STUDENTS at Glasgow University have disrupted a careers fair protesting against the inclusion of companies which have ties to Israel.
At around midday on Wednesday, students from the Glasgow Against Arms and Fossil Fuels (GAAFF) group disrupted the university’s science and technology careers fair as part of an ongoing campaign calling on the university to sever ties with the arms industry.
Around 20 students surrounded the stalls of GE Aerospace, the Royal Air Force (RAF) and BAE Systems, holding a banner which read “drop arms companies” and waving Palestinian flags.
The group said representatives from BAE Systems and the RAF packed up their stalls and left the event shortly after.
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GE Aerospace is a subsidiary of General Electric, which GAAFF said provides engines to the Israeli military and naval forces, notably for the F-17 fighter jet.
Independent research centre Who Profits found that F-16 jets produced by General Electric were used during Israel’s military assaults on Gaza in 2008 to 2009 and 2014, including in the targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructures and in attacks on homes and refugee camps.
F-16 jets were also repeatedly used in 2018 to conduct airstrikes in Gaza, resulting in civilian deaths.
In January, Declassified UK revealed that the UK military had flown 50 surveillance missions over Gaza since December 2023, from the Akrotiri RAF base in Cyprus.
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We previously told how BAE Systems – an arms company with factories in Glasgow and Dunfermline – has been hit with multiple protests from pro-Palestine activists.
The group is also part of the wider ADS Group, which we revealed had lobbied MSPs 22 times so far in 2024 to help change public perception around the arms industry.
GAAFF called on management at Glasgow University to divest from arms companies, ban arms companies from recruiting at careers fairs and to end research partnerships with arms and fossil fuel companies.
Jemma Taylor, engineering student and GAAFF activist, said: “I am taking action today out of disgust for this university’s complicity in Israel’s campaign in Palestine and Lebanon.
“How can Glasgow University call itself a ‘university of world changers’ while profiting from violence?
“As a STEM student, I won’t allow these companies to recruit here. They have no place on this campus, and I urge fellow students to reject blood money and stand against these morally bankrupt industries.”
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