After removing the Martyrs' Memorial three times, the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) at the University of Edinburgh has stated that they will not offer an alternative memorial space dedicated to the martyrs of Gaza, despite promising "a satisfactory solution" repeatedly to Palestinian students. The memorial, which has been built, removed, and re-built three times in the Old College memorial space since the student encampment, commemorates the loss of life in Palestine under the Zionist occupation. The recent estimate of the death toll in Gaza alone since October 7th 2023 is 420,000. Thousands of Palestinians are missing underneath the rubble of buildings, or unidentifiable due to the eradicative and genocidal aim of the weapons used by "Israel's" bombing campaigns. Family members of current University of Edinburgh students and alumni, as well as University of Glasgow alumnus and World Health Organisation staff member - Dima Al-Haj - are amongst those who have been mercilessly killed by the Zionist entity.
The memorial was built on June 3rd 2024 against the backdrop of the student encampment in Old College. Students and staff from the university, as well as individuals from the wider community, regularly visited the memorial, placing flowers at the site and leaving notes in the two memorial notebooks. These included messages in a number of different languages, as well as verses from the Qur'an. An inauguration of the memorial was planned on June 10th in commemoration and respect of those martyred by the Zionist entity's malicious bombardments.
However, less than 24 hours after the student encampment disbanded on the June 9th, the entire memorial was removed. Students found images of the martyrs, as well as the notebooks, thrown carelessly and unabshedly in the dustbins of Old College.
The inauguration continued as planned on June 10th. Staff, students and wider community members helped rebuild the memorial, an event followed by speeches and a vigil to commemorate the immense loss of life. Members from the Health Workers for Palestine organisation supplied a doctor's coat on which names of healthworkers killed by "Israel" had been written. Community members brought cards, letters, stuffed teddy bears, paper ornaments, floral bouquets and pressed flowers from Palestine. Testimonies of martyrs were read during the ceremony.
Students had been awaiting clarity on the removal as well as a formal apology from Vice Chancellor Peter Mathieson after he agreed to do so, as documented in a video on the JPS Instagram account published on June 15th. Approached by Palestinian students in Old College, Mathieson claimed he had been "trying to find out exactly [...] who did what", and that he was aware of a "plan to offer a more satisfactory solution". He further stated that "[SLT] obviously respect the fact that these are loved ones of yours", almost apologising after one student followed with, "yes, and they were thrown in the trash". Mathieson called the event "regrettable", claimed that SLT were "trying to come up with [...] a better idea", and that he could "schedule [...] in for sure" attending a vigil at the memorial to offer words of recompense. In further communication between Mathieson and JPS, he was repeatedly invited by JPS to formally apologise for the removal of the memorial, although he refuted the claim that he had agreed to do this. As of yet, Mathieson has not visited the memorial, nor communicated information regarding the "satisfactory solution" which he promised to students.
JPS received an email on June 13th by Deputy Secretary Lucy Evans, stating that an art exhibition would be installed in front of the memorial. Evans claimed that the Martyrs' Memorial would have to be removed again, and offered the chance for JPS members to do this themselves. JPS members pointed out in their response that the Martyrs' Memorial was not obscuring the art installation, and that they saw no reason for it to be removed, especially because the War Memorial was not being treated as such an obstruction. They further asserted that the art installation was a "pretext" which could "only be seen as a sign of racial double standards" considering the War Memorial would remain, and that a "second removal of this memorial would only accentuate [the] horrendous moral crime" of discarding "images of innocent civilians as old as 5 months" in the "general waste bins with no regard for their dignity or lives". They also reminded Evans of the "amount of personal value which [the] memorial holds" for members of the university and wider community, many of whom have lost family members and other loved ones in Palestine. Students contacted the exhibiting artist, El Anatsui, requesting that he join them in opposing the removal of the memorial under the pretext of his artwork. They received no response from Evans or Anatsui. However, the memorial remained intact alongside the art installation throughout the graduations in July and part of the Fringe Festival in August, regularly maintained by students.
On July 28th, JPS received another, shorter email from Evans stating that the memorial would be removed once more, and that students could collect memorial items from the Security Team at a given location. When asked to provide clarity on the reasons behind this, and on developments as to the "alternative arrangements for the memorial that were promised" by Mathieson and the wider SLT, Evans stated that this was part of the "general management" of university spaces. She cited the connection between the War Memorial and university alumni in relation to this. She further assured that SLT were "considering how to memorialise events related to particular global conflicts [...] important to our community and will update you when we have given this further consideration".
Shortly after, on the August 13th, "Israel's" Deputy Ambassador Daniella Grudsky posted photographs on her twitter of her visit to Old College campus and her meeting with VC Mathieson. JPS publically condemned the meeting, stating on Instagram that the renewed removal of the memorial occured because "[SLT] didn't want their genocidal guest to have to look at the faces of her entity's victims whilst she dared step foot on our grass". They further stated, "Peter Mathieson was invited to visit our memorial before it was recently taken down, and he refused. But he was happy to meet with a representative of a racist, genocidal project. That tells you all you need to know about him."
Again on September 20th, with the help of the wider student body who marched to Old College after a rally which started in front of the Main Library, the martyr's memorial was rebuilt. The administration teared it apart, again, less than four days later.
September 23rd, a meeting took place between JPS representatives, Edinburgh University Kehillah representatives - a Jewish student group "in solidarity with Palestine" - and Lucy Evans, VP Students Colm Harmon, and EUSA VP Welfare Indigo Williams. The aim of this meeting was to discuss, in Evans' words, how to "champion an inclusive and supportive community or to understand the reasons why we may not be able to achieve everything". A key demand from JPS was the promise of a "satisfactory solution" for the Martyrs' Memorial. JPS and Kehillah reps were told that SLT had decided that the memorial is not appropriate to Old College for two reasons: a member of administrative staff was offended by the Martyr's Memorial due to its proximity to the War Memorial; and SLT had received comments from some Jewish university members that they felt the memorial created a "threatening" space. JPS reps reiterated the need for a "satisfactory solution" which had been guaranteed to them repeatedly by various members of the SLT.
"When [Harmon] said that they received a complaint (singular) that the memorial created an intimidating space, we reminded him that the photos were of martyred civilians and not of combatants," one JPS rep commented on the recent meeting. JPS members were told that a "permanent dedicated space would have to be elsewhere. [However] at no point in the meeting did they try to go back on the idea of giving us a solution." Harmon also suggested a rough idea of a university archive to document the events of the encampment, although according to the JPS rep "Colm heavily emphasised that he [was] not suggesting it as an alternative to the memorial". They futher stated, "I told him that when you receive a complaint that photos of babies are intimidating, we expect you to [...] recognise how ridiculous that is. They nodded their heads to that and moved on to the next point."
JPS reps also brought up a statement issued by the university in 2022 titled "Support for Ukraine: an update on our response". In this statement, the university claims that alongside support offered to Ukrainian students, their support "extends to Russian students and staff too", recognising the right of Russian students to criticise the Russian government. JPS members state that the administration have failed to recognise "Israel" as a perpetrator, and have repeatedly called to attention the racial double standards perpetuated by the university such as treatment of Ukrainians in comparison to Palestinians.
"The racial double standards and active Zionism are disgustingly clear at this university," one student commented. They explained that "divestment from Russian shares happened immediately. It has now been a year of genocide, and the University continues to invest in companies complicit in the crimes of the Zionist entity. On top of this, Palestinian memorials are repeatedly torn down with no regard for both the lives of the individuals who were lost, or the members of the community who are greiving the deaths of their loved ones. There was a memorial for Ukrainian students in the Chaplaincy. Why doesn't the university commemorate Palestinian death in the same way? The active denial of a space for grief is unsettling, outraging, but in some ways entirely fitting. Why would the adminstration care about honouring the victims of a genocide which they continue to fund?"
The University Chaplaincy, an official organ of the University, organised a vigil for Ukrainian students on the 24th of February 2023, as well as hosting the Unissued Diplomas exhibition between the 5th and 29th of March 2023, commemorating the stories of 40 Ukrainian students killed by Russia as a result of the 2022 invasion. On March 15th 2022, less than a month after the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, Mathieson stated, "We have instructed our investment managers to divest of all our Russian investment holdings at the earliest opportunity."
On September 30th 2024, Harmon sent JPS an email alluding towards a process of "rebuilding" as discussed in previous meetings. On the 11th of October, JPS received the following in an email from Harmon:
"On the matter of a memorial site, the University Leadership have discussed this matter. No site will be provided. We continue to promote the need for the University to be a community for all, and a memorial of this nature is not in line with this. We remain open to further consideration of the archival record briefly discussed at our last meeting, mindful that any such archive would gather testimony from all voices."
JPS has released a statement relating to this on their Instagram and Twitter platforms.
"In September, with the Student Intifada returning to campus, we built the memorial once more. Admin removed it instantly, because they're shameful, spineless cowards." A concluding line in the caption reads: "Balfour’s legacy remains apparent by the university’s deeply rooted institutional racism."
Comments