SOAS students are occupying the university’s Brunei gallery, calling for the end of an MoD exhibition in the space, more opportunity for union use of the room, and less involvement from private catering company Sodexo.

Naming themselves ‘SOAS students in solidarity with Gaza’, the group are also calling on SOAS Director Paul Webley to issue “a statement of condemnation regarding the recent atrocities in Gaza, as a result of the illegal 60-year occupation by the state of Israel.”

A motion entitled ‘No to Racist Exhibition and Wars: Military off our Campus”, passed at yesterday’s Union General Meeting, sparked the protest. It noted that Sodexo, which provides university catering and uses the Brunei suite for outside catering events, “provides catering to the American military in Abu Ghraib, Afghanistan and also to detention centres in Britain.”

It went on to describe the MoD exhibition ‘We were there’, which talks about the war effort of black and minority soldiers as “military propaganda”, claiming that it “does not even mention the forced conscription of millions of black and minority military workers or ther fact that they were used as human shields in the front line of battle.”

The motion further criticised the timing of the exhibition, saying: “Given the current illegal wars in Gaza this exhibition is at best a disgraceful show of insensitivity.”

The students moved into the Brunei Suite last night, and have planned a series of talks, including academic John Rose on ‘The Myths of Zionism’.

They’ve also said they will be “re-arranging the exhibition to include the history that the MoD has deliberately manipulated and hidden.”

Activists this morning were asking for sympathisers to pass tea and coffee in through the windows.

They are keeping the outside world up to date via http://soassolidarity4gaza.blogspot.com/.

SOAS Director Paul Webley said: “The School is working with the SOAS Students’ Union to resolve the situation as quickly and peacefully as possible. The School will take all measures to ensure the health and safety of staff and students during this time period.  We will be in touch with staff and students by email and via the SOAS website with updated information as it becomes available.”

The likelihood of the Director issuing a statement on Gaza as demanded by the protestors seems slim.

In response to calls earlier this week (from the Students Union and others) that SOAS cancel a lecture series celebrating Tel Aviv’s Centennial in light of the Gaza conflict  he said: “Because of our commitment to open debate, and because of our regional focus, lectures and events that take place at SOAS do often cause controversy. I am regularly lobbied to intervene to cancel an event, then lobbied again by a different group to ensure that the event goes ahead.”Provided we are acting within the law, and provided I can ensure the safety of staff, students and visitors, my response to such requests remains firm:  SOAS is in a rare position as an institution to be able to provide a forum for free and frank debate on some of the most important issues affecting the world today and it is my job as Director to ensure that academic freedom can prevail.”

In response to the protestors’ comments on Sodexo, a SOAS spokesperson added: “The School has a contract with Sodexo for the provision of catering and conference management services on the School’s behalf. Sodexo provide similar services for many other Universities, including a number of other colleges of the University of London. The School is currently reviewing its catering and conferencing provision and both staff and students are involved in that review process and have representatives on the Steering Group.  We cannot comment on Sodexo’s other customers.”

Tags: Gaza, israel, occupation, Paul Webley, SOAS

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 14th, 2009 at 15:57 and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.