Education

EXCLUSIVE: Proposal Demands Yale University ‘Cut Ties’ With Pro-Israel Security Provider

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Kate Anderson Contributor
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Students at Yale University are looking to submit a proposal that would require the university to “cut ties” with its security system provider G4S, who the students claim is a supporter of Israel’s apartheid state, according to the proposal obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Yallies4Palestine is a student group at the Ivy League university and describes itself as a group “organizing Yale’s campus community to support the human rights and freedom of the Palestinian people,” according to the chapter’s Instagram account. Yale currently employs G4S, a British multinational security group, that provides security technology for the university and has worked for Israel’s security in the West Bank as well, prompting the student group to draft a resolution condemning both G4S and Israel for being complicit in “ethnic cleansing,” according to the proposal. (RELATED: Teacher Who Allegedly Saluted Hitler, Pushed Antisemitic Conspiracy On Students Placed On Leave)

“Whereas, G4S Limited has provided Israel17 with the security equipment for its prisons, military checkpoints, police buildings, illegal settlements, and apartheid wall,” the proposal read. “Whereas, Yale and its police force have used G4S-owned AMAG Technology’s Symmetry SR Retrofit System to operate its security system since 2014. Whereas, Yale University cutting ties with G4S would be one step towards the end of the military occupation of the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem; the destruction of the apartheid wall; the actualization of equal rights for the Palestinian citizens of Israel; and the recognition of the Palestinian right of return, as stipulated in United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194.”

StopG4S Resolution (1) by Kate on Scribd

The resolution further accuses Israel of creating a “wall” along the West Bank in Gaza to “maintain the system of apartheid” as well as condemning G4S’ involvement in managing and training the Israeli police force while also having a “25% stake in the Israeli National Police Academy.” As a result, the students called for the university to immediately end its contract with the firm and directed the proposal to the school’s board of trustees.

The resolution will likely be presented to the Yale College Council, the school’s undergraduate student government, at the council’s next meeting, potentially on March 5, according to YCC’s website.

YCC signed the chapter’s 2021 letter of condemnation of Israeli settlement in the West Bank, according to an Instagram post from the group’s account.

“The Yale College Council (YCC) has just voted to sign on to Yalies4Palestine statement of condemnation that condemns 1) “the discriminatory application of the law that strips Palestinians of basic human rights” 2) “the violent expulsion of those living under occupation in Sheikh Jarrah” 3) “the Apartheid and persecution of Palestinians” 4) “the injustice, genocide, and ethnic cleansing occurring in Palestine,” the post read.

The group’s proposal is the first of its kind at the school, according to Yale News, which did not have a Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign until the 2022 fall semester.

“Discourse around Palestine is so contentious and misconstrued at Yale that there has never been [a BDS campaign],” Yallies4Palestine organizer Ruqaiyah Damrah told Yale News. “We’re hoping that our campaign will generate important discussions around what it means to stand in solidarity with oppressed and colonized people around the world.”

Yallies4Palestine, G4S, Yale and the YSC did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

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