Education Secretary Gillian Keegan has called for Jewish students at Oxford and Cambridge to be protected from intimidation and harassment as pro-Palestinian protesters set up “liberated zones” on both campuses to protest against the war in Gaza.
The two encampments were created on Monday outside King’s College in Cambridge and in front of the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford.
“This is creating a hostile and toxic atmosphere on campus, which these protests will add to, when students are beginning some of the most important exams of their lives,” she added.
The education secretary went on to warn: “In light of this, I am making myself very clear: antisemitic abuse and intimidation must not be tolerated on university campuses and we will not stand by as Jewish students suffer.
“Freedom of speech and expression is vital to academic communities, but it must not be used to harass and intimidate, or cause significant disruption to the vital business of higher education,” she added.
The Oxbridge protesters are calling for the universities to cut all financial ties with Israel, which mounted a ground offensive into the Gaza Strip after Hamas terrorists crossed the border and murdered around 1,200 people.
The Hamas-controlled health ministry in Gaza says 37,400 Palestinians have been killed since Oct. 7.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has insisted his forces will attack Hamas fighters in Rafah, the last city in the Gaza Strip which is not under Israeli occupation.
Sunak ‘Deeply Concerned’ About Attack on Rafah
Mr. Sunak, speaking during a visit to a north London community centre on Monday, said: “I’ve been very consistent that we are deeply concerned about the prospect of a military incursion into Rafah, given the number of civilians that are sheltering there and the importance of that crossing for aid.“The priority right now should be on all parties, but particularly Hamas, to agree to a deal to release hostages and allow more aid to go in as part of a temporary pause, which will allow us to build a sustainable ceasefire. That’s the best way to end the suffering. And that’s what I continue to call on all parties to do,” he added.
But Israel Defence Forces have taken control of the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing into Egypt amid signs that a fresh offensive is imminent.
In the United States pro-Palestine encampments at a number of Ivy League universities have led to violent confrontations with law enforcement, and on Monday evening Dutch police arrested 125 activists as they broke up an encampment at the University of Amsterdam.
Pro-Palestine encampments have also appeared on university campuses in Manchester, Sheffield, and Newcastle and at SOAS University of London.
The protesters claim all the universities involved have investments in various companies in Israel.
In a joint statement, Oxford Action for Palestine and Cambridge for Palestine said they refused to “accept our universities’ complicity in Israel’s war crimes against the Palestinian people.”
The statement said: “Oxbridge’s profits cannot continue to climb at the expense of Palestinian lives, and their reputations must no longer be built on the whitewashing of Israeli crimes.”
Oxbridge Accused of Being ‘Complicit in Israeli Genocide’
Oxford Action for Palestine has demanded university authorities disclose a full account of its assets and divest from “all companies that are complicit in Israeli genocide, apartheid and occupation of Palestine within the next five years.”Another group, Cambridge Jews for Justice in Palestine, said, “We refuse to sit by while our university is complicit in, and profits from, the genocide of Palestinians and we refuse to accept its commitment to murder and bloodshed as the status quo.”
It said it was joining students across the world in “refusing the weaponised conflation of anti-Zionism with antisemitism.”
An Oxford University spokesperson said, “We respect our students and staff members’ right to freedom of expression in the form of peaceful protests.”
“We ask everyone who is taking part to do so with respect, courtesy, and empathy,” they added.
A Cambridge University spokesperson said: “The university is fully committed to academic freedom and freedom of speech within the law and we acknowledge the right to protest.”
“We ask everyone in our community to treat each other with understanding and empathy. Our priority is the safety of all staff and students. We will not tolerate anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and any other form of racial or religious hatred, or other unlawful activity,” they added.
