UPR student group urges divestment from US weapons manufacturers

A student group that has set up a protest encampment on the University of Puerto Rico Río Piedras Campus is calling for the university to “cease any initiative or collaboration with companies that create genocidal weapons of war and supply them to Israel so that they can be used against the Palestinian people,” according to an EFE report.

By The Star Staff

The Combative Student Collective (CEC), which recently set up a camp at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) Río Piedras Campus to denounce Israel’s bombing operations in the Gaza Strip and the mass killing of civilians in the territory, is calling on UPR to cease its relations with three U.S. companies that manufacture “genocidal” weapons.

“That the University of Puerto Rico cease any initiative or collaboration with companies that create genocidal weapons of war and supply them to Israel so that they can be used against the Palestinian people,” a spokesperson for the CEC said, according to an EFE report.

The student organization sent a letter demanding that UPR end its relationship with the weapons manufacturing companies Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Honeywell.

“The group finds it inconceivable that the UPR receives money from these three companies through donations, sponsored events and scholarships,” said the spokesperson, who has been sleeping in a tent since Monday to show her solidarity with the Palestinian people.

Last week, the CEC replaced the United States flag with that of Palestine on the façade of the main UPR building.

“Lowering their flag is like reproaching that relationship between metropolis and colony, and replacing it with the Palestinian one is a demonstration of solidarity between oppressed peoples, that one recognizes the other,” said the activist, who wants the other 10 UPR campuses to join the camp so that “the fight is unanimous.”

The young woman added that the camp is dedicated to Hani Qeshta, a seven-month-old baby who died in an Israeli bombardment of a residential building in which Qeshta’s family lives in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip.

“He will not be forgotten, and this is only one, but there are thousands of stories like his,” said the university student, surrounded by Palestinian and Puerto Rican flags, as a symbol of the union between the two territories due to their colonial condition.