UK: Cambridge students relaunch proPalestine encampment

Students at the UK’s University of Cambridge have relaunched a protest encampment outside Trinity College, one of its largest and wealthiest colleges, calling on the institution to disclose and divest from companies complicit in Israel’s war on Gaza.

The group behind the protest, Cambridge for Palestine (C4P), is demanding the University “take urgent steps” to end what it calls its “moral and material complicity in Israel’s genocide of Palestinians.”

C4P says Trinity College holds investments in companies such as Elbit Systems, Caterpillar, L3Harris Technologies, and Barclays - despite the university's previous commitment to review its “responsible investment” policy following a similar months-long encampment last year.

In a statement, C4P said the renewed protest came after “months of student, faculty, and community frustration” over the University’s failure to honour those pledges.

The group outlined four core demands, including full disclosure of financial ties to companies implicated in Israeli violations of international law, full divestment from them, and reinvestment in Palestinian communities.

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This includes support for Palestinian students and academics at Cambridge, rebuilding higher education institutions in Gaza, and forming partnerships with Palestinian universities.

'Repressive measures'

C4P also demanded the need for the university to "protect the academic freedoms and safety of all University of Cambridge affiliates," as well as reversing "targeted anti-protest policies that restrict pro-Palestine speech".

In March, the University was granted a High Court order barring pro-Palestine actions from three locations on its campus until the end of July 2025 - a reduced version of its original bid to secure a five-year ban on 27 February, which was rejected in court.

"This is the first major action on Cambridge's campus after the university enacted repressive measures to criminalise protest for Palestine," a student camper, who wished to remain anonymous for security reasons, told Middle East Eye.

"We know that our acts of protest come with risks of further repression and targeting, yet the escalation of genocide demands our action. There are no universities left in Gaza. We will not deterred when our university funds mass murder."

'So long as Cambridge and its colleges remain backers of the Zionist project, we will continue to return'

- C4P representative

Cambridge University is made up of 31 self-governing colleges which operate autonomously, including in their financial investments. Many of them have faced protests over their investments since the launch of Israel's war on Gaza in October 2023.

On 20 May, King's College announced it would divest millions from the arms industry and companies complicit in "the occupation of Ukraine and Palestinian territories," becoming the first Oxford or Cambridge college to take such measures.

"Cambridge for Palestine is here to show the University that we are back," C4P representative said in a statement.

"So long as Cambridge and its colleges remain backers of the Zionist project, we will continue to return and disrupt the University's violence shrouded in so-called normalcy."

middleeasteye.net