LSE STUDENTS REMEMBER GAZA: ONE YEAR ON.

For immediate release

The LSE Palestine society is holding a vigil to commemorate those slaughtered in the Gaza offensive as well as erecting a symbolic checkpoint on campus to raise the awareness of the difficulties faced by Palestinians as their freedom of movement is systematically destroyed by Israel.

One year after operation "Cast Lead", London School of Economics (LSE) students and alumni have joined in the remembering of the suffering of Palestinians that resonates throughout the UK's progressive civil society organizations.

The 22-day brutal onslaught on Gaza in winter 2008-2009 saw more than 1,400 Palestinians killed, of which at least 300 were children. The offensive destroyed more than 3,000 Palestinian homes while educational facilities were bombed, including the Islamic University of Gaza (IUG) and UNRWA schools.

Several LSE alumni, including the ex-chair of the LSE Palestine Society Ziyaad Lunat, took part in the Gaza Freedom March to break the illegal siege on Gaza and end the Israeli occupation by nonviolently targeting Israel's flagrant violations of international law.

Following the twinning of the LSE Students Union (LSESU) with the Students Union of the IUG in November last year, the Viva Palestine convoy delivered a letter to the IUG, signed by Mira Hammad, chair of the LSE Palestine Society and Aled Fisher, the General Secretary of the LSESU, committing to deepen the ties between the two universities. The LSESU twinning task force is lobbying the school to open its electronic resources for the use by Palestinian universities.

Mira Hammad, Chair of the LSESU Palestine Society, commented that: "a year on from the massacre of innocent men, women and children in Gaza, the atrocities are still being perpetrated and yet our governments are unwavering in their support of pure savagery. Today's vigil and the ongoing wave of student activism around the world is symbolic of the fact that students, by contrast, will not be silent witnesses to gross injustices."

Ziyaad Lunat, ex-chair of the LSESU Palestine Society, stated that: "One year on, there is no justice in sight for the 1.5 million besieged Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. At LSE, divestment and academic boycott are two avenues being forwarded by students, alumni and academics alike. Throughout the world similar actions are succeeding in pressuring Israel and changing perceptions about the Palestinian struggle for liberation and rights."
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Notes to editors:

The LSESU Palestine Society can be contacted at  su.soc.palestine@lse.ac.uk and has a website at  http://www.palsoc.org.uk/.
More information about the Gaza Freedom March can be found at  http://www.gazafreedommarch.org/article.php?id=5022.
More information about the Viva Palestina convoy can be found at  http://www.vivapalestina.org/.
More information about the Islamic University of Gaza can be found at  http://www.iugaza.edu.ps/en/.