IN the same place where the Balfour Declaration was written in 1917, signing away the land of Palestine, there now stand rows of tents.
I’m in the Old College quad at Edinburgh University, where Lord Balfour was chancellor when he signed the declaration which facilitated the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine, essentially legitimising the land being taken away from the Palestinian people.
Despite many meetings with university management and a motion from the students’ union which called on the university to divest, the group believes that since October, Edinburgh University has invested an additional £18 million in companies which are complicit in Israel’s war with Hamas. The response so far has been hostile, the activists tell me. Late on Sunday evening, all students at the university received an email which informed them of the encampment, and of restrictions which the university had put in place in response.
“We hope for an end to the violence, the release of the remaining hostages, and a peaceful resolution to the conflict. “We want people to come and see us, to join us, and security have made it seem as though we’ve taken space from them, when really we’re trying to open up new dialogue.” We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
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