Graphene@Manchester
“Backed up by strong flows of direct investment in both directions – Boeing, Microsoft, Amazon are amongst the Washington companies that have set up in the UK, both to expand their global business and to take advantage of the R&D capability we offer. Similarly, Rolls-Royce, BAE Systems, GKN and HSBC are amongst the UK headquartered companies that have set up here. And whilst we look forward to growing that through a UK-US free trade agreement in due course, in the short term it’s useful to focus on specific opportunities where we can help our respective companies grow international business opportunities, particularly as they take the opportunity to pivot and innovate in the face of COVID disruption.”
# Entangled: Graphene, Arms, Israel and UoM
“In the summer of 2014, Israel carried out a massive attack on Gaza for the fifth time in a decade. During “Operation Protective Edge” there were, according to UN statistics, 2220 Palestinian deaths, of whom 1492 were civilians including 551 children, while Israel suffered 71 fatalities, of whom 4 were civilians.
Israel is not the only country whose military has committed such crimes. But it was founded through ethnic cleansing and to this day its legal framework systematically discriminates directly or indirectly against Palestinians. Israel occupies the West Bank, Gaza, and the Golan Heights in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions, maintains the Wall in violation of the 4th Geneva Convention, tortures detainees including children## Entangled: Graphene, Arms, Israel and UoM
“In the summer of 2014, Israel carried out a massive attack on Gaza for the fifth time in a decade. During “Operation Protective Edge” there were, according to UN statistics, 2220 Palestinian deaths, of whom 1492 were civilians including 551 children, while Israel suffered 71 fatalities, of whom 4 were civilians.
Israel is not the only country whose military has committed such crimes. But it was founded through ethnic cleansing and to this day its legal framework systematically discriminates directly or indirectly against Palestinians. Israel occupies the West Bank, Gaza, and the Golan Heights in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions, maintains the Wall in violation of the 4th Geneva Convention, tortures detainees including children and makes daily life unbearable for Palestinians including students and academics. This system – which is rightly called apartheid – survives through financial, economic, diplomatic and military support from other governments, mainly the US but also Britain, where the story began.
Finding out how the University of Manchester (UoM) may be involved is one small response to that continuing outrage. This project started with a series of Freedom of Information requests by Huda Ammori to the UoM, where she is a student and coordinator of the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions campaign. It took 6 months and intervention by the Information Commissioner before the University answered any questions. At that stage, the aim was to identify formal relationships between the UoM and Israeli universities. The eventual answers included an unspecified research project between the Dept of Physics and Astronomy in Manchester, and the Weizmann Institute.
In October 2017, a graphene contract was signed between Versarien, an extensive commercial partner of the University of Manchester, and Israel Aerospace Industries, the State corporation deeply involved in the attacks on Gaza. In fact, there are multiple bonds between all of these elements of the story: Graphene, Arms, Israel, and the UoM. But the full saga of the University and its dance partners remains under wraps.”