Cambridge University wins court order to stop graduation invasions by pro-Palestinian activists

A judge has granted a final injunction allowing the university to break up protest encampments

An encampment set up by Pro-Palestinian protesters at the University of Cambridge. Getty Images

The University of Cambridge has secured a court order in a bid stop pro-Palestinian protesters from disrupting graduation ceremonies and making unauthorised encampments on campus.

The university has been granted an injunction by the High Court until July to allow it to take action against students from Cambridge for Palestine, who set up an encampment on its grounds last summer and have kept protests continuing this year. It can now control the use of its estate and decide if the tented encampments are breaking its code.

After a series of interim orders, a judge has granted a final injunction allowing the university to repossess the land where the encampment is located. Protesters have been warned they face up to two years in prison for contempt of court if they breach its terms.

Among a long list of demands, the students are calling for an end to any investment in companies supplying military technology to Israel for its war in Gaza. They want the university to invest Palestinian higher education and scholarships for students instead.

As part of their protests, students have been disrupting graduation ceremonies and in response the university has been engaged in a lengthy legal battle in a bid to prevent them entering its buildings and to remove the encampment.

In his ruling, judge Christopher Butler said that in May last year up to 50 students used a ladder to climb over a perimeter fence at the Senate House Yard where graduations take place, with the aim of stopping them from taking place.

Senate House was sprayed with red paint by the protesters. PA

Then, in November, a group broke into a building, set off a fire alarm and locked themselves in, before they broke into locked cabinets to search for documents. Also that month, there was another attempt to stop graduation ceremonies.

Cambridge first went to court in February this year in a bid to prevent disruption of the March graduation ceremonies but the protests continued with red paint sprayed on buildings, for which Palestine Action claimed responsibility. The group has since been designated a terrorist organisation by the UK government.

The university’s legal fight with the protesters continued at another hearing in March, by which time the students were being supported by the European Legal Support Centre (ELSC) and civil rights organisation Liberty.

But despite being granted an injunction then, Mr Justice Butler said the protests continued. These included a student who was collecting their degree making a speech about Cambridge’s alleged “complicity” in “genocide in Gaza”, then sitting down and refusing to move.

Cambridge and the protesters engaged in a game of legal cat and mouse, with Trinity College securing temporary injunctions to remove them from one encampment on a lawn, only for them to move to an area at another college.

The disruption to university life continued over this summer with the “loud noise” creating and “atmosphere of intimidation”, which included the disruption of services in St John’s Chapel.

A pro-Palestinian protester at the University of Cambridge. EPA

Another camp also appeared, dubbed the New Liberated Zone by the students, and an honorary degree ceremony was disrupted by megaphones, a court hearing in June was told.

St John’s College secured an order allowing it to take passion of the land occupied by the protesters but again the chanting on megaphones continued. Some of the students smeared themselves in red paint and threw objects across Senate House Yard.

At the latest hearing the University of Cambridge sought an injunction lasting until July next year to secure possession of the areas occupied by the students.

The ELSC argued that any injunction would breach the European Convention on Human Rights provisions regarding freedom of expression but this was rejected by Mr Justice Butler.

The judge said the injunction would not prevent demonstrations as long as they complied with Cambridge’s code of practice on freedom of speech.

Granting the injunction, Mr Justice Butler said he was "satisfied" that the risk of future direct action by Cambridge for Palestine was “real and imminent”.