University of Glasgow profiting from 'blood money' in Gaza
The Guardian established that the 'wings' for the GBU-39 bomb are manufactured at an MBDA factory in Alabama, in the United States. Its investigation found that these revenues flow through MBDA UK before any profit is passed to the MBDA group, headquartered in France.
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The report verified 24 Israeli airstrikes in Gaza in which GBU-39 bombs, made with MBDA components, were used to kill Palestinian civilians. An Israeli airstrike with GBU-39 bombs killed 34 people in Al-Buraq school north of Gaza City on November 10, 2023.
In that same month, the University of Glasgow was awarded funding together with a host of 'project partners', which included MBDA UK, to 'pioneer a mobile phone-sized quantum navigator'.
The initiative, which received £8,883,908 worth of funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), is due to conclude in November 2028.
The University of Glasgow's latest and most sizable partnership with MBDA UK only began in December 2024, just one month after the institution's governing body voted to continue its investment in the arms industry.
Funded once again by the EPSRC, the University of Glasgow and 29 organisations – once again including MBDA UK as a 'project partner' – were awarded £21,885,197 to establish the UK Hub for Quantum Enabled Position Navigation and Timing (QEPNT).
This project began just eight months after the University of Glasgow was alerted to the potential risk of criminal liability over any investments it held in either arms companies or companies operating in Israeli settlements by the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP).
The QEPNT development with MBDA UK also followed a report issued by the UN Human Rights Office in June 2024, which raised serious concerns regarding the use of the GBU-39 – for which MBDA manufacture key components – by Israeli forces in Gaza.
The report highlighted an airstrike on Al Bureij Camp in November 2023, which 'likely involved at least four GBU-39s' and killed 15 people, including five women and nine children.
Explaining the function of the Guided Bombing Unit, the report stated that the GBU-39 is 'expected to collapse buildings, such as those in Gaza, abruptly and in quick succession.'
The following month, on 19 July 2024, the International Court of Justice issued a groundbreaking advisory opinion on the legal consequences of Israel's policies and practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
The World Court determined that all states and organisations are obligated 'not to recognise as legal the situation arising from the unlawful presence of the State of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation.' MBDA UK Ltd. is also a 'Student Project Partner' of the University of Glasgow.
Since March 2023, the institution has worked alongside the missile manufacturer to develop 'computational imaging systems' as part of a third initiative funded by the EPSRC.
Commenting on Glasgow University's ties to MBDA UK, the institution's Rector, Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah, who was working as a war surgeon in the Gaza Strip at the time of the Al-Buraq airstrike, said: 'The Guardian's investigation highlights the role that the British arms industry is playing in the genocide.
"Through its research partnerships with these companies and its investment portfolio, the University of Glasgow is now complicit in the genocide, too.
"What's more devastating is that it has financially benefited from the proceeds of the genocide. Putting it bluntly, from blood money.'
Patrick Wakefield, a member of Glasgow University Stop The War said: 'The university's Liberal façade is crumbling.
"It is beyond sickening to find out that the institution that established the Dima Al-Hajj scholarship, in honour of a former student murdered by the IDF, is directly complicit in the murders that took place in Al-Buraj camp."
The University of Glasgow is also heavily invested in some of MBDA's largest shareholders. BAE Systems, in which the University of Glasgow reportedly invests £524,382, holds a 37.5% share in MBDA.
Meanwhile, Leonardo, in which the institution has a smaller investment, owns 25%.
Mr Wakefield said: 'We need to continue to build a mass movement in Glasgow that can disrupt businesses-as-usual and kick arms companies off campus.'
The revelations are only the latest to tie Scotland's higher education sector to Israel's war on Gaza.
Earlier this month, the latest report from the UN Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, directly implicated the University of Edinburgh in 'the economy of genocide'.
The University, said the report, 'holds nearly £25.5 million ($31.72 million) (2.5% of its endowment) in four tech giants – Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft and IBM – central to the Israeli surveillance apparatus and the ongoing Gaza destruction.'
A University of Glasgow spokesperson said: 'All research carried out at the University of Glasgow is underpinned by polices and a Code of Good Practice that ensures it is conducted to the highest standards of academic rigour.'
Coll McCail is a freelance writer based in Glasgow. He edits Skotia
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