“It's a Question, Not Feedback” UFDC Asks Questions at GE Aerospace Information Session
Editor’s Notes | GnvInfo was not physically present at this information session. It is being covered from videos that were sent.
On Tuesday, members of the University of Florida (UF) Divestment Coalition (UFDC) asked questions at a General Electric (GE) Aerospace Information Session.
UFDC launched in April when a group of UF students held a month-long protest in the middle of the Plaza of the Americas outside of Library West to demand that UF cut investments into corporations providing military aid to Israel.
During the Q&A session of the event, a UFDC member asked a question. “In your event description, you claim to be a company that champions diversity and sustainability in your workplace. I wanna understand how this philosophy holds true in the face of accusations by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch? The aircraft in General Electric; the systems used by the Israeli military to attack civilians indiscriminately and intentionally target civilian infrastructure, such as schools, hospitals, power plants, and water treatment centers. I just wanna understand how your philosophy on diversity and culture holds true to that?”
The GE Aerospace employee hosting the event responded, “It’s a hard one to answer. We do have a lot of focus on what we’ve shared and what’s happening in the world. Some of where our engines are going is not under our control. We are aware when things happen and work with a lot of our governments to make sure we’re not making any choices that are inappropriate and go against our company’s philosophies. When we are aware we’re making changes…. We do stand up for our beliefs and philosophies; they haven’t changed in over 120 years that we’ve been in business…. We do make changes when we have the visibility to say we wanna do this differently.”
video cred. UFDC
The next UFDC member to ask a question responded to the host’s answer. “I’m curious as to what changes have been made in your policy because since 2010, GE Aerospace was in the attention of international human rights activists for the LM 2500 gas turbine that was used in Israel’s Sa’ar warship that was used to kill the Gaza Freedom Flotilla activists. That was international members of society that were killed. In 2014, Israel launched Operation Protective Edge, and these engines were used to kill 2,000 civilians. I’m just curious as to what policy changes have been made because it's really important that your technology is used in a way that's legitimate for international human rights, so can you please explain that?
The GE Aerospace information session host responded, “I really appreciate your feedback, and that’s something we’ll share-”
“It's a question, not feedback,” said the UFDC member.
The host responded, “It’s not something I can answer, unfortunately. That is feedback that I’ll take back to the company and make sure they’re aware.”
The UFDC member said, “Please do, because there is such a thing as corporate liability. Please make sure students who want to be involved in your company know there is corporate liability.”
video cred. UFDC
