Students at UK universities protest against Gaza war

Students are calling on their universities to divest from Israel in response to its military action in Gaza

A man writes a message of thanks to students in the US protesting in solidarity with the people of Gaza, at a camp for displaced Palestinians in Rafah on April 27. AFP

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Students have gathered at at universities across the UK to protest against the war in Gaza, after similar demonstrations at campuses in the US and other parts of the world.

Tents have been set up outside university buildings in Leeds, Newcastle, Sheffield and Bristol by students supporting the Palestinians amid the Israel-Gaza war.

Students in Bristol said they staged the rally “in protest of the university’s complicity in Israel’s genocide of Palestinians”.

Apartheid Off Campus Newcastle said its protest was to “highlight the institution’s investment strategy and its complicity in the Israeli military’s war crimes in Gaza and the West Bank”.

Student activists elsewhere held marches and one-off protests.

One camp, at Warwick University, has been set up in the town’s piazza for a week.

The groups have called on their universities to divest from Israel in response to its military operation in the Gaza Strip.

This would mean selling off stock in Israeli companies or otherwise dropping financial ties.

Violence erupts on UCLA campus between pro-Palestine protesters and counter-demonstrators - video

The students have asked for supporters to donate food, drinks and hygiene products.

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign, a UK-based organisation that claims to be the largest British group “dedicated to securing Palestinian human rights”, wrote on X: “Today, students from Leeds, Newcastle, Bristol and Sheffield have joined Warwick – demanding that our universities stop investing in Israel’s genocide.”

Images shared by the group showed large groups of students gathering alongside tents and banners in prominent areas of the universities.

The protests follow violent clashes at campuses across the US, most prominently at Columbia University in New York.

Violence also broke out at the University of California, and more than 1,000 protesters have been arrested across the US.