Students in Greece have taken a stand against a university’s complicity with Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza. Namely, they’ve called out the university’s ties to Lockheed Martin – the company that provides Israel with its F-35 war planes.
Lockheed Martin: F-35 complicit in genocide
Lockheed Martin is the manufacturer of the F-35 bombers. As the Times of Israel reported:
Israel’s Defense Ministry on Tuesday officially signed a deal with the United States to procure a third F-35 fighter jet squadron.
The ministry said a delegation to the US signed a letter of agreement for the $3 billion deal that included 25 advanced stealth fighters built by Lockheed Martin.
The planes would begin to be delivered starting in 2028, in batches of three to five per year, the ministry said. The aircraft would bring the Israeli Air Force’s F-35I fleet to 75 in the coming years. Only 39 of Israel’s original order of 50 F-35s have so far been delivered.
Of course, the UK’s complicity in this is well-known. As the Canary previously reported, just this week the Labour government refused to block the the ‘Open General’ licence relating to the F-35 combat aircraft, 15% of which is produced in the UK.
It comes as the Lockheed Martin F-35 has been linked to a potential war crime by Israel. Danish news outlet Information, together with NGO Danwatch, revealed that, for the first time, it has been possible to definitively confirm the use by Israel of an F-35 stealth fighter to carry out a specific attack in Gaza.
The attack took place on 13 July, on an Israeli-designated ‘safe zone’ in Al-Mawasi in southern Gaza, killing 90 people and injuring at least 300. The Israeli military claims that the target of the attack was Mohammed Deif, head of Hamas’s military wing.
Athens sees students push back
Over in Greece, and students have also been pushing back against Lockheed Martin.
On 2 September, students held a protest against the collaboration of the University of Athens with Lockheed Martin. It happened first outside the Dean’s Office of the School of Sciences of the University of Athens:
The students demanded to stop immediately the cooperation of the university with the company that arms NATO with weapons and plays a key role in supplying Israel with weapons and war systems, so that the genocide of the Palestinian people continues. Athens University works with Lockheed Martin under its ‘Aerospace Systems Management’ course.
The students said in a statement:
Students from all over Greece have made it clear through their mobilizations and decisions that they are on the side of Palestine and will not tolerate any cooperation of the Universities with any company whose weapons are bombing the people of Palestine.
Under the determined stance of the students’ unions, the Dean himself stated that he disagrees with this cooperation, and that he does not want the university to become a participant in Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
The students obtained a commitment that the issue will be discussed in the next meeting of the Dean’s Office of the Faculty so that it will take an official position. This will be held in the next few days, with the participation of the student unions.
To this end, the protests and pressure from students over Lockheed Martin continued during the week:
Featured image and additional images via PAME International
