Following the example of American students, the mobilization for Palestine is growing in the United Kingdom, with camps in numerous universities, such as London, Leeds, Cambridge, Edinburgh and Oxford.
Following the example of the mobilization of Columbia students in the United States, solidarity with Palestine continues to be expressed on campuses around the world. Students in the United Kingdom, in particular, have followed the example of the Americans and today are the second country with the most student camps. According to the Socialist Worker, the newspaper of the Socialist Worker Party (SWP), 25 British universities have been occupied in support of Palestine. Among the mobilized places are the main university centers in the United Kingdom, today shaken by the mobilization: London, Leeds, Cambridge, Edinburgh and Oxford.
Although solidarity with Palestine has been very strong in the United Kingdom, gathering more than 800,000 protesters last November, the student movement is now playing a key role in the mobilization. According to Issy, a member of the Leeds University camp in the north of England, this strong mobilization from universities is essential because students represent “the most radical wing of the movement for Palestine [y permite] put pressure on both universities and the government”. A balance of forces that students manage to build within their own universities with the rectories thanks to this important mobilization, as the Leeds student tells the Socialist Worker: “we were able to get [esta reunión con la administración] thanks to the support of the broader student coordination and through campus unions”.
A coordination of student forces that may explain why British universities have not yet reached a level of repression comparable to that of France and the United States, where universities resort to police forces to intervene against mobilized students and destroy the camps. At the Oxford camp, the police simply turned on the lawn sprinkler system in the hope of scaring away the students, but to no avail as the latter maintained their camp.
In addition to forming true mobilization networks for Palestine, these camps are the place of important intellectual and cultural effervescence, allowing an ideological response to discourses that criminalize support for the Palestinian people. With the possibility of mobilizing at their place of study, Oxford students were able to organize alternative classes, discuss student mobilization, and make messages of support for the Palestinian people. Similar methods are seen at Goldsmiths College in London, where students and teachers organized an occupation with alternative classes on feminism in the Middle East.
These mobilizations also allow us to denounce the links between universities and the Israeli colonial regime, similar to the student mobilizations against the South African apartheid regime at the time. In this sense, Trinity College in Cambridge, which is the largest college in the university and one of the richest in the United Kingdom, announced that it will separate itself from the Israeli arms company Elbit Systems thanks to the mobilization of students and teachers. According to Middle East Eye, Trinity College had invested €71,736 in this company. On May 14, an open letter signed by 2,500 staff, academics and students was delivered to the administration of the University of Cambridge demanding an end to this partnership.
These first victories in British student mobilization should encourage students to mobilize against the complicity of universities and governments in genocide. If the British authorities hope not to fan the flames by sending law enforcement to the campuses, the students’ determination does not seem to weaken, and is even stronger because the mobilizations are supported by university officials and faculty. . For the 76th anniversary of the Nakba on May 15, universities in the United Kingdom and all countries have been called to a day of mobilization against colonization in Palestine.
