Protest encampments have sprung up at university campuses around the world in recent months, calling for an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestine and atrocities committed in Gaza. The protests have been sparked by the events following the attack on October 7th, 2023, which led to a severe military response from Israel. This response has been described by many human rights experts and organisations, such as the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, as genocidal due to the extensive civilian casualties and humanitarian crisis it has caused in Gaza. In this article, we would like to explain further the reasons behind the protests and what are the aims, as well as share a more detailed journey of the London School of Economics (LSE) solidarity encampment.
Why Are the Students Protesting? The Reasons Behind the Protests
The student protests in the spring of 2024 have sparked over the indirect involvement and complicity of universities in the genocide in Palestine. This wave of activism is driven by a sense of injustice and a demand for accountability from educational institutions that are supporting the violence through financial investments, partnerships, and their deafening silence.
#1 Investments in the Military Industrial Complex
Many universities have significant investments in companies and industries complicit in the ongoing conflict. These include financial institutions, arms manufacturers and corporations that supply weapons and technology used in conflict. Students argue that their tuition fees and donations should not fund violence and oppression. They demand transparency and ethical considerations in the financial dealings of their institutions.
#2 Moral Complicity
Students believe that universities have a moral responsibility to stand against human rights violations. Academia should not only educate but also embody the principles of justice, equality, and human rights. This is why silence in response to such gross injustice is seen as unacceptable, particularly when in case of other global conflicts and crises, such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Western universities did not hesitate to speak up and show their support and solidarity with Ukrainians.
#3 Solidarity and Awareness
The protests and encampments also have the goal of raising awareness and showing solidarity with the victims of the conflict. Students encamping at universities see their actions as part of a global movement to bring attention to the atrocities and to push for a peaceful resolution, similar to student movements in the past, such as the one protesting the war in Vietnam or the apartheid in South Africa.
What Are the Objectives of Student Protests?
The primary goal of most student protests is the divestment of universities from supporting Israel’s military actions, however, in each campus the particular aims differ slightly. For example, the solidarity movement at the London School of Economics has outlined its ten demands as follows:
#1 Divest
The university should immediately divest from all companies that are complicit in crimes against the Palestinian people, arms manufacturing, fossil fuel production, and the financing of such activities. This includes making public commitments, releasing information on mutual funds, and dropping certain investment portfolio managers.
#2 Disaffiliate
This demand calls for severing academic and cultural ties with institutions and individuals complicit in crimes against the Palestinian people. This includes banning speaking opportunities for certain representatives, excluding certain companies from careers fairs, and ending research partnerships with complicit firms.
#3 Drop the Silence
This demand calls for the university to release a public statement expressing solidarity with Palestinian liberation, calling for a ceasefire, condemning educational restrictions in Gaza, demanding an arms embargo, and revoking the IHRA definition of antisemitism which conflates antisemitism with anti-Zionism.
#4 Designate
The university is requested to provide scholarships and funding for Palestinian students, extend the Scholars at Risk scheme, offer mental health support, and provide visa support for Palestinian students, similarly as it has to be done towards Ukrainian students.
#5 Dedicate
Finances and logistical support should be allocated for rebuilding Gazan universities and the education system on Palestinian terms, creating a fund and working group to support Palestinian scholarship.
#6 Disengage
The UK Government’s Prevent framework due to its prejudices, should be disengaged from. The university should implement cultural awareness and anti-bias training, and reform the Risk Spotters group to protect students’ rights to free speech and prevent Islamophobia.
#7 Disavow
The university is also faced with the demand to disassociate LSE from Paul Marshall and his financial contributions, rename the Marshall Building for Marshall Bloom, who led the UK’s first student occupation against Rhodesian apartheid in 1967 and abolish the Marshall Institute due to Paul Marshal’s shocking views and controversial associations.
#8 Denounce
The student encampment has also asked for LSE to publicly denounce former LSE Vice Chancellor Minouche Shafik for her repressive tactics against student protests. Additionally, the LSE is requested to apologise for past incidents of harassment and discrimination and condemn actions that endanger students’ wellbeing.
#9 Democratise
The entire student and staff body should be involved in investment decision-making processes, ensuring transparency and accountability in the university’s institutional functioning and investments.
#10 Defend
The encampment demands amnesty for all involved in peaceful pro-Palestinian activism, as well as for the university to protect the job security and well-being of university staff, and ensure that security staff do not violate students’ rights to protest.
Student Protest Journey at LSE
As a student at the LSE, I have found myself at the heart of the action on May 14th, the eve of the 76th Nakba anniversary. This day marked the beginning of our encampment in solidarity with Palestine. After a protest on campus, we have moved into the ground floor of the LSE Marshall Bloom Building (formerly the Marshall Building), with a central demand of divestment from the universities £89 million worth of investments in crimes Against the Palestinian people, the arms trade, fossil fuels, and the financing of such egregious activities.
Contrary to the assertions of LSE’s Senior Management Committee (SMC), the encampment did not emerge spontaneously. It was the culmination of outrage and long-term campaigns following months of witnessing atrocities inflicted on the Gaza population. The occupation represented a strategic and organised response to these events.
Students spent months researching and producing a comprehensive 116-page report “Assets in Apartheid: LSE’s Complicity in Genocide of the Palestinian People, Arms Trade, and Climate Breakdown” which provided a breakdown of LSE’s investment in companies involved in crimes against the Palestinian people. Several LSE student societies have endorsed the report, the LSE UCU branch, and external organisations like the Campaign Against Arms Trade. Peter Frankental, Amnesty International UK’s Economic Affairs Director, stated:
“This report provides a vital wake-up call to LSE to urgently improve the stewardship of its investments, ensuring it’s no longer profiting from corporate activities linked to serious human rights violations and the devastation caused by the climate crisis. With growing calls for universities around the world to clean up their investment portfolios – not least in relation to mounting evidence of war crimes by the Israeli authorities and their racist system of apartheid against the Palestinian people – this report couldn’t have come at a more important time.”
The encampment has received overwhelming support from students, alumni and staff at LSE, as well as from the broader London and international community.
Challenges and University Response
Despite initially meeting with student representatives, the SMC has refused to engage in good-faith negotiations. They have used safety and security concerns as bargaining chips, undermining the students’ well-being. The management has also made unfounded accusations about bullying and discriminatory behaviour by students, which the occupiers deny. The conditions imposed by the university, such as locking toilets, shutting off water taps, and denying access to showers, have limited the capacity of students’ efforts.
The SMC has ordered the removal of posters and set the bounds of the camp with security tape. They have requested that Muslim prayers be kept within the encampment bounds, responding to a public prayer event. Increased securitization and surveillance around the encampment have also been noted. Instead of supporting the right of LSE students to protest and contribute to shaping the processes and integrity of their university, the university has tried to get rid of student protesters on campus, distract and divert with fire safety and increase security control and surveillance. When this failed, the LSE LSE’s School Management Committee (SMC) took the students to court.
A court ruled that LSE could dismantle the pro-Palestinian encampment on its campus, marking the first stage of the legal battle. LSE became the first British university to evict a pro-Palestine student encampment on June 17, 2024. Other UK universities, including Queen Mary University and Birmingham University, are also pursuing court orders to evict their students. This is, however, not the end of the movement. Activists staged an eviction rally to show their compliance with the law, joined by former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and activists from other camps at Queen Mary, UCL, and the School of Oriental and African Studies. Corbyn addressed the rally, thanking the students for their “practical demonstration of solidarity” and for being “on the right side of history.”
LSE Says No to Divestment Pleas
History has looked kindly upon students and staff who protest wars and stand up for human rights. As one of the foremost social science universities in the world, LSE should be familiar with this history and summon the courage to heed its lessons. Yet, despite the efforts and dedication of the students at LSE, the university’s council, in a statement released on July 8th, decided against divestment. This decision is not just a setback for the protesters, but a glaring example of the university’s failure to take meaningful action against investments in companies complicit in human rights abuses, fossil fuel extraction, and arms manufacturing. The LSE Council’s response, filled with platitudes about the complexity of their decisions, ignored the ethical imperatives and the pressing moral crisis at hand. Their acknowledgement of the impact of the ongoing violence in Israel and Palestine on the LSE community rings hollow when juxtaposed with their ultimate decision to maintain the status quo.
The LSE Council’s statement highlighted their appreciation for the efforts of the LSE Students’ Union Palestine Society and other involved parties. However, this appreciation did not translate into action. They agreed to some measures, such as:
- Allocating £250,000 for Palestinian scholars at risk.
- Providing £250,000 in scholarships for displaced Palestinian students.
- Supporting an academic program focused on Palestine.
- Implementing cultural awareness training for staff.
- Reviewing event planning processes to ensure unbiased decision-making.
These concessions, while positive, fall far short of the necessary systemic change. Crucially, the Council refused to:
- Take an institutional position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
- Boycott Israel.
- Publicly condemn specific individuals responsible for perpetuating the violence.
This refusal is a stark reminder of the university’s reluctance to engage in meaningful change and its preference for maintaining a veneer of neutrality that ultimately supports the status quo of oppression and violence.
Global Victories and the Power of the Student Movement
While LSE’s decision was disappointing, the broader movement for divestment and justice has seen victories around the world. Universities and institutions globally have begun to reassess their investments and make more ethical choices. For instance:
- Trinity College Dublin (Ireland): Students organized a protest encampment on Fellow’s Square, leading the university to agree to end its investments in Israeli companies listed on the United Nations Human Rights Council “blacklist.” This included divesting from three of the 13 Israeli companies in the university’s endowment fund.
- University of Copenhagen (Denmark): In response to student protests, the University of Copenhagen announced on May 28 that it would cease investing in companies operating in the occupied West Bank, divesting US$145,810 from Airbnb, Booking.com, and EDreams the following day.
- Goldsmiths University (UK): After students set up encampments in the university’s library, Goldsmiths agreed to a new ethical investment policy. The student group will present their evidence of the university’s complicity with Israel to the finance committee. Additionally, Goldsmiths will name a lecture theatre after Shireen Abu Akleh, an Al Jazeera reporter killed by Israeli forces, and will review the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism.
- Brown University (USA): Protesters agreed to dismantle their encampment after school officials allowed students to present arguments for divesting the university’s endowment from companies profiting from the war in Gaza. Brown’s President Christina Paxson will request an advisory committee to recommend divestment by September 30, with a vote by the school’s governing corporation in October.
- University of Barcelona (Spain): The university’s senate voted to break all institutional and academic ties with Israel, including centres, research institutes, companies, and other institutions, until the genocide stops.
- University of Melbourne (Australia): The University of Melbourne became the first Australian educational institution to agree to some demands of pro-Palestine protesters. The university will make additional disclosures about its research project grant arrangements to improve transparency, starting next month. However, these disclosures will be subject to confidentiality obligations, national security regulations, and laws.
These successes demonstrate the growing power and influence of student-led movements in demanding accountability and ethical practices from their institutions. The global solidarity and pressure have created a ripple effect, pushing universities to consider the broader impacts of their investments and align them with their stated values. While the fight for justice and ethical investment is far from over, the global student movement continues to grow, demonstrating the power of solidarity and collective action. As students, faculty, and supporters remain steadfast in their demands, they keep the pressure on institutions to align their investments with the values of justice, equality, and human rights.
