IHRC has sent a letter of appreciation and support to the student encampments that have sprung up at campuses across the UK.

The letter commends students for taking a principled stand against the ongoing genocide in Gaza and demanding that universities sever all ties with Israel and divest from their investments in the Zionist state.

It reminds students that they are following in a proud tradition of student activism that dates back to the civil rights movement in 1950’s America and continued through the Vietnam War and then the struggle against apartheid in South Africa.

“In addition to being a beacon of hope for the future, you are sending a crucial message that you will not remain silent while an ethno-supremacist state continues to slaughter, displace and subjugate a people it has occupied for over 75 years,” says the letter.

The letter also invites students to think about the day after ie) solutions. Instead of being constricted by politicised frames of reference such as the now dead two-state solution, activists should consider new, more viable, ways forward.

One such example is the Convivencia initiative launched in 2022. IHRC pulled together an alliance of Muslim, Jews and Christians within the British anti-Apartheid movement to formulate this initiative which draws on the experience of medieval Spain to sketch the outlines of a new state in which all communities can live together in peace and justice as they did before the Zionist
colonisation of Palestine.

IHRC has also sent the students free literature, campaign resources such as flags, stickers and boycott leaflets, and access to our dedicated in-house legal department should it be required.

The full text of the letter is available to read here.

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For more information or comment please contact the Press Office on (+44) 208 904 0222 or (+44) 7958 522196 or email media@ihrc.org