Protesting Genocide on Campus: Palestine and the Policing of Solidarity in UK Universities

Abstract

Since October 2023, universities in the Global North have become important sites in the contestation of solidarity in response to the ongoing genocidal violence in Gaza. This article examines the emergence of pro-Palestine encampments on UK university campuses, sparked by Israel’s systematic destruction of Gaza’s educational infrastructure and the killing of students, academics and staff – acts widely condemned as scholasticide. These encampments have been spaces of political education and collective resistance, calling for institutional divestment from weapons manufacturers and a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. We consider these encampments as being the antithesis of the neoliberal university, with the latter prioritising profit over people, and the former as spaces of care and solidarity. Yet, while embodying a powerful expression of solidarity, they have also been met with state-sanctioned repression and vilification, often framed as extremist by politicians, media commentators and university administrations. This article interrogates the politics of these encampments through the lens of surveillance, media narratives and institutional complicity with state violence. It situates the backlash within the enduring logics of the ‘War on Terror’ and the rise of Islamophobic discourse that pathologises Muslim political expression and solidarity with Palestine. Drawing on several case studies, this article details the criminalisation of student and staff protests through mechanisms such as intensified policing and private security, Prevent referrals, heightened surveillance and disciplinary sanctions. This article articulates how events in the UK since the onset of the genocide demonstrate that the racialisation of Palestine solidarity rests upon and is made possible by a reliance on historical and contemporary colonial counter-terror frameworks. In contrast to and in opposition to liberal narratives that achieve little beyond extending or ignoring Palestinian suffering, this article argues for a radical, anti-racist and anti-colonial politics that resists the silencing of pro-Palestine activism. It concludes by highlighting the forms of resistance taking place across campus protests as seeds of a renewed, unapologetic pro-Palestine movement within the university and beyond.