Back in December 2024 Portsmouth University and College Union (UCU) voted for BDS, called on the university to divest from war crimes and genocide.
Portsmouth UCU voted overwhelmingly for a motion calling for Portsmouth University to “sever all ties – financial and otherwise – with all external bodies, businesses and organisations complicit in Israel’s genocide in Gaza and rapidly escalating regional war.”
In a statement the union specifically highlighted the university’s investments, to the tune of hundreds of thousands of pounds, in BAE Systems and Caterpillar, two companies renowned for their complicity in Israel’s abuses of Palestinian human rights.
The statement also highlights the recent rulings by the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice that state preventing or ending complicity with genocide is a legal obligation.
Image reproduced from the BDS Movement.