Cambridge will not move pro-Palestinian protesters

Pro-Palestinian protesters have set up a camp outside King’s College – Daniel Jones

The University of Cambridge will not move pro-Palestinian protesters on from the lawn outside King’s College, its vice-chancellor has confirmed.

The university released a statement confirming that it would not move the protesters, who pitched tents on Monday to demonstrate against Israel’s war in Gaza, unless rules were broken.

Prof Deborah Prentice, the Cambridge vice-chancellor, said the university was “fully committed to freedom of speech within the law, and the right to protest”.

She said university life “is continuing as usual” and called on protesters to respect guidelines issued to staff and students on Tuesday.

“We will not tolerate anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, or any other form of racial or religious hatred in our community,” said Prof Prentice. “The university has set out guidance around expectations to the protesters, and the protesters have issued community guidance, which describes a peaceful protest.”

The statement comes as Oxford donscalled for the university’s head of equality to resign after he signed an open letter in support of a similar pro-Palestinian protest camp.

Vernal Scott, who has led Oxford’s equality and diversity unit since October 2023, has put his name to a letter declaring solidarity with students protesting against Israel’s war in Gaza.

Protesters, who set up tents on the lawn of the university’s Pitt Rivers Museum on Monday, have said they will not leave until the university meets their demands, including calling for an immediate ceasefire and cutting financial ties with companies linked to Israel.

Mr Scott last month celebrated the closure of the National Conservatism Conference by police in Brussels, prompting accusations of double standards from Oxford dons.

Now the university has been drawn into fresh controversy after Mr Scott, previously the head of diversity and inclusion at Essex Police, pledged his support for the pro-Palestinian protesters.

Nigel Biggar, the regius professor emeritus of moral theology at Oxford, told The Telegraph: “Mr Scott has a legal right, of course, to express his political opinions.

“However, as a senior administrative official in Oxford University, he should bite his tongue and stay silent. Otherwise, students over whom he has power and who dissent from his views will have good reason to fear hostile discrimination from him. He needs to demonstrate even-handedness towards a diversity of political positions or else resign from his post.”

Prof Lawrence Goldman, an emeritus fellow at St Peter’s College, said: “Last week, Vernal Scott openly advocated the closure of a Conservative political conference.

“This week he openly supports protests that compromise the safety of Jewish students and others at Oxford. He doesn’t understand his job description.

“How the university deals with him will be a matter of great interest to many of its alumni and its Jewish donors.”

Last month, Belgian police arrived at a conference at which Nigel Farage and Suella Braverman were speaking to shut it down after a court ruled it could be homophobic, incite public disorder or offend minorities.

“I applaud the mayor and police of Brussels for their decision to close down this conference,” Mr Scott wrote in a since-deleted post on X, formerly Twitter.

In Oxford, pro-Palestinian protesters left their encampment for the first time and staged an hour-long rally outside the gates of the Sheldonian Theatre. Using a megaphone, they led a crowd of several hundred in chants of “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”.

David Pratt, a 52-year-old Jew who watched the rally, told The Telegraph: “They are saying they want to destroy Israel. It’s pretty unambiguous to me. It is blatantly anti-Semetic.”

But Kendall Gardner, one of the protest’s organisers, told the Telegraph the chant made her proud, saying: “As a Jewish person committed to liberation for all people, the chant fills me with hope.

“When we say this chant, we express our desire for a better world – one where no one lives under apartheid or occupation. I am proud to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people, and I’ve never felt more Jewish than in these moments.”

Following the rally, the Oxford University Conservative Association limited its attendance for a talk by Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor on Thursday evening, writing on Facebook: “Due to security concerns, this event will now be for members only.”

So far, 303 members of Oxford’s faculty and staff have signed a statement in support of the pro-Palestinian protest encampment.

It describes the camp as “a public-facing global education project” and calls for the university to “divest from Israel’s genocide in Gaza, as well as from Israel’s ongoing apartheid regime against Palestinians”.

Toby Young, the director of the Free Speech Union said: “I cannot see how signing this letter is compatible with championing ‘inclusion’, given that the concept is supposed to apply to all religious, ethnic and sexual minorities at Oxford, including Jews and Israelis.”

The university has been approached for comment.

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