University of Glasgow students walk out in support of a ceasefire in Palestine
Students hold a rally at the University of Glasgow and then march to George Square to meet atthe city chambers to stand with Gaza.
Students hold a rally at the University of Glasgow and then march to George Square to meet atthe city chambers to stand with Gaza.
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00:00 [Music]
00:07 Free, free, Palestine!
00:12 Join this university, we will not stand for their complicity in this genocide.
00:16 Join the student walkout.
00:18 Thank you very much for being here. As you know, this is a national day of workplace action
00:22 to stand with Gaza and to stand with the Palestinian people at a time of extreme need.
00:27 What we're seeing in Gaza is an attempted genocide by the Israeli state.
00:32 Palestine has been under occupation for 75 years and what is going on right now is nothing short of an attempt
00:38 at eliminating the Palestinian people from Gaza, pushing them into the desert in the Sinai
00:44 and eliminating any sense of a Palestinian presence in the historic land of Palestine.
00:49 This is a war crime. This is a war crime that has been recognized as such by the ICJ
00:55 and millions around the world have to say no to this.
00:59 You all have received David Duncan's email yesterday where he made a big deal about calling for a ceasefire.
01:05 But what does it mean to call for a ceasefire when you fund with British bombs and bullets
01:11 the weapons that Calformer students like Dima have had?
01:15 It means nothing, friends, and we have to be very clear that we will not stop
01:20 until this university divests wholeheartedly from the arms companies
01:25 which are entirely complicit in the genocide against the Palestinian people.
01:30 A couple of weeks ago the International Court of Justice handed us a political weapon,
01:36 a political weapon that says there is a case for genocide.
01:40 We have to take that case to our governments, to the Scottish government, to the British government
01:45 and to this university. That is our task.
01:50 But we also have to be clear that the British state is now signed up wholeheartedly
01:55 at the behest of the United States for ambitions of regional escalation.
02:00 We see it with the bombing of Yemen. We see it with the targeting by the US in Iraq with airstrikes.
02:06 Friends, they will not stop until they have their regional war.
02:11 What are we talking about now? We are talking about conscription.
02:15 They want to send young men, young women, young people off to fight their wars.
02:20 The importance of the anti-war movement has never been greater.
02:24 The importance of events like today has never been greater.
02:27 We have been marching for months and we have to keep marching.
02:31 But the importance now is to take the message of those marches into our workplaces,
02:36 into our campuses and into our communities. That is what today is about
02:41 and it is what we have an opportunity to do with the upcoming rectoral election at this university.
02:47 On the ballot is Dr Hassan Abu Sattar, a war surgeon who served in Gaza for 43 days
02:54 who had to operate without anaesthetic on Palestinian children
02:59 who had been deliberately targeted by the Israeli state.
03:02 We have an opportunity to send a message of solidarity with the election of Hassan Abu Sattar
03:08 as Glasgow University rector in March and I hope that all of you will join our campaign to do so.
03:14 This university has a proud tradition of electing anti-imperialists as rector.
03:20 We have elected Jimmy Reid, we have elected Winnie Mandela, we have elected Edward Snowden
03:24 and in March, God willing, we will elect Hassan Abu Sattar as rector in a strong showing of solidarity.
03:33 [Music]
03:39 [MUSIC]