2 March 2024

Colleagues,

Below you will find the BRICUP-recommended motions for UCU Congress. If you have the opportunity to submit a motion for Congress, we urge you to make it a motion on Palestine, and that you choose one of these two to submit. In their current form, both are either at or below the word count for motions.

Motion 1:

BDS and the Academic Boycott of Israeli Institutions

Congress notes the:

  • genocidal assault on Gaza, the destruction of all its universities, and the targeted killing of its scholars;
  • ongoing disruption of West Bank Palestinian universities, administrative detention of students and staff, and the Israeli military quota on visiting scholars;
  • established role of Israeli universities in the maintenance of the apartheid system; and
  • attempt to suppress Palestinian advocacy and critical scholarly work on MENA in British HE.

Congress resolves to:

  • alert all members to existing UCU policy in support of BDS and the academic boycott of Israeli institutions;
  • invite all members to sign the Academic Commitment for Palestine;
  • campaign vigorously and publicly for disinvestment by USS from genocide-complicit companies;
  • urge branches to support local campaigns to sever their institutions ties with Israeli universities, and divest from complicit companies; and
  • support the Campus Voices for Palestine campaign, affiliate to it and donate £3k, and affiliate to Bricup.

[147 words]

Motion 2:

Scholasticide, Repression and Resistance

Congress notes

  • Israel’s ambition to expel Palestinians from Gaza, and murderous pressure on Palestinians in the West Bank, a continuation of settler-colonial displacement of indigenous Palestinians;
  • the destruction of all Gaza’s universities and targetet killing of scholars – a form of ‘scholasticide’;
  • the slogan ‘from the river to the sea’ is about ending the apartheid system, and Palestinian freedom from oppression across the territory.

Congress believes that

  • justice requires a permanent ceasefire, Gaza’s reconstruction, removal of illegal West Bank Jewish settlements, ending discrimination against Palestinians in pre-67 Israel (including abrogation of the Israeli State Law), and implementation of refugees’ right to return;
  • UK Government demonisation and restriction of Palestine solidarity defends a Western colony by stoking Islamophobia.

Congress resolves to

  • intensify support for PSC/StW demonstrations;
  • encourage staff/student solidarity walkouts for Palestine; and
  • urge branches to host BRICUP meetings on Zionism with Palestinian guests from Gaza and the West Bank.

[149 words]