Students protest against corporations seen as pro-Israel

Students at the American University in Cairo (AUC), Egypt, have called for a ceasefire in Gaza and for the university administration to cut ties with corporations that are allegedly supporting Israel.

The call was made was during a pro-Palestine protest on the university’s main campus in New Cairo on 22 April, during Palestine Week – a cultural event organised by the student-run Al-Quds Club.

“Where does our money go? AUC funds genocide, #BoycottAXA #BoycottHP,” read one student’s banner held up in the protest, the latest in a series of organised actions on the campus since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, some of which appear to have been met with a strong security backlash and faculty intervention on the students’ behalf.

The computer giant Hewlett-Packard and French insurer AXA have been targeted by Egypt’s Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, which advocates for the introduction of economic penalties against Israel.

According to a video clip posted on the official Facebook page of BDS, one of the students was able to take to the stage during the protest and he began reading a statement on behalf of students, alumni and faculty members.

The statement included the same demands outlined in a 22 April petition.

According to the petition the students want the university administration to adhere to the BDS campaign and stop using tuition money to fund what it called the “six-month genocide in Gaza, and a 75-year violent occupation of Palestine”.

In addition, it asked that future contracts with on-campus vendors exclude companies that also support Israeli; that contracts, barter agreements and sponsorship deals with companies listed on the BDS list be terminated, and that the university is fully transparent about the allocation of tuition fees to other causes.

The students also accused AUC President Ahmed Dallal of silencing pro-Palestine protests and for continued ties with companies that allegedly support or do business with Israel.

But the campus security cut power to the seminar hall during the reading of the statement, to which the students responded with chants for Palestine and against the Israeli occupation.

More student action

The Anthropology Sociology Egyptology Students’ Association at AUC issued a media release on 22 April, highlighting that Gaza has been under attack for 199 days.

“As students, alumni, faculty and staff of the American University in Cairo, we cannot help but be extremely ashamed of the university’s complicity in the systemic violence Palestinians have been facing by the Zionist state of Israel,” the statement noted.

In the statement, students said they had been ignored, despite raising their objections through various channels, including the university senate and a faculty petition, which has remained unanswered.

In another media release on 23 April, the BDS movement said it supported the protesters and condemned the actions of the security guards.

AUC has experienced several student protests in solidarity with Palestine since the start of the Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip in October last year, including a demonstration in November 2023 that led to the university administration cancelling the appearance of AXA representatives at the university’s job fair.

This week, the death toll in Gaza following Israel’s military operation had passed 34,151 (including about 9,500 women and 14,500 children) and more than 77,084 people had been injured, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs which indicated that 6,200 students and educational staff have been killed and 625,000 Palestinian students have no access to education.