More news from the student actions that are still expanding across UK universities. What started on January 13th as a a 24-hour occupation at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London has now spread to the London School of Economics, King's College London, Queen Mary University of London, Kingston and Goldsmiths and to universities in Birmingham, Sussex, Warwick, Manchester, Manchester, Oxford, Leeds, Cambridge, Sheffield, Bradford, Nottingham, Strathclyde, Newcastle and Glasgow.
From the article "Student occupations for Gaza spread" in Britian's Morning Star newspaper:
A meeting of over 1,000 students at Manchester University's student union on Wednesday night passed a resolution comparing Israel to apartheid-era South Africa.
It called on the union to divest from Israel, boycott all companies which support or benefit from the Israeli occupation and lobby the university to adopt a similar policy.
Protesters at Glasgow University celebrated victory on Thursday after ending their marathon 55-hour occupation on Wednesday night.
University principal Sir Muir Russell agreed to organise collections for the Disasters Emergency Committee fund for Gaza, publicise its scholarships for the territory and find ways to help the bombed Islamic University of Gaza.
Students at Goldsmith's University in south-east London continued their occupation of nearby Deptford town hall on Thursday, which began on Wednesday night, to secure two masters degree scholarships for Palestinian students.
A lecture theatre sit-in at Edinburgh University entered its second day without incident.
Students demanded that the university divest from Israel and from arms companies QinetiQ and BAE systems, send material to war-damaged schools and hospitals and provide five scholarships for Gazan students.
Occupations also continued at the University of East Anglia in Norwich.
Photo credit: Morning Star online
More on the Cornell display of the 1,300 black flags: arriving on campus today, we saw that someone had come in the middle of the night and rearranged all of the flags into a giant, imposing star of david. Several people commented that it looked like a giant scary swastika – which is hardly, i imagine, what the students who changed the flags had in mind. Later on the cops had to be called out to protect the display, and eventually everyone changed it into a peace sign. Keep an eye on this situation, Phil, everyone is talking about it. Tensions are running very, very high…
Motion to boycott Israel passed at University of Manchester Student Union
Latest update from the University of Manchester student occupation:
On Wednesday 11th Feb the University of Manchester Students Union passed a motion in support of the people of Gaza, which includes a resolve to boycott Israel, in an emergency general meeting [1]. The meeting, which was attended by over 1000 students, was called in response to the crisis in Gaza. It follows a week long occupation of University of Manchester buildings by students [2]. The University of Manchester Students Union is the biggest in Western Europe, and is also the first western students union to pass a motion which includes an out and out boycott of Israel.
The policy that was passed compared Israel to apartheid South Africa and supported the global Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement. It called for the Union to divest from Israel, boycotting all companies which support or benefit from the Israeli occupation, and to lobby the University to adopt a similar boycott policy towards Israel. The motion also condemned the University for its lack of progress in divesting from arms companies. Following the meeting the union will send a letter to the BBC condemning their refusal to air the Disaster Emergency Committees (DEC) appeal for Gaza [3], as well as facilitating a day of fundraising with proceeds going to the DEC.
The Students at Manchester have a long history of showing solidarity with Palestinians, most notably in their affirmation of the “Palestine: Right to an Education” motion passed in 2007. This motion twinned our Union with the An-Najah University in the occupied West Bank, and committed the
Union to campaign for the rights of Palestinian students. Similarly, the Students’ Union played an important role in the international solidarity campaign against South African apartheid by divesting the university’s funds from South Africa.
Motion to boycott Israel passed at University of Manchester Student Union
Sorry for being slightly off-topic. But the Israeli attack on Gaza and the brutality associated with it changes even the way some look at the next Tarantino film, "Inglourious Basterds", where a platoon of American Jews tortures and kills Nazi soldiers in France. The following are comments from a film site:
"Also, do we really need to see Jewish vengeance on the screen, when in England simply yelling "Fucking Israelis!" when watching a news broadcast of Israelis burning children alive can get you arrested and fired from your job? I mean, how many fucking nazis do we need to cinematically kill to achieve catharsis?"
Another:
"If current events weren't what they are now… I'd feel a lot better about this movie. But as it stands, with what Israel is doing to Palestine — a pseudo-holocaust — I just can't get excited for this. I will definitely watch it, but this is just another in a long line of movies that makes you think about the Jewish plight a little bit more than you normally would. Ok, they were slaughtered by the Nazis. That was a LONG time ago, but we aren't allowed to forget it. To the point where other people that were slaughtered don't get nearly the recognition they deserve. They weren't Jews? They may as well have not existed, then. I hate to take it to this level, but I really just can't get excited to see Jews slaughtering people. Not even Nazis. Not after the recent (ongoing) war in Gaza."
I find that very interesting. Any thoughtful comments?
Tarantino could care less about actual history. He just dug around for a new "narrative" on which to paint his stylish pop culture brand of action film. I'd call it psuedo-gritty realism in the service of a painted roller coster. With pretty actors. He knew NAZIs are always good for instant word of mouth, he remembered The Dirty Dozen and its copycats. That's it. I'm
sure the film will have no real historical nuance at all. I'd guess by the title alone no distinction is made between the SS and ordinary Wehrmacht soldiers, the GI Joes of WW2 Germany. Brad Pitt likely plays a cheaper Paul Newman from the old Exodus film. I'd also guess
at least the audience will know its just "up your face stuff" which will delight them, and so in that sense its probably a more honest film
than Exodus which claimed historical truth; yet the POV will be as one-sided, sort of like a "Huns eat children" poster from WW1 or the
hardly less cartoonish German delivered up by Allied image-makers in WW2. It will be interesting to see if any film critic in MSM even
draws a single connection to Gaza, even just to point out the inherent irony. Imagine a pulp film where the dirty dozen are handsome
Palestinians, and the despicable IDF are the scalps to get, so arab audiences can get their rocks off vicariously. That should tell you something. That is the state of our culture.
The comments on the Cornell display links you put up yesterday were pretty nasty. One commenter wrote that the black flags were intimidating the students as they walked to class. It sounds funny, but I don't think that the students who made the display were getting much support or rational criticism, whereas the loonies were getting support in spades.
@Citizen:
Don't know if you'll read this, because the topic is now pushed down by newer ones.
Now of course this flick doesn't claim historical accuracy, nor will anyone regard it as such. This ain't no Schindler's List.
But still, even in the form of satire/comedy/whatever, the idea of cheering for Jewish torturers has been made slightly less appealing due to Israeli behaviour. At least some are seeing it this way, I don't know how many.
And another thing should be obvious: Imagine someone made a "fun" movie (fun in the sense of Tarantino) about a group of Palestinian farmers, during the Nakba, who are sick and tired of their families being killed and cleansed from their land, and therefore begin to torture and kill Jewish soldiers behind enemy lines.
Do you think this movie could be made?
No.