Statement on the Palestine solidarity encampment at SOAS - May 2024
As students establish Palestine solidarity camps at universities in the US and the UK, this is our statement on the camp at SOAS which began on Monday 6 May.
Our position as a university has always been that protest and dissent can take place at SOAS as long as it remains peaceful and does not undermine the safety and security of all within our community. We have written to our students, staff and communicated with protesters to make clear that these principles will govern our approach to the encampment.
SOAS as a university community is appalled by the loss of human life in the Israel-Gaza war and the destruction of higher education in Gaza. Last year, when a former SOAS student was killed by an Israeli air strike in Gaza, we issued a statement which echos the UN call for a ceasefire.
Reflecting our community’s mission to contribute to a better world, SOAS’s ethical investment policy instructs our investment managers not to invest in the arms trade, companies which breach human rights or benefit from war, or the tobacco and fossil fuel industries. We are committed to divesting from any company that breaks the principles set out in the policy.
We believe in transparency about our investments, and we have always supplied a list of the companies we are invested in when this has been requested. These details are now available on our website.
We know that some have asked if there is more that we can do, such as changing who we bank with. While our choice of bank has been constrained by our requirement to access credit facilities to ensure the viability of the university, who we bank with, our investments, and our ethical policy is regularly reviewed, and we are committed to constant improvement limited only by what is currently possible.
We are mindful that SOAS is a home to people who hold many different perspectives. Some members of our community will agree with protests that take place on campus, while others will disagree and have serious concerns about the presence of a protest. We have a duty to every single SOAS community member to ensure that we are all able to come on campus to study, to teach, to take exams, to meet with friends and colleagues, and that the normal running of the university is maintained at all times.
Despite our community’s differences, affiliations, and backgrounds, we are a community united by a belief that the future can be better than the present. We hope that when we engage with others who disagree with us, we can always remember what unites us as well as the progressive mission of our university.
