The Senate at SOAS is responsible for advising the Board of Trustees on the strategic development and future direction of the university’s academic activities. It is part of the academic governance structure at SOAS that seeks to bring together the academic voice at SOAS to address matters affecting the academic scope, academic structure and academic standards of the university.
Today, the Senate has published a ‘Senate Statement on Scholasticide in Gaza, Palestine’ and committed to the following actions:
Senate resolves
- To protect those academics who teach about genocide, and who name scholasticide in Gaza, in line with scholarly and legal evidence.
- To call for substantial international support for maintaining the ceasefire.
- To call on the UK government to impose a full arms embargo on Israel as a form of meaningful material pressure to promote an enduring ceasefire.
- To commit to developing initiatives and partnerships to support the continuation and rebuilding of the higher education sector in Gaza.
- To express solidarity with academics and universities in Palestine, who have all been affected by scholasticide.
- To call upon Israeli academic institutions to support the international rule of law, to speak up against scholasticide in Gaza, and to allow free speech for voices opposing genocide in Gaza.
- To commit to refraining from partnerships with academic institutions that are instrumental to the commission, or support, or enablement of scholasticide.
The full statement and notes are available to download below: