Category: Uncategorized

Thank you for stumbling upon our blog ^_^

We are a grassroots student-led organisation growing in size and might. We formed in response to Israel’s escalating crimes in Gaza and to campaign for the Open University to cut ties with arms dealers and companies complicit with Israel.

Our group includes single parents, students with disabilities, people in full-time employment, and those with caring responsibilities or other life circumstances that make studying online preferable. We are spread out all across the country and the world, yet we still have voices and we demand they be heard.

Right from the beginning we teamed up with the UCU union branch at the OU, as well as the OU Palestine Solidarity Group which is a network of staff and academics equally committed to the Palestinian cause. Together we launched the OU Divestment Campaign and campaigned for the university to exclude companies complicit with Israel from its investment portfolio, as it has done with fossil fuels.

Unfortunately our demands fell on deaf ears, and we have since discovered that the Open University’s complicity with Israel and the arms industry goes much deeper than its investment portfolio. The OU enjoys close ties with several arms companies, such as BAE Systems, which they collaborate with on research and host at careers events. They also partner with several companies deeply implicated in Israel’s crimes such as Caterpillar which is a longstanding supplier to the Israeli military of armored bulldozers used in military operations and to demolish homes, clear land, and build illegal settlements.

For two years now we have been campaigning and raising awareness about the harms of these relationships, and hammering management to heed our calls, yet in return we have received dishonesty, deceit, and refusal.

Despite the Open University claiming to stand for social justice in its mission statement, corporate interests have overruled the values that our institution was founded on.

As conscious students, it is our duty to force the university back into alignment. We are taking a break from fruitless and dishonest discussions with management, and focusing on building our strength and size.

With our power and our might, it will be them coming to us asking for a meeting next time.

Solidarity,
Free Palestine,
Resist the war machine,

OU Friends of Palestine