Protests at UCL Careers Fairs Force Companies to Leave
UCL Careers Fair. Image Courtesy: UCL Imagestore
Last month, UCL’s pro-Palestinian community carried out a series of protests against Careers Fairs on campus. The student protesters were demanding UCL cut ties with companies reported to be funding or contributing to Israel’s military. As a result, staff from visiting companies were forced to leave the fair.
The disruptions first began on 17th October, when student-led group UCL Action for Palestine took a stand against the attendance of Barclays and Bank of America at the Banking, Finance and Economics Fair in the South Cloisters. Less than a week later, the group stepped up once more at the IT and Tech Fair, this time targeting companies such as CISCO and the Bank of New York. Staff from all above listed companies then packed up their stalls before leaving their respective fairs early.
Student protestors were equipped with handmade signs displayed writings such as ‘BANK ROLLING GENOCIDE’ and ‘FOSSIL FREE CAREERS’ etched in paint and marker. They also held up pictures displaying the most recent victims and casualties of the war, such as that of 19-year-old Shaban al-Dalou, who was killed in an Israeli-attack on the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza strip. Horrific footage of his death shocked the world just three days before the UCL Careers Fair disruptions began.
In a series of posts following the events, the group’s Instagram account detailed a discursive report on the relationship between UCL and the affected companies, and how this directly or allusively connects to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine.
Other pro-Palestinian accounts continued in their path, with notable groups such as @bds_movement_ucl and @uclstand4justice also making comprehensive posts on UCL’s fund distributions, and those of other companies involved such as but not limited to Intel, BAE Systems, Google, Barclays and several Israeli universities.
The careers fair disruptions are only recent in the collective approach against the university’s involvement in the year-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with events going so far back as last November for the first Ceasefire Now demonstration. Other more notable occasions include the occupation of the Portico’s Main Quad over last summer and the earlier ‘renaming’ of the Student Centre in honour of past alumni Dr. Refaat Al Areer, a Palestinian professor and writer who was assassinated in December of 2023.
These events have raised concerns about the transparency of the distribution of student funds between the university and other politically involved companies, not just at UCL and other UK universities, but within several internationally renowned institutions.