Why are UK universities inviting police to curb student protests?
The students encampment at Oxford University, May 2024
Maira Mirza reports in Middle East Eye on 29 June 2024:
Last May, student groups all over the UK created encampments to pressure their institutions to end ties with and divest from arms manufacturers and companies complicit in Israel’s apartheid regime and genocide.
Following more than a month of pro-Palestine student encampments on UK university campuses, police crackdowns and mass arrests of student activists have become widespread.
On 3 June, at least 17 people who were protesting against Israel’s massacre of the Rafah tent camp last month were arrested in Cardiff, Wales. Among them was a leading activist with a disability who was conducting a “sit down” protest. In response, more than 100 supporters gathered at Cardiff Bay police station to demand his release.
Disturbing video footage, backed by witness accounts, revealed people being dragged by their arms and hair, tugged at and pulled violently by the police. In one instance, a 22-year-old student from Cardiff University recalls the apparent “racial profiling” against a Muslim hijabi woman who was arrested despite not being with the protesters.
In Swansea, police raided the house of a 12-year-old Palestinian girl and her mother, arresting them both in the early morning of 4 June. Following these distressing incidents, the organisers released a statement reprimanding the South Wales police for blatant abuse, racism and intolerance of peaceful protesters. In response to the allegations, a spokesperson from the South Wales police and the police superintendent both denied any wrongdoing by police, including discrimination and the use of violence against protesters.
Violent suppression
At Newcastle University, students faced violent suppression from university leaders, who authorised over 140 police officers to crack down on students. Witness accounts revealed that students were assaulted with batons and harassed during forceful confrontation with the police.