Day: August 30, 2026

Good response to our 143rd vigil


We still turn out each week as the need is still there.

Proposal to make a film

August 2026

One hundred and forty three vigils for peace in the Middle East supported by around 30 people yesterday (29 August). The photo shows one of our number standing on the traffic island and there were around 35 ‘honks’.

There has been some coverage of the situation in Gaza last week with reports on the yellow line which is slowly creeping across the territory forcing the Palestinians into a smaller and smaller area. According to the LA Times it is now 64% of Gaza. Nearly all the cultivable land has now been seized. According to recent estimates, the death toll is now over 73,000 and continuing despite the ceasefire. 174,000 have been injured. Around 1,300 have been killed since the ‘ceasefire’ and 4,361 injured. Settler violence has intensified in the West Bank.

We still await government action concerning our relations with Israel following the election of Andy Burnham as prime minister who apologised for the government’s stance in July. Although this apology was welcomed, few in the media noted that Burnham is a member of Labour Friends of Israel. On the web site Track Israel Lobbying Mr Burnham heads the page Hall of Shame as having received over £200,000.

The total received by MPs from Israeli organisations is a massive £1,574,262 (updated this month). It is reasonable to ask how independent are our members of parliament and to what extent are they representing the interests of those people whom they purport to represent when they are in receipt of such largesse?

Film

We are considering making a short film to be called ‘Because …’ which will have brief interviews with some of those who attend these vigils. We will be carrying out the interviews over the next few Saturdays. Anyone reading this who attends is willing to volunteer. The aim is for people to say they come to the vigils because … and to give their reasons.

We note once again that there has been no sign of the local MP Mr John Glen who is a member of the Conservative Friends of Israel group (see above) and has never mentioned them in his weekly column in the Salisbury Journal.

Photo: courtesy of Peter Gloyns.

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Exeter University in the spotlight

Student walking on illuminated bridge beside towering sandstone rock formations

Serious doubts raised over their deal with Saudi Arabia

August 2026

Any organisation preparing to engage in a commercial transaction with a state like Saudi Arabia, needs to ask itself some serious questions. Exeter University is reported in the Guardian newspaper (29th August) to have agreed to offer a MA course ‘applied security and strategy’ with a Saudi University. Whether the university asked itself those questions is unknown but having agreed to offer it they seemed keen to keep it quiet.

The University was in the news earlier in the year when it announced that it was axing 150 jobs in the humanities and social sciences departments and along with other universities, is struggling financially. The main reason is the drop in the number of overseas students due to government restrictions which ended a lucrative income stream. They need to work hard to ward off more serious financial problems.

Little positive to say about Saudi Arabia

What can we say about Saudi, their proposed partner? Firstly, there is no realistic free speech in the country and those who displease the authorities are arrested and imprisoned for long periods. It executes large numbers of people and 2025 was a record at 347 (although it is likely to be more) which was just ahead of 2024’s total of 345. Charges are vague and confessions are often acquired using torture. Apostasy is still a crime. Few have any legal defence. Executions are carried out in public and the most frequent method is beheading with a sword.

Women’s rights are dismal and the ‘guardianship’ system is still in place. This law formally enshrines male guardianship over women, requiring them to obtain a male guardian’s consent for marriage and giving husbands significant authority over wives, including financial support contingent on “obedience” and marital cohabitation.

Migrants have few rights.

They have wreaked terrible destruction in Yemen with a war against the Houthis backed by Iran.

If the university considered these issues they would had to have weighed up organising a masters programme against the dire human rights situation in Saudi. They may have drawn comfort from the UK’s relaxed attitude allowing arms sales and other commercial deals to take place making them one of our largest countries for our weaponry. Selling arms and helping Saudi with their assault on Yemen is surely worse than running a teaching course in Exeter they might reason.

The issue comes down to integrity and morals. How much do you, as a university, take into account the large number of executions, torture, lack of human rights, lack of an opposition and women treated as vassals, against a lucrative income training some people from the National Defense University in Riyadh?

The University’s college union, UCU, is not impressed and has said ‘they (the university) is more interested in flogging military training to despotic regimes than in defending world class humanities and social sciences teaching.’ It looks as though the university chose money over morals.

Sources: Guardian; Death Penalty Information Center; Human Rights Watch; Amnesty; Exeter University.

Image generated by AI.

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