Sheffield Campus Coalition for Palestine (SCCP), held a demo at the University of Sheffield’s Student Union.
The coalition gathered outside the Careers Fair yesterday protesting against the University’s hosting arms companies which are involved in the Palestine-Israel war.
Protestors were calling for an “education free of genocide, free of arms companies, and that they should not be on campus”.
A protester leafleting said: “These are huge companies that are involved in engineering machines of death, exported not only to Israel but around the world.”
Protestors also spoke on the irony of “not holding tobacco companies at the fair because of the negative health effects of smoking but at the same time happy to hold the likes of Boeing and BA Systems”.
19- year-old, Dolly Kombate, a University of Sheffield History Student, who attended the protest said “It was around 50 people. A group of people came and had big banners and microphones.
“They weren’t blocking people off. They were in front, so you had to pass them to go in.”
Dolly said protestors were blocking entrance to the fair, sitting and standing, chanting that a free Palestine means ‘a Palestine from the river to the sea.’
The University had a security presence and police were also present. A protester said ‘because this has happened before, they had come prepared.’
Demonstrators said that the institution is “one of the most complicit universities in the genocide in Gaza”.
Dolly mentioned her motivations for joining the demo yesterday.
“I feel quite uncomfortable, honestly, going to a university when I know they do have links with companies that are involved with the genocide in Palestine,” she said.
“So many university graduates end up being employed by these companies and the fact that the university has deals with them makes me feel quite ill.
“The least I can do is to draw attention so that everyone is aware of what their own university is doing.”
A spokesperson for the University of Sheffield said: “We fully support freedom of speech and the right to peaceful protest within the law. However, we also have a responsibility to maintain a safe, effective, and welcoming environment for everyone and to ensure that protests do not disrupt any teaching, university events, or intimidate our students, staff and visitors.
“We are committed to providing our students with opportunities to research and meet a wide range of organisations offering placements and graduate jobs at our careers fairs so they can make their own informed decisions about their future careers.”