Letter to David Lepper, MP

Arts a0002,

University of Sussex,

Falmer,

Brighton BN1 4ND

Dear Mr Lepper,

You are of course aware of the current wave of national university occupations taking place in protest at the recent actions of the Israeli Government. Here at Sussex University, out of the sixteen universities that are being occupied (including LSE, Oxford and Cambridge) we are one of the largest, and as such we wish to communicate to you our reasons for our discontent.

We are currently engaging in peaceful dialogue with our university administration regarding our demands and have made it clear that we mean them to do all that they can to help the Palestinian people. Our demands, like those of other occupying universities nationwide, include a boycott of Israeli goods; a statement of condemnation of the Israeli government’s actions; as well as educational and financial aid to Palestinian organisations and universities. We are a group of people with a cause. We have gathered much support, concern and awareness around the siege in Gaza, and we are gaining more and more. We urge you to end the suffering in Gaza and the West Bank to the best of your abilities.

We are disgusted that the UK government is not honouring it’s obligation under international human rights law to lift the unnecessary and disproportionate restriction currently placed on the movement of Palestinians and of goods in and out of the Gaza Strip. We demand an immediate independent investigation using the UK’s diplomatic tools in respect to the war crimes committed by the Israeli government – examples of which, unfortunately, are too many to list in a short letter.

It is an undeniable truth that innocent people are dying and being treated unjustly. Please do all you can to stop this suffering instead of stalling the process of justice with political procrastination, mislabelled as ‘international diplomacy’.

Listen to our voices: the students protesting nationwide twenty four hours a day; your constituents that support us; the thousands of people who have been protesting in Britain’s streets; but most of all the voices of those Palestinian people who have had their lives shattered who we see in the media everyday.

The message we send to you is very clear: not just as our representative in Parliament, but as a human being; end in the siege in Gaza

Yours sincerely,

The Sussex Occupation