Gulf Coalition launches boycott campaign against British universities over Gaza war

The Gulf Coalition Against Normalization (Gulf CAN), an umbrella organization comprised of boycott groups from Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait, announced a campaign to boycott British universities that “contribute to the genocide in Gaza-Palestine,” as they regarded them.

The groups denounced what they deemed as the “complicity of British universities” in “refusing to acknowledge the genocide in Gaza,” as well as by “playing a direct role in financing and developing weapons supplied to the Zionist occupation army.”

They also accused the universities of taking an explicit position “protecting the occupation by suppressing demonstrations,” and placed serious accusations that higher education institutions in the UK use physical violence, sexual harassment, and removal of hijab as methods of suppression.

British institutions placed on the coalition’s boycott list include Newcastle University, University of Liverpool, University of Nottingham, University of Leeds, Northumbria University, Queen Mary University of London, University of Portsmouth, University of Manchester, Manchester Metropolitan University, and Coventry University.

In a statement issued by the Gulf Coalition, the groups called on students, contracted agents, and local authorities and universities in the Gulf to boycott these institutions, also urging their readers to sign a pledge to continue the boycott “until they divest and cut all ties with the military and espionage sector.”

The groups claimed that scholarship programs and partnerships with local universities in the Gulf are an indispensable source of income for British universities, and alleged that so far, the listed universities have lost £600,000 from Gulf students who refused to enlist in them, though the basis for these claims remains unclear.

Gulf Coalition coordinates anti-Israel campaigns

The Gulf Coalition Against Normalization was formed in 2019 in an attempt to coordinate campaigns and actions against Israel and normalization in the Gulf. On its website, the coalition stresses its relations with “the student movement in the UK.” 

The main groups included in the coalition are Qatar Youth Against Normalization (QAYON,) The Bahraini Society against Normalization with the Zionist Enemy (BSAZ,) and BDS Kuwait, all endorsed by and cooperating with the BDS National Committee.

Another actor involved in the coalition is Youth for Al-Quds, an Islamist group with organizational ties to the Hamas-affiliated Beirut-based Al-Quds International Institution (QII,) designated by the US in 2012 as a "Hamas controlled charity" funneling funds to the radical organization which carried out the October 7th massacre.

These organizations regularly share anti-Israel content and organize activities such as webinars and rallies, showing instances of clear support for terrorist attacks such as the October 7th massacre, and promotion of antisemitic discourse.

According to a 2020 report by the Council for Arab-British Understanding (CAABU,) roughly 22,000 students from Gulf countries, most from Saudi Arabia, were enrolled in British universities in that same year. This accounted for 0.01% of all students enrolled in higher education institutions in the UK in 2020 and 0.04% of non-EU foreign students.

Likewise, according to the British Council in the 2018 school year, there were 9,000 students from Saudi Arabia in the UK, 4,700 from the UAE, 3,300 from Kuwait, and 1,500 from Bahrain and Oman. Currently, there are an estimated 3,200 Qatari students in UK higher education universities.