On 30 May, Vice-Chancellor Charlie Jeffery sent an email to all staff and students, which garnered a variation of reactions ranging from support to disgust. In this, he addressed the five York Palestine Encampment demands and included a “personal reflection”, which expressed that the “atrocities” committed by Hamas fighters and the Israeli government were “beyond all comprehension”.
The York Palestine Encampment and Palestine Solidarity Society responded to this email with an emergency rally, criticising that this was a “cowardly” and “hypocritical” statement. They stated, “students are outraged by senior managements’ complicity in genocide.”
On 26 July, a further email was sent out, reading that “The protest camp that has been in place outside Heslington Hall has rightly challenged the University to live up to its name as a University of Sanctuary.”
“I respect the protestors' views and understand that they want the University to call out the many atrocities we have seen, acknowledge the appalling number of lives taken and level of suffering, and condemn the horrors inflicted upon Palestinians by the actions of the Israel Defence Force.”
Centrally placed in the email, Jeffery states in bold text, “We join a global community in calling for an end to this devastating violence, the unconditional release of hostages, an immediate and sustainable ceasefire, and rapid and comprehensive access to desperately needed humanitarian support.”
The email links to a page titled ‘Responding to the crisis in Gaza’ on the official University of York website.
Regarding sanctuary and scholarships, the web page states they will support students through the Equal Access Scholarship, reaching out to students coming to York who are recorded as having Palestinian nationality on their applications. Allegedly, one Palestinian MSc student and one online student have accepted the scholarship support.
The University claims it will support Cormack Consultancy Group (CCG) and Universities UK with the TESI scheme, by supplying educational materials and online content for remote learning. The University has also allegedly filled in the application form for the Higher Education Scholarships for Palestinians (HESPAL) scheme and is awaiting the reopening of it in order to progress.
The web page further claims that the University will tighten the scrutiny of research projects for the avoidance of harm and mentions their previous disinvestment from companies that primarily make or sell weapons.
The York Palestine Encampment emphasises to Nouse the difference between “disinvestment” and “cutting all ties” with weapons manufacturers.
The encampment states: “Pro Vice-Chancellor, Matthias Ruth made it clear that the University of York will not cut ties [with arms manufacturers] without explicit governmental or legal pressure. The genocide of Palestinians and ‘avoidance of harm’ was apparently not sufficient grounds for the University of York to cut ties from arms manufacturers.”
In response, Matthias Ruth told Nouse that a “more suitable statement of the facts would read as follows: “[I] made it clear that the University of York will uphold academic freedom and will not prevent academics from working on projects that are supported by companies in the defence sector without explicit governmental or legal mandate.”
“However, a range of internal policies provide the basis on which individual projects are judged. These policies have been agreed by the University community, via its shared governance processes."
This was stated and negotiated in meetings throughout the last 75 days at Heslington Church. These were attended by Vice-Chancellor Charlie Jeffery, Pro Vice-Chancellor of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Kiran Trehan, Pro Vice-Chancellor of Research, Matthias Ruth and the Director of Philanthropic Partnerships and Alumni, Mary Haworth.
The York Palestine Encampment also states that the University “promised” to start a Student Assembly that will “hold the University’s research endeavours to account where necessary and to review their Research Reputation and Social Responsibility Framework.”
All in all, after 75 days, the York Palestine Encampment is decamping, after reviewing that four of their five demands have been adequately met.
However, “the fight is not over” as an anonymous member of the encampment said: “The University has been uncooperative, disrespectful and the results that we got, in some senses can be seen as victories, but are overall unsatisfactory.”
“It has taken camping on Charlie Jeffrey’s back lawn for 75 days for the University to give in to demands. They may be celebrating their status as a ‘University of Sanctuary’ but they do not deserve that title.”
“We will not stop here. We will keep holding the University to account. This is not a final win; this is an ongoing protest. The encampment has been effective but now we continue to fight for the Palestinians whose voices have been silenced. One day, the world will see a free Palestine, until then we cannot rest.”
Read further about the encampment at https://nouse.co.uk/articles/2024/06/07/university-of-york-encampment-demands-a-resolution-d856d
