An open letter to pro-Palestine activists in Leeds

Dear friends,

As you will be aware a number of pro-Palestine activists are currently occupying the Botany House building at Leeds University. Our occupation is in support of the people of Gaza who have recently undergone a brutal massacre at the hands of the Israeli Defence Forces which has cost over a thousand Palestinian lives. They are still suffering Israeli aggression and a lacking of food, water and energy supplies as the result of a siege which seeks to break their will and hope.

Students up and down the country have held occupations in solidarity with Gaza, condemning the atrocities by the Israeli state. At the time of writing, 16 occupations at different universities have taken place.

This is an unprecedented national movement in Britain. Occupying students at Oxford reached contact with people in Gaza as they expressed their support. They spoke of the demands that they had won from their occupation including a condemnation from Oxford University of the bombing of the Islamic University in Gaza and the violence that has taken place in the Gaza strip.

The international movement against the genocide in Gaza has won more than just individual demands. It has challenged the legitimacy of Zionism and the right of one people to displace and oppress another with overwhelming force.

But some of the occupations across the UK have been weakened due to the unwillingness of some activists to involve themselves in the occupation movement. 

The Zionists are feeling under threat as the legitimacy of Israeli expansionism is being challenged with millions across the world showing their solidarity with Palestine. They are putting pressure on the government, the media, academic institutions and our own student bodies to defeat this movement through scaremongering, threats and false accusations of anti-Semitism.

The Palestinians have gone through a long and bloody battle to struggle for their emancipation. It is only right that now at this moment in which the Palestinians are in their greatest need that we support them to the utmost of our ability.

For this reason we request all the friends of Palestine support and join with the occupation at Leeds University. If we are united we are strong, but if we are divided we are weaker.

We ask all those who wish an end to the Palestinian injustices to join us immediately. We believe this is a historic moment in the international struggle for justice,

The occupying students at Leeds University