A group of Palestine activists sprayed red paint on the facade of Trinity College, Cambridge last night. They did so in light of Trinity’s refusal to divest from companies enacting the genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza and participating in the illegal occupation of Palestine.
One of the activists who took part in the action said: “This institution, this building will forever bear the red stain of the blood of those it participated in dehumanizing and decimating.”
Trinity College is aiding and abetting the occupation and genocide of Palestinians by investing £61,735 in Elbit Systems, which produces 85 percent of the drones and land-based equipment used by the Israeli army; £2.5m in Caterpillar, a US-based heavy equipment company involved in the destruction of Palestinian homes in the West Bank; £3.6m in Japan’s Toyota Corp, which sells vehicles to the Israeli military and the Israeli Ministry of Defence; £3m in General Electric, which manufactures engines, mechanical systems and components regularly used by the Israeli military in Gaza; £458,000 in Rolls-Royce, which is involved in the production of the F-35 stealth combat aircraft currently used in Gaza; £500,000 in Barclays Bank, which holds over £1bn ($1.2bn) in shares in companies arming the Israeli military.
Last May, Trinity College told its Student Union (TCSU) that “Trinity will be and is in the process of divesting”. Last month however, the college’s master told the student body that the college had “no interest in divesting from arms companies”.
On this point one activist said: “we are making sure it is clear to everyone, that Trinity College’s interests were, when given the possibility to choose otherwise, to aid and abet the genocide of Palestinians.”
Last February, the ICJP (International Centre of Justice for Palestinians) notified Trinity College “of their officers’ potential criminal liability for complicity in war crimes and genocide” for their continued investments in the companies cited above. On the 26th of November, last week, the ICJP issued a complaint to the UK Charities Commission regarding All Soul’s College, Oxford, Trinity College’s sister college for business interests in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory. Two days agod, on the 4th of December it was reported that the ICJP had referred Trinity College to Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur of the occupied Palestinian territories over complicity in “international crimes related to Israel’s unlawful occupation” of Palestinian territories.
In a statement, the group said: “Trinity is trying to hide away from its responsibilities. We, who have not forgotten that Trinity’s hands are red with the blood of Palestinians and we, who will never forget this reality, are making Trinity’s involvement clear once more, for the world to see and for the College to know in its stones that the stain of genocide is unwashable. There can be no normalcy during genocide and particularily not for those aiding and abetting its unfolding.”