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Right to Education Week in Edinburgh!

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Join EUSA and Students for Justice in Palestine for Right to Education Week!

This week of events aims to highlight the difficulties Palestinian students face in accessing education while they continue to live under occupation, to give an introduction to the political situation and to life in Palestine, and to mobilise students and the wider community to campaign on these issues.

PROGRAMME OF EVENTS:

    …
    MONDAY 14th 6pm
    APPLETON TOWER LECTURE THEATRE 3
    A Beginner’s Guide to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories – suitable for those with a wealth of knowledge and none, this is an opportunity to get a really good background of the situation in Israel and Palestine in a really informal setting, and ask lots of questions!

    TUESDAY 15th 2pm
    SEMINAR ROOM 4, CHRYSTAL MACMILLAN BUILDING
    Video link with students at Birzeit University in the West Bank – chat to students in Birzeit, find out more about their University, their experiences and students, and what we can be doing here.

    WEDNESDAY 16th 6pm
    APPLETON TOWER LECTURE THEATRE 2
    A Palestinian Perspective – Palestinian students at Edinburgh University share their experiences of life under occupation. A great opportunity to hear in person about life in Palestine, followed by an informal Q&A.

    THURSDAY 17th 6pm – 9pm
    WEE RED LOUNGE, EDINBURGH COLLEGE OF ART
    POP-UP CINEMA
    A series of short films, and informal discussion about Palestine. Drop in at any stage to catch some great short movies and chat to other interested students.

    FRIDAY 18th 6pm
    APPLETON TOWER ROOM 2.14
    VISIT PALESTINE…?
    Find out about SJP’s annual trip to Palestine, experiences of students who have been on the trip, and what we’d like to do this year. This is a really exciting opportunity to see for yourselves what Palestine is like and to meet people out there – not to be missed!

    ALL WEEK!
    TEVIOT STUDY
    Photo exhibition
    Edinburgh University students who have been to Palestine have submitted photographs for this exhibition – this is a unique chance to see Palestine through the eyes of an Edinburgh Uni student. Drop in at any time to check it out!

    Edinburgh University Students’ Association is twinned with Birzeit University Student Union in the West Bank, Palestine, and with this week and other events throughout the year we aim to show solidarity with fellow students in Birzeit and throughout Palestine, and to campaign for young people in Palestine to have the same rights we do.

Edinburgh University Students Vote to Ban G4S From Campus

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In a victory for the Palestinian Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, Edinburgh University Student Association (EUSA) yesterday overwhelmingly passed a motion through its Student Council to block their contract with security firm G4S, and to lobby the University to follow suit.

G4S currently provide security services to Edinburgh University library, which prompted Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) to begin a campaign to forcethe University to tear up its contract with the security firm. It was then recently discovered that EUSA were also in the process of hiring the firm for money collecting services. This led to a motion quickly going before Student Council and it was clearly passed, meaning the Union’s trustee board must now look for an alternative.

The Danish-British security firm have been under huge scrutiny following the disclosure earlier this year of their role in Israel’s occupation by ‘WhoProfits?’ (1), a project by the Israeli Coalition of Women for Peace. The group revealed that the company supplies equipment and services to Israel for use at checkpoints, police stations, and settlements in theoccupied West Bank and at Israeli prisons. Over the past month Palestinian prisoners have embarked on an open-ended hunger strike to protest the conditions in G4S supplied prisons.

In March of this year, due to pressure from the BDS campaign, G4S announced that it would exit from some of its contracts in the West Bank (2). However it will still deliver security services to illegal settlements in the West Bank and prisons in Israel.

G4S are also involved in running 4 detentions centres in the UK and received over 700 complaints against it in 2010 (3). The company could also faces charges over the death of Jimmy Mubenge,who died whilst in the process of being deported and in G4S custody (4).

The campaign to get G4S off Edinburgh University campus is part of a wider campaign for BDS by the SJP society on campus. Recently the group protested the Careers Fair for a second time to protest the presence of arms dealers BAE (5). Last March, at a EUSA General Meeting, a motion to Boycott Israeli Goods was passed by a landslide, with over 90% of the students present voting in favour (6). This came after the society shut down a talk by Ishmael Khaldi at the University, an advisor to Israel’s racist foreign minister Avidgor Lieberman (7).

The society, working now with EUSA and other ethical campaigns on campus, will now demand that the University’s contract with G4S is ripped up and for no further contracts to be given to those companies involved or complicit in the continued suffering of the Palestinian people.

For Media Contact 07519575060 and edinburghsjp@gmail.com

1) http://www.whoprofits.org/articlefiles/WhoProfits-PrivateSecurity-G4S.pdf

2) http://www.bdsmovement.net/2011/g4s-ends-some-5472

3) http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jun/17/g4s-immigration-detention-700-complaints

4) http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/mar/16/mubenga-g4s-face-charges-death

5) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Lx4f7vZNRI

6) http://www.bdsmovement.net/2011/edinburgh-students-vote-5402

7) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7ZznKXpwnM