter-proposal and discussed the motives and aims of the occupation. The mood was cautiously optimistic.

We were just finishing discussing our expectations for the day when the Vice-Chancellor came to speak with one of the representatives of the Students Union. After feedback and discussion within the group we then agreed to establish a smaller negotiation group to discuss the final proposals with the Vice Chancellor.
The students, reasonably and peacefully moved to the University Atrium and ended the occupation as a gesture of good will and appreciation towards the university's efforts to accommodate our proposals.

The Vice Chancellor supplied the negotiation group with his written statement of acceptance of the main revised proposals. However, there was one point the students felt needed to be added to the university\'s action plan. The vice chancellor is now discussing these issues now with senior members of the university committee and will feedback to the students at midday today after these discuss.

We will keep you posted on final agreements...please check back after midday...

occupation-bradford.blogspot.com

bradford student


Comments

Display the following 3 comments

  1. ignore him — g
  2. great stuff — student
  3. Keep it up — Rebel W
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech