Monday 26 January 2009

Cambridge Occupation News

The protesters in the Cambridge Law Faulty have been accused of disrupting academic life (they're limiting themselves to the smallest lecture room during student hours) and breaching health and safety by bringing food into the faculty!!

They tried that one at Manchester, and the workers brought them tea and biscuits behind the bureaucrats backs! Check out the blog for developments: 
http://cambridgegazasolidarity.blogspot.com/

22 comments:

  1. Hello, I was just wondering when I might get a reply to my e-mail? In case you've lost it I'll paste it here, thanks, Michael

    "Dear Leeds Uni Occupiers,

    I was interested to read your blog on the current occupation at the
    University of Leeds, however one aspect of your action struck me as
    being a little in bad taste: the banner pictured on the blog stating,
    "End the siege of Gaza - Victory to the Intifada!"

    I am aware that 'intifada' is the arabic word for 'shaking off',
    (thanks wikipedia) and under this contest it is entirely
    understandable that the people of Gaza may wish to 'shake off' their
    Israeli oppressors. However, as the word is understood in the English
    language and hence to most English speaking people, 'intifada' refers
    to the violent attacks upon both Israeli military forces and Israeli
    civilians, in particular the Second Intifada which began in 2000,
    resulting in numerous deaths on both sides.

    I believe that by wishing 'victory to the intifada' it implies that
    you support Hamas and other militant groups who do not recognise the
    right of Israel to exist and wish to use force to wipe the country off
    the map. I don't see how you can view this as anything other than
    counter-productive. I also feel this is offensive to Jewish and
    Israeli students and residents of Leeds who support their country's
    right to exist (even if they aren't so sure about it's actions).

    January 27th is Holocaust Memorial Day, when we remember the Nazi's
    attempt to wipe out the Jewish race. I really don't think using the
    terminology of the latest attempt will do your cause any good.

    I would appreciate your comments, after all, by sending an e-mail
    including the text 'victory to the intifada' I've probably gone and
    put myself on some blacklist and will have a very uncomfortable time
    at customs should I ever decide to take the kids to Florida to see
    Mickey Mouse.

    Regards,

    Michael"

    ReplyDelete
  2. With respect, I'm a Cambridge Law Student and they aren't limiting themselves to the smallest theatre. They are in the reception area, cafe area and lobby trying to hand out leaflets and engage students in discussion. In addition, they have been into many lectures today trying to put across views.

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  3. Of course they are leafleting and doing lecture announcements! They want to get as many students and staff involved in the occupation so that they can win their demands on the university and force it to disinvest from Israel and condemn the war on Gaza.

    What the post is referring to is the fact that the actual occupation is only holding one lecture room during the day and freeing up the others for lectures to take place - evidenced by the fact that they are able to do lecture announcements.

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  4. Hi Micheal,

    I don't know whether you've been down the University or not, but you may not have noticed another banner which says something about standing up to Anti-Semitism. In addition, the occupation has been held in conjunction with Holocaust Memorial events.

    I think using the term 'Intifada' was meant to be the Arabic meaning of the word (i.e. uprising) and one of the aims of the occupation is to educate people about such things and dispel popular myths about the conflict.

    I don't think you'll get put on the blacklist though. An increasing number of people know what Intifada really means.

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  5. Greeting from Bradford, we are now occupying the University Board room and after a fraught few hours the students decided to stay to push for further demands. Check out our blog at http://occupied-bradford.blogspot.com/

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  6. Shafiq, your theory is nice enough but I haven't had anything from the organisers themselves, and frankly I don't think now is the time to be trying to 'reclaim' words. Intifada to most people on the street doesn't mean quite the same thing as it might mean to arabic scholars.

    Michael

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  7. Keep up the good work of reporting and occupying.
    I'm keeping track of the occupations at http://occupations.org.uk

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi I'm a student of Leeds...is the Botany "occupation" the reason for police outside the Great Hall at all hours?
    I'm a supporter of solidarity with all oppressed peoples...I think the Israeli invasion of Gaza was supposed to build momentum for another invasion of Lebanon and then Syria. Unfortunately Russia and Syria have defence pacts and Russia has supplied Syria with sophisticated weaponry. Thankfully global public opinion has stopped this illegal world-spanning operation in its stride and your group have been a factor in this. So congrats

    By the way, for up-to-date news on this and every other aspect of the global situation I highly recommend the website www.infowars.com as it is an excellent and comprehensive souce of news that is not Corporately funded.

    Peace to all, death to the New World Order

    ReplyDelete
  9. "I think the Israeli invasion of Gaza was supposed to build momentum for another invasion of Lebanon and then Syria. Unfortunately Russia and Syria have defence pacts and Russia has supplied Syria with sophisticated weaponry. Thankfully global public opinion has stopped this illegal world-spanning operation in its stride and your group have been a factor in this"

    ROLF

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  10. To back up those comments that "Anonymous" finds so funny, I direct the reader to the following articles:
    http://en.rian.ru/world/20090108/119392735.html

    http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=82434&sectionid=351020203

    http://www.counterpunch.org/finkelstein01282009.html

    I have plenty more.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Here is information about the Russia-Syria defence ties, including a possible exchange of nuclear weaponry:

    http://www.prisonplanet.com/syria-time-ripe-for-closer-russia-military-ties.html

    http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5513

    http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5577

    ReplyDelete
  12. hang on, are you saying that Israel was intending to attack Syria, until at the last minute (having already launched an attack on Gaza to show a little muscle (which involved asking Hamas to launch rockets at them day and night as an 'excuse')) someone at the IDF remembered that 'oops, Syrias quite well armed, and they've got that pact with Russia too - oh well, plan off!'

    Come on. I'll say that again: Come on. Come oooon.

    ReplyDelete
  13. To Harry,

    You describe infowars.com as not corporately funded. It is funded by advertising, as you can see from the large number of adverts on the site, many of which are selling survival rations and crisis-proof investment options (eg. gold). To suggest that a site such as this is a reliable source of information is dubious, because the editorial line has to support the advertisements by cultivating sufficient fear in the readership that they would buy this stuff.

    You also site debka.com as a source. This is a propaganda platform fed by fringe far-right elements of the US Republical party and other Zionists.

    I hope this helps,
    Happy Snapper

    ReplyDelete
  14. Tom,

    I don't know about the whole Syria stuff, it sounds a bit too far-fetched to me but Israel did manage to persuade Hamas to resume firing rockets in November (after a lull from June to November - the truce period) after the IDF decided to break the truce by bombing Gaza killing 6 Hamas people (on the eve of Obama's election - no surprise there!)

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  15. Hello Leeds Uni Occupiers

    still no reply to my e-mail, should I expect it any time soon?

    Michael

    ReplyDelete
  16. hey, are you people still alive in there?

    been like 3 days since you last posted an entry. let us know if you need any support from the bradford crew again, seeing that we are done here.

    just post a comment on occupied-bradford.blogspot.com

    solidarity,

    flip

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  17. They killed 6 hamas people - because hamas in their supposed ceasefire kill an israeli army guy israel returned fire and killed Hamas Terrorists - good - Israel has a right to defend themselves. Open your eyes there is two sides to every conflict - and your view those in botany house is warped - it seems to me whatever israel does is wrong and whatever the palestinians did is right - in the real world its much more nuanced

    ReplyDelete
  18. Here are some responses:
    TOM: firstly, can you cite a period of time in the last 50 years where Israel was NOT intending to attack Syria?
    Secondly, the inbound "day and nigh" rockets from Hamas only started AFTER the Gaza invasion - it was Israel that broke the Hamas ceasfire and that is admitted by their own news sources, if you'd bother to read them. Also a quick google search of the term "Israel created Hamas" might be enlightening. Click at the top of this post where it says "Harry"

    Anonymous says that Infowars has to skew their news to make the advertisers happy, and create an atmosphere of fear. This is clearly delusional on your part, anon. Why are you not scared? The economy has been crashed by design and the West is entering the final phases of what Gordon Brown this week called the "new global order". The operation is a lot older than the credit crunch, infact look under the masonic seal on the dollar bill...

    Anonymous also questions DEBKAfile, which I do too, because any and every news source out there must be scrutinized by default. However the information in those links has been verified by multiple sources OUTSIDE of DEBKA, google them, I merely provided those links because they expressed the facts so succintly.

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  19. israel did not attend to attack syria it was and still is the other way round syria supplies hamas and hezbollah syria attacked israel in 47 and 67 syria still does not recognise israel.

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  20. Peace to the palestinian people and victory to the intifada! When Israel is gone the people of Gaza will finally live in peace. God willing that day will be soon.

    ReplyDelete
  21. @ Anonymous 13.39,

    Do you have any proof of these allegations. From the various news sources that I read and watched (all European and American of course), Israel just bombed Gaza for the hell of it. There has been no record (even in Israeli government sources) of Hamas firing and killing Israeli soldiers during the ceasefire. Maybe you can show me some evidence of this 'incident'?

    ReplyDelete
  22. http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_4301.shtml

    Greater Israel

    ReplyDelete