American University of Cairo Senate calls for BDS

On 14 May, The American University in Cairo (AUC) decried Occupation policies targeting Palestinian students and called for the university to adopt certain aspects of the BDS. According to the AUC senate:

“…Given the role of the Senate as a collective conscience of AUC, expressed in the many resolutions adopted over the years denouncing Israeli brutality and systematic racist policies against Palestinians and their basic rights, we propose the following resolution in support of Palestinian academics and institutions of learning:

[The AUC Senate] supports the growing voices of global civil society organizations, and prominent individuals, calling for various forms of boycott of Israel.

Calls for AUC faculty, staff, and students to refrain from dealings with Israeli Academia within the AUC environment, and consider divestment of the AUC endowment from all companies investing in Israel.”

In the past months, attacks on Palestinian students and schools have continued. At least 22 students, 20 from Gaza, were killed in March. In April settlers set fire to the al-Aytam school in the Abu Tor area of Jerusalem. This month, the Ibrahemiyiah school in Hebron was attacked again by settlers. These incidents are not isolated incidents but rather representative of the daily struggle of Palestinian students under occupation. Under these conditions, academic boycott of the Occupation is essential.

The AUC resolution reinforces the strong pro-Palestinian student activism in Egypt. Students have been on the forefront in acting in solidarity for the Palestinian cause and attacking the Mubarak regime for its accelerated normalization policies, the latest of which involved resealing the Gaza border in direct support of the Occupation siege.

Read The Caravan‘s press release on this via the following link:

The Caravan is a student-produced community newspaper published by the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at AUC.