About Cambridge For Palestine

Negotiations

We demand that a public forum with the Vice-Chancellor in Great St Mary's be facilitated as part of open, public-facing negotiations.

In addition to any negotiators appointed by the Office for External Affairs and Communication, we demand that a member of University senior leadership and a member of the University and Colleges' Union (UCU) are present at all negotiations.

We demand that a task force composed of representatives from the student body and faculty oversee the enacting of the below demands, and that all regular reports must be accepted or rejected by Senate House.

We demand, finally, that the University DISCLOSE, DIVEST, REINVEST, AND PROTECT:

1. Disclose

Background

The University of Cambridge uses a smoke-and-mirrors  accounting logic to gaslight students and staff and maintain its massive profit margins. The University holds an endowment of over £6 billion in cash in the Cambridge University Endowment Fund, managed and operated by University of Cambridge Investment Management Limited (UCIM), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the University. The yearly surplus exceeds £300 million, yet the University's ultra-conservative accounting system based on 'underlying operational performance' excludes donations and the profits from the endowment.

The University's investments have never been made public, and the University has admitted that disclosing its ties to companies complicit in genocide would harm its profit margins. The University has repeatedly refused Freedom of Information requests (FOIs) requesting data on its investments in 2021, 2022, and 2024, despite other universities regularly disclosing this information.

The University has no ethical investment policy on investing in arms or companies enabling state violence, and does not include the sectors it is invested in within its annual reports. In addition, nearly three quarters of the University's constituent colleges have no policy on arms investments, and Christ's, King's and Trinity together hold at least £18,000,000 in companies complicit in Israel's genocide of the Palestinian people (Figures received as of April 2024 FOI Requests).

While the University is moving away from banking relationships with Barclays, its endowment fund does not disclose its banking relationships or have any public-facing policy on banking relationships. The Endowment Fund was conspicuously absent from the signatories of the University's recent 'Request for Proposals' (RfP) concerning ethical finance.

The University collaborates extensively with the so-called 'defence' sector on research projects, but the details of these collaborations are unclear. ​​​​​​​The Committee on Benefactions and External and Legal Affairs​​​​​​​ (CBELA) has the power to veto proposed research collaborations but this power is used inconsistently and decisions never publicly communicated.

​The University ​​​​​​maintains research, academic and exchange programmes with Israeli institutions and education programmes endorsing and supporting Israel's genocide of Palestinians. The University has taken no action to support Palestinian students and end these relationships, despite cutting ties with the Russian Union of Rectors after it expressed its support for the invasion of Ukraine.

The University's system for accepting individual donations remains murky, and the University does not publish the identities of its top donors. A 2023 investigation by Open Democracy revealed that University of Cambridge management launched a "coordinated lobbying campaign [...] in a bid to keep their funding secret". 

Demands

We demand:

1. That the University of Cambridge conduct an ethical audit, publicly disclosing:

a) its investments in 'defence' companies and other companies recognised by the Palestinian BDS National Committee as complicit in Israel's apartheid regime and genocide of Palestinians, including investments through the Cambridge University Endowment Fund.

b) any policy of the University or any of its subsidiaries concerning investment in arms technologies, the ethical policies of CBELA, and a backdated list of research collaborations approved by CBELA with justifications.

c) the banking relationships and financial partnerships maintained by the Cambridge University Endowment Fund.

d) the research and academic collaborations with institutions (including universities) and companies complicit in the Israeli government’s ongoing genocide on Gaza.

e) the identities of donors who donate in excess of £10,000 to the University.

2. That the University ends the use of 'underlying operational performance' as the sole metric for reporting financial status, and includes donations and endowment surpluses within its calculation of wealth.

3. That the University mandate all college bursars to support disclosure efforts, especially with regards to Trinity, King's and Christ's.​​​​​​​

2. Divest

​Background​​​​​​

There is no doubt that the University maintains a sizeable investment in companies complicit in Israel's genocide of Palestinians. UK Universities collectively invest nearly £430m in companies complicit in Israeli violations of international law, according to the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, and the University has admitted that disclosing its investments in companies complicit in the genocide would 'prejudice' its 'commerical interests' (From FOI response, 2024).    ​​

Between 2002 and 2020, the university received a minimum of 2568 research grants totalling £109,513,596 from arms-manufacturers and military bodies. During this period the University’s partners have been implicated in war crimes in Iraq, Yemen, Palestine, Syria, and other countries across the world. Where the University committed to cutting ties with Russia in 2022, no other such solidarity has been extended. Annual funding from arms companies and military bodies doubled in this period.

The value of the University's current partnerships with the defence industry is at least £46,231,294.58. This includes studentships, research projects, and named buildings and research centres.

The University is failing to safeguard its research and its enterprise projects from being incorporated into the 'defence' industry. University spinouts (where research projects are marketised in partnership with organisations like Cambridge Enterprise) collaborate extensively with arms companies, and some have been bought out by arms companies. For instance, in 2014, under the Advanced Nanotube Application and Manufacturing Initiative (ANM), ​​​​​​​a joint venture, TorTech Nano Fibers, was set up between Q-Flo, a Cambridge spin-out, and Israeli company Plasan Sasan Ltd​​​​​​​.

The University provides bespoke consultancy services to arms companies through organisations including the Cambridge Service Alliance (of which BAE Systems and Caterpillar were founding members and continue to be partners), to the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership.

The University perpetuates a revolving door between its students and academics and the 'defence' industry, by inviting 'defence' companies to careers, outreach, and conferencing events, and not including companies complicit in state violence and violations of international law within precluded categories (which supposedly extend to all companies which 'promote or endorse illegal activity, including pyramid selling or related financial schemes, or which risk reputational damage to the University of Cambridge').

Through academic, research and exchange programmes, the University maintains close links with Israeli institutions which endorse and uphold Israel's genocide of the Palestinian people and violations of international law. These include but are not limited to the Blavatnik Fellowship Program, which has funded 19 doctoral fellows since 2019, and the AMES Hebrew year abroad program collaboration with Israeli universities.

The University has no procurement policy related to companies complicit in the genocide, and actively uses soft- and hardware products from Israeli tech companies including Ex Libris, the University of Cambridge's "unified library management service".​​​​​​​

Demands

1. That the University of Cambridge commits to complete divestment from its endowment in the 'defence', border and surveillance industries, and the companies identified by the Palestinian BDS National Committee as complicit in Israel's apartheid regime and genocide of Palestinians, communicating progress regularly with students and staff.

2. That the Cambridge University Endowment Fund follows the University in ending banking relationships with Barclays.

3. That the University immediately cuts all ties research ties with the companies complicit in Israel's genocide of Palestinians, and commissions an investigation into alternative in-house funding for researchers.

4. That the University of Cambridge commit to:

a) an ethical finance policy which prevents investment in arms and companies complicit in Israel's ongoing genocide of Palestinians, and extends to the University and its subsidiaries banking relationships;

b) publicly disclosing its investments, broken down by sector, as it does for fossil fuels;

c) making research CBELA policy and practice public-facing and accountable;

d) publishing the state-institutions with which it maintains relationships, and regularly auditing these relationships in line with the recommendations of impacted students and international non-governmental humanitarian organisations;

5. That the University of Cambridge preclude defence' companies and companies complicit in Israel's ongoing genocide of Palestinians from all careers events, and develops an ethical careers policy;

6. That the University of Cambridge immediately cease all academic ties with Israeli institutions, including but not limited to the AMES faculty's Hebrew Year Abroad places at Israeli Universities, the Blavatnik Fellowship Program, and does not renew any contracts it has with Israeli software companies; and

7. That the University of Cambridge pressure the UUK to end its Israel innovation researcher mobility scheme and sever all ties with Israeli academic institutions.

3. Reinvest

Background

The University has failed to offer any meaningful statement of solidarity to Palestinian students, and has never condemned Israel's acts of aggression, system of apartheid, or 76 year military occupation. When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the vice-chancellor issued a personal statement to "strongly condemn this unprovoked act of war, and affirm democratic Ukraine's sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity".

The University of Cambridge has failed to offer meaningful financial and scholarly support to displaced Palestinian students and academics, depite every university in Gaza being targeted and destroyed in Israel's ongoing genocide and scholasticide of Palestinians.  In 2022, the University offered 10 funded research placements to displaced Ukrainian academics, 10 funded research placements for displaced Ukrainian doctoral students, a collaborative placement programme with Kharkiv National Medical University, Individual Grants for researchers from Ukraine, and a hardship fund for Ukrainian students.

The University of Cambridge has noted its involvement in colonialism and yet has not calculated or offered financial reparations to communities the descendants of enslaved people.  The Collegiate University profited from enslavement through direct investment, alumni benefactions, and its education of people who would profit directly from enslavement, and upholds neo-colonial powers through its partnerships with fossil fuel and 'defence' companies whose profits are derived from resource-plundering, land theft and ecocide in the Global South.

The University of Cambridge continues to use its vast wealth to expand power and buy up land in the city, contributing to rising rents, costs and inequality in the city. About 1/3 of the city is owned by the Collegiate University. The University's historic policng of the town is upheld through gatekeeping space and resources from the community, and offering no financial support to organisations working for a more equal city. 

Demands

Following the example of Goldsmith's University, we demand:

1. That the University of Cambridge releases a collaborative statement condemning Israel's ongoing genocide and scholasticide, calls for an end to apartheid and occupation, and the release of Palestinian prisoners.

2. That the University of Cambridge offers financial and scholarly support and resources for Palestinian students and academics including:

a) Specific Undergrad, MA and PhD scholarships, and Postdoc fellowships for Palestinian, as well as Sudanese, students. We call for the inclusion of Sudanese students in this and following demands in light of the University of Cambridge's international and connected scholastic duties, owing to the mass dispossession and displacement of Sudanese students following the Darfur Genocide.

b) the creation of a new Centre for Middle East Studies, funded by the university. This would be a Palestinian-led space to build frameworks for reconstruction that Palestinian scholars will lead and can leverage expertise, especially from Palestinian scholars from Gaza.

c) That the University of Cambridge expand the Council for At-Risk Academics to Palestinian and Sudanese scholars.

3) That the University of Cambridge rename buildings, especially those with links to imperial profiteers and apologists (such as the Seeley Library) in honour of martyred Palestinian academics and journalists.

4) That the University of Cambridge create a publicly-accountable working group dedicated to the distribution of its land and resources in Cambridge, with student and community representatives. This group should aim, as a minimum:

a) to identify land for supporting housing for unhoused people in the city and transfer the land to the ownership of a community land trust or equivalent;

b) to identify vacant or underutilised university land and properties which can be used to create community infrastructure (parks, cultural and community spaces, youth centres) and work with the community to design and create this infrastructure; and

c) to draft a 'pledge to the city' noting the Uiversity's role in historical harms in the city and commiting to stop buying up land in the city.

4. Protect

Background

The University of Cambridge has failed in protecting students from doxxing, harassment and Islamophobic and antisemitic hate crimes in Cambridge. The University of Cambridge has failed to protect pro-Palestine speech: despite repeated requests from its students including the chair, FAMES, for instance, has failed to support efforts for the discussion of Palestine. 

The University continues to comply with the government's Islamophobic Prevent legislation which endangers free speech on campus, especially for Muslim students. Amnesty International's 2023 report reveals the 'chilling effect' of Prevent on campuses, noting Cambridge University's censorship of a Palsoc event in 2017.

Despite student and staff opposition, the University adopted the IHRA definition of antisemitism in 2020, which threatens academic freedom, risks including anti-Zionism within its definition, and does not adequately protect Jewish students and staff from antisemetic attacks. As a UCU motion noted at the time, there is widespread opposition (across the UK, US, Canada and other parts of the world) to the use of the IHRA definition in a university context, especially as a disciplinary tool, including by its author Kenneth Stern, and by the chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, Baroness Falkner.

As the government escalates its hostile environment policies, criminalising people experiencing forced migration and seeking asylum and investing in carceral and cruel infrastructures (prison barges, detention centres, deportations), the University of Cambridge has taken no actions to affirm the dignity, security and rights of migrants. Cambridge Student Action for Refugees are campaigning for colleges to become Colleges of Sanctuary.

Demands

We demand:

1. That the University protect academic freedoms and the safety for all its students, faculty, and staff, particularly those targeted for involvement in pro-Palestine actions or who are victim to anti-Palestinian radicalized attacks.

2.We demand the University to pressure the UK government to abolish Prevent. We demand in turn, the University mandate the Colleges and Faculties to dissolve Prevent Committees that have impeded freedom of speech.

3. We demand the University to withdraw the IHRA definition of antisemitism and adopt the Jerusalem definition.

4.That the University become a University of Sanctuary, joining a national network of University staff, lecturers, academics, and students making Cambridge an institution welcoming of all forced migrants and providing a place of safety, solidarity, and empowerment.

5. That no disciplinary action be taken against students staff, and community members taking part in the encampment or other actions in solidarity with the Palestinian people.