Student mobilization for Gaza reaches the United Kingdom. Tents accompanied by Palestinian flags and slogans calling for a ceasefire appeared on the lawn of London’s SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies) University this week. Other camps have sprung up at a number of British universities, as well as on American campuses.
The goal, Yara, 23, said, is to “pressure the administration to comply with student demands” or sever ties with companies involved in what she calls “illegal economic colonization of Israel and arms trafficking.”
The University of Warwick was the first to begin its work with the Gaza Solidarity Camp on April 26th. Other tents were then set up around the universities of Newcastle, Edinburgh, Manchester, Cambridge and Oxford.
In Edinburgh, a group of students went on a hunger strike calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, while in Cambridge, tents were neatly lined up outside King’s College. In a statement, the university said it respects freedom of expression and the right to protest, adding that it will not tolerate “anti-Semitism, Islamophobia or any other form of racial or religious hatred.”
“Unacceptable rise in anti-Semitism”
With protests in the United States sometimes turning violent and Jewish students raising concerns about their safety, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak wants to avoid similar scenes in the United Kingdom.
This Thursday, he convened university leaders to discuss the safety of Jewish students and condemned the “unacceptable rise in anti-Semitism” on campuses.
The Foundation for Public Security, an association that, among other things, ensures the security of Jewish community sites, said there were “unprecedented levels of anti-Semitism” following the October 7 Hamas attacks and the Israeli response.
The camp is set up in Dublin
Yara, who has been at the SOAS camp since it opened, stresses that students plan to stay “as long as it takes” for the university to accept their requests. “No matter how uncomfortable it is for students to camp outdoors, this is only a small part of the conditions Palestinians face in the Gaza Strip,” she adds.
In Dublin, the camp was set up five days later, The Guardian reports. Trinity College has vowed to sever ties with Israeli companies following student protests. The campus was closed to the public, costing the college an estimated €350,000 in lost revenue as visitors were unable to see the Book of Kells, a medieval manuscript and tourist attraction.
Source: Le Parisien
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