Overview

The BDS Campaign at the University is a student-led campaign as part of a worldwide movement to apply non violent pressure to Israel to comply with international law and the universal principles of human rights. In 2005, the Palestinian civil society called for the international community to Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) Israel as a non-violent means to pressure Israel into complying with international law and the basic principles of human rights. On the 8th December 2016, we passed the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement at the Students’ Union of the university. This was a monumental victory and increasingly significant due to the University of Manchester Students’ Union being the largest students’ union in England. Since then, our campaign on campus has grown exponentially, with over 700 students signing on their support and up to 100 academics openly supporting our call for Divestment from Israel’s apartheid regime. Specifically, we have an active ongoing campaign for the university to divest from companies such as Caterpillar. Caterpillar supply the armoured bulldozers for the IDF to demolish Palestinian olive groves, schools, homes, villages and civilian infrastructure. We are holding the university to account on their values and policies on “social responsibility”, and insisting that this value applies to all forms of social responsibility, since investments in the Israeli arms trade are clear contradictions of their policies.