Glasgow University must 'be on the right side of history' over Gaza

His campaign included four key pledges: pressuring the University of Glasgow to condemn the war, to divest from the arms trade, to form links with universities in Palestine and to adopt the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism rather than the IHRA definition.

According to the Glasgow University Arms Divestment Coalition, the university has more than £6.8m worth of investments in the arms industry, and has also received around £600,000 in research funding from BAE Systems and Rolls Royce since 2017.

The securitization of Glasgow University campus, the criminalization of righteous indignation at this genocide has reached unprecedented levels. In the early hours of Tuesday morning Israel killed 80 children in 51 minutes using weapons fully or partly manufactured by companies…

— Ghassan Abu Sitta (@GhassanAbuSitt1) March 22, 2025

Dr Abu-Sittah wrote on social media: "The securitization of Glasgow University campus, the criminalization of righteous indignation at this genocide has reached unprecedented levels.

"In the early hours of Tuesday morning Israel killed 80 children in 51 minutes using weapons fully or partly manufactured by companies that the university holds shares in and is thus part owner of. Yet what is portrayed as pathological is the students' reaction to this moral outrage and not the complicitous position that the UK government has put the universities in.

"University of Glasgow management needs to step back and be on the right side of history as our students are."

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The rector was recently absent from a meeting discussing whether to divest from weapons manufacturers, according to recently published minutes first reported by student newspaper Hillhead Review.

At the meeting, held on November 20, members of the University’s Court voted 14-7 (with four abstentions) to reject calls to force divestment from the defence sector.

Dr Abu-Sittah told The Herald he was on a humanitarian mission to Lebanon which meant he was unable to attend.

The rector told The Herald ahead of his election: "If you are selling arms to Israel, which BAE Systems with the help of the British government through trade licences is, you are complicit.

“As a shareholder in BAE Systems you’re complicit, you are benefitting from blood money. 13,000 Palestinian children have been killed and some of them have been killed by these weapons or parts.

“That money is blood money. It’s fine to talk about blood diamonds because we’re talking about some poor African militiamen who make their money from blood diamonds – but this is blood money, blood technology.

"Glasgow University medical school has been instrumental in changing the face of medicine in the 20th and 21st Century, for this place to also be instrumental in the death of 13,000 children, over 30,000 women, men and children, over 100,000 between killed and wounded, to be the beneficiary of blood money – it betrays the very essence of what Glasgow University stands for and what Glasgow as a city stands for.

“Glasgow, as a city, stood up to Margaret Thatcher. The University of Glasgow voted for Winnie Mandela in the 80s, in the darkest moments of apartheid when it had the complete support of the British government and the US government.

“Glasgow University took a principled stand then, and I think for this new generation Palestine is the anti-apartheid struggle.