University of Cambridge’s Senate House lawn reoccupied by Cambridge 4 Palestine

Pro-Palestine students have reoccupied Senate House lawn following a 3am operation in a dramatic escalation of the stand-off between student organisation Cambridge 4 Palestine and the University of Cambridge, which called the move “unacceptable”.

By 11am on 27 November, around 20 Cambridge 4 Palestine protesters had set up a camp - and more could be seen scaling the iron railings alongside the building, which dates back to the 1720s.

The Senate House lawn was briefly occupied in the summer as part of a protest against the University of Cambridge’s investments in arms corporations. That protest was part of a wider occupation of King’s College lawn that was dismantled after more than 100 days in July, following an agreement between the protesters and the university.

At that point the campaign to embarrass the University of Cambridge into ending all investments in arms manufacturers appeared to have been resolved, but this week’s reoccupation has come about because Cambridge 4 Palestine claims that the terms set out in July have not been honoured.

Speaking through the iron railings at the side of Senate House, a Cambridge 4 Palestine spokesperson said: “In July, the university made a set of agreements to the Cambridge Palestine Movement, which it has subsequently reneged on, and has broken several promises and manipulated the negotiations process for divestment. Meanwhile, we've seen that the death toll in Palestine has only continued to increase, and the scale of the genocide has worsened, if that is even possible.

“And the university has, as such, left students and anyone of conscience with no choice other than escalation.”

The specific breakdown of the July agreement appears to have been the setting up of the working parties to talk about divestment.

“One of the primary terms of the encampment disbanding in July was to have six student representatives, six faculty representatives as part of this task force. and that was something that was completely scrapped by the university and the student representatives are now only two on a task force of eight,” said the spokesperson for the group, speaking exclusively to the Cambridge Independent. “Six others were chosen by the university itself.

“The word Palestine and the word Gaza have been erased completely from any conversation about divestment by the university in terms of the public communication. So if you look at the terms on which the decampment occurred in July they discussed ‘the humanitarian tragedy in Gaza’. If you look at the most recent communications from the university, which occurred in November, they talk about ‘tragic events happening across the world’.

“The usage of these euphemisms are very deliberate which is why one of the primary demands of this encampment - the first demand - is to simply recognise the genocide and materially taking steps towards undoing the harm which has been done, which is a precondition towards any conversation about divestment itself.”

The spokesperson stressed that Cambridge 4 Palestine is “a coalitional effort, an integration of student efforts, faculty, staff members, and broader community members” of the University of Cambridge, and the action is taking place on university property, which is why there has been no police involvement to date.

The reoccupation follows the occupation of Greenwich House that began last Friday, 22 November, which is ongoing. The building, which houses many of the university’s administrative functions, has been renamed by the group as a “new liberated zone for Palestine” called Kanafani House.

Both that and today’s action are designed to push the University of Cambridge into publicly stating its position on the Middle East conflict and the arms supplies behind it - 45,000 Palestinians have been killed in the last 13 months - to continue.

“One of the primary purposes of this action as well is to bring the university into a public forum because these conversations cannot only be had in this closed-door format, which is on the terms of the university itself, but rather they should be had with public accountability and transparency,” concluded the spokesperson.

A spokesperson for the university said: “We recognise the importance of peaceful protest within the law, and the deeply-held concerns about the current situation in Gaza, Israel and Lebanon. However, the forced entry of buildings and disruption of university activities by a small group of students is unacceptable.

“On 25 November, the University Council reaffirmed membership of the working group to explore the university’s relationship with the defence industry. The terms of reference for this group were also reaffirmed. This important work will now commence.”