On Friday the 6th of February 2009 at 2:30pm, University of Nottingham students and academics as well as members of the local community will come together and urge the University administration to re-focus its connections to the Israel and Palestine conflict. The hope of the rally organisers, is that the University of Nottingham will begin to build academic bridges between itself, and those whose lives and educations have been affected by the ongoing violence in the region. We implore the University to provide academic aid to universities and schools in the Gaza strip, in the form of donating old books, computers or other surplus teaching/administrative/educational resources, and that the shipping of these resources be paid for by the University of Nottingham. In conjunction with this we ask the establishment to instigate a twinning programme with universities in Gaza, in solidarity with their plight.
This rally will be an example of the academic freedoms we enjoy within this university, and it is our contention that these freedoms should be shared with as many of the affected Gazian’s as possible. In the spirit of this notion we will suggest to the the University administration that it grant a minimum of ten fully-funded scholarships to Palestinian students from Gaza University -which was bombed by the Israeli military. This will give students from Gaza the opportunity for the education and academic environment which we enjoy, and which this latest attack and the continuing blockade has denied them.
Please join us at our rally, where guest speakers will discuss the the Israeli bombardment on Gaza and the important role education has to play in reaching across social divides in order to create peacful solutions.
Books not Bombs 