New & Improved manifesto

We as students of Queen Mary are occupying lecture room FB 1.13 in the College to protest against the recognised war crimes in Gaza committed by the Israeli Government, and to show our solidarity with the oppressed peoples in the region. We are pursuing this course of action to maintain the momentum of other student protests in Universities across the U.K.
As students of this institution, we unreservedly object on moral grounds to the University’s failure to boycott goods supplied by companies who fund military operations in Gaza.
Furthermore, we have strong reasons to believe the University is financially involved with arms dealers GKN and Cobham. We find this morally unacceptable and ask for complete transparency on the part of the University regarding any investments in the arms trade. It will be our policy to seek to expose this issue and open it up for debate within the College.
We sincerely regret any inconvenience caused to either staff or students at our College; however, we have been motivated to act on the basis of our moral convictions.

We demand:

For the acting Principal to condemn, on behalf of the College, all attacks on Gaza, especially the shelling of several UN schools and a University.

That the University publish a comprehensive list of all investments made in public and private bodies. If it is found that any of the shares belong to companies who are involved in arms dealings that perpetuate violence and war, we would demand that all ties be severed and the University subscribe to an ethical investment policy.

Donate used and surplus equipment, such as computers, books and journals to Palestinian Universities in need of aid.

That the Queen Mary management formally condemns the British Broadcasting Corporation for their lack of impartiality epitomised in their refusal to air the Disaster Emergency Committee Gaza humanitarian appeal film.

We also call on the University to set up an international scholarship program of ten places for disadvantaged Palestinian students who wish to study here.

That there be no legal, financial, or academic measures taken against anyone involved in or supporting the occupation. Students involved should be guaranteed free movement in and out of the space.

N.B

After considerable research into the financial and ideological background of the Starbucks Corporation, we have decided to withdraw our demand that products of the Starbucks franchise should cease to be sold on campus. Despite our misgivings about Howard Schultz the C.E.O. of Starbucks, we feel that there is insufficient evidence that the company is involved in financing the Israeli military.
We therefore replace the demand with the aforementioned condemnation of the BBC. We believe that this is a much more pertinent issue for the people of Gaza, as well as the College.