Bham Liberated Zone

🚨Urgent: SIGN the Birmingham 2 Petition for UoB to drop all management-driven disciplinaries against students protesting the university’s complicity in genocide 🇵🇸 Defend our right to protest! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAI…

The UK has finally sanctioned Smotrich & Ben-Gvir. Good. Now sanction the entire Israeli government & military officials. Genocide, war crimes, apartheid, ethnic cleansing, mass displacement & land theft aren’t just the agenda of two extremists — they’re official state policy.

I asked the Minister if he understands that, through his decisions, he is personally complicit in genocide. He had no answer.

Who says the Palestine lab isn't thriving? Israeli sales hit a record high with most going to Europe, Arab autocracies and Asian dictatorships (along with India): "Annual Israeli arms sales reached a new record in 2024, for the fourth consecutive year, amounting to double the value of exports of five years ago, according to Defense Ministry figures released Wednesday. "The ministry’s International Defense Cooperation Directorate, known as SIBAT, said defense exports totaled nearly $14.8 billion last year, up from $13 billion in 2023 — the previous record high. Between 2018 and 2020, that number hovered between $7.5 billion and $8.5 billion." timesofisrael.com/israeli-arms-s…

PARLIAMENT IS SURROUNDED 🇵🇸🇵🇸

Israel just committed *the largest child massacre in its history*, according to Haaretz. Two hundred Palestinian children murdered in a single day, with direct support from the US and UK, and zero outrage from Western media. What stage of barbarism is this...

This is fascism.

⚡️🇮🇱🇸🇾BREAKING: Israel is currently conducting a wide scale attack against Syria. Israeli forces launched five airstrikes on the Al-Kiswah area, south of the Syrian capital, Damascus. Simultaneously, Israeli military vehicles and armored units entered the northern countryside of Quneitra.

Stark and powerful: "As in the 1940s, imperial elites and their clients will determine the fate of Palestinians. Weak Arab states could not protect Palestinians then. History seems poised to repeat itself, but with one key difference: this time, there is no attempt to create the illusion of restraint."

Please share ‼️ Newcastle student abducted by police.

Students establish a new Liberated Zone after VC Adam Tickell has delayed negotiations with students for 5 months and counting. Instead of meeting with the students, UoB is pursuing deeply unjust disciplinaries to silence dissent. For press enquiries: bhamliberatedzone@gmail.com

Universities must defend the right to protest. That’s why I wrote to @unibirmingham, urging them to drop disciplinary actions against students targeted for peaceful pro-Palestine activism & to review investment policies so they align with international human rights standards.

Vice-chancellors are addicted to year-on-year cycles of redundancies. But you cannot cut your way to growth. Universities must listen to UCU, invest in staff & build student provision. If they refuse, they pave the way for significant industrial unrest. ft.com/content/77f7f2…

I encourage @unibirmingham community to read the recommendations I sent to Universities last year: ohchr.org/sites/default/…

#UK Universities must recognize that their responsibility extends beyond campus borders – their actions have the potential to shape political discourse, culture, civic education, and ultimately, the future sustainability of democracy, freedoms and human rights. @unibirmingham 5/🧵

I call @unibirmingham to review its internal norms and practices, and to ensure that students are not punished solely for exercising their rights. The recommendations that I published last year concludes that the repression and punishment of students for their activism on campus threaten and discourage public participation and open discourse, which in turn poses a profound threat to democratic systems and institutions. #UK  4/🧵

This is why, the standards: i) recommend change authorization to notification systems, ii) indicate that a failure to notify an assembly does not make it unlawful, and must not be used as a basis for dispersing the assembly or imposing sanctions. Lack of notification does not absolve the authorities from the obligation to facilitate the assembly and to protect its participants.@unibirmingham #UK 3/🧵

Some allegations mentioned that the disciplinary actions are being set for the participation in 'unauthorized protests'. I remind the University that the standards of protection of the right to freedom of peaceful assembly indicates that applying for permission to coordinate a peaceful protest "undercuts the idea that peaceful assembly is a basic right". 2/🧵

#UK I am concerned about information I received regarding alleged harassment, intimidation, stigmatization and reprisals that some students of @unibirmingham are facing for their participation in peaceful protests questioning university's investments that they consider are related to genocide of the Palestinian people and against HHRR. 1/🧵

@brumdispatch Thank you for covering the story! You can support the students by signing this petition to demand that the disciplinaries get dropped: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAI…

Does the University of Birmingham have a cancel culture issue? Two students fear they may not graduate as they face disciplinaries for 'unauthorised' protest. birminghamdispatch.co.uk/p/cancel-cultu…