Protest targets Bristol University over 'investment in arms companies'

Protesters are to gather outside the University of Bristol on Sunday over what it claims are investments in military companies. Earlier this week students working with local Peace & Palestine campaigners hung a large Palestinian flag on Cabot Tower.

The protesters who hung the flag off the iconic tower on Brandon Hill, brought with them a banner displaying the figure £92,890,934. Demilitarise Education claims this is the value of the university’s defence industry partnerships.

Demonstrators will gather outside Senate House at 12pm and march from Tyndall Avenue to College Green, where a rally will take place. There will be speakers from Palestine Action, university academics and campaigners from Just Stop Oil.

A spokesperson from Bristol Palestine Alliance, which helped organise the protest, said: “While Bristol University continues its partnerships with military companies that are helping Israel murder innocent men, women, children and babies, it also enables the destruction of educational institutions. There are no more universities in Gaza.”

In a statement made earlier this year, Bristol University vice-chancellor Prof Evelyn Welch addressed demands for the institution to cut ties with defence companies.

The statement said: "We have received numerous petitions to break off our relationships with external organisations and institutions, particularly those operating in the defence sector. My role is not to decide the type of research that Bristol academics undertake nor with whom, but to ensure that it is undertaken safely, is lawful and meets regulatory standards.”