Cambridge pro-Palestine protest threatens graduation ceremonies

Protesters are demanding the university divest all of its research and financial ties with Israel

Students at King's College Cambridge University camp out in solidarity with Palestinians, in Cambridge, Britain, on May 9. EPA

A woman takes part in the King's College Cambridge University protest camp on May 9. EPA

A banner at King's College shows the students' determination to support Palestinians under siege in Gaza. EPA

Another banner, from Jewish students at Cambridge University, supporting Gaza's Palestinians. EPA

The pro-Palestinian camp at King's College. EPA

Students at the university maintain their vigil. EPA

A protest outside Senate House at Cambridge University on Wednesday over the Gaza conflict. PA

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An anti-war protest at Cambridge University has spread to a lawn outside Senate House, where graduates have celebrated since the 18th century.

The university's website states graduation ceremonies are due to take place this Friday and Saturday.

Demonstrators have issued a set of demands and have pledged to continue their protest until they are met.

On Wednesday they chanted: “Let your students graduate; come and negotiate.”

The university said it would be “happy to talk with our students and engage with them” but it was “impossible to have a conversation with an anonymous group”.

A camp outside King’s College appeared at the start of last week, and now activists have also pitched a ring of almost 20 tents on the Senate House lawn.

Palestinian flags have been draped from the Grade 2-listed urn in the centre of the lawn, and a white sheet has been fixed below it with “welcome to liberated zone” written on it.

The flags have also been taped to the columns of Senate House and to some walls, and a “please keep off the grass” sign modified so it reads: “please keep off Palestine”.

Pro-Palestine protests at European universities - in pictures

A banner has also been taped to the doors of Senate House which read “Refaat’s house”, and protesters wearing face coverings sat by the door at the top of steps.

The writer and literary scholar Refaat Alareer was killed in an air strike in Gaza city in December.

On Wednesday, protesters took turns on a megaphone to address a crowd of more than 100 people who had gathered in a thoroughfare between Senate House and Great St Mary’s Church.

One of them, wearing a face covering, said they “do not want to disturb those who are graduating” this week and that “all we want is for the university to take this seriously”.

A police officer watched from a distance next to a marked van, as the crowd chanted “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”.

Among the other chants were “Israel is a terrorist state”, and a banner on a wall by the protest camp outside Senate House read: "There are no universities left in Gaza."

The protesters marched around Cambridge city centre, chanting as they went, and sat down outside the Old Schools University Offices where more speeches were made on a megaphone.

“The University has been in regular and ongoing contact with students who have been impacted by the tragic events in Gaza and Palestine," said Prof Bhaskar Vira, pro-vice chancellor for education at the University of Cambridge.

“We support freedom of speech and protest within the law.

“From the first day of this protest last week, with my colleague Prof Kamal Munir, we have been extremely clear that we would be happy to talk with our students and engage with them.

“To date we have received only anonymous emails.

“We remain ready for constructive engagement with our students, but it is impossible to have a conversation with an anonymous group.”

A Cambridge student said last week that the protesters were demanding the university “disclose all of its research collaborations and financial ties with companies and institutions complicit in Israel’s genocide, and then to divest from these”.

“We will be staying here until our demands are met,” she said.