Jewish pupil ordered to depart Oxford encampment

A Jewish student at Oxford University has been denied admittance to the event after he refused to sign up to a radical pro-Palestine pledge in a sign that the Gaza university demonstrations sweeping the UK are becoming more authoritarian. 

Elsewhere, students from the University of Cambridge have began shouting the genocidal ‘From the river to the sea’ chant and calling for an ‘intifada’ at their encampment outside King’s College. 

In Cambridge, students have been seen marching through the city to the Old Schools University Offices while chanting ‘Israel is a terrorist state’  before tucking into batch cooked pesto pasta and focaccia. 

Media covering the event in Oxford have been mobbed and abused by demonstrators whilst attendees to the encampment have been told they must bbe ‘committed to upholding the Thawabit’ in order to join in. 

Speaking to MailOnline, the Jewish student in his 30s said he was too concerned for his safety to give his name and that he wanted to bring an Israeli flag but thought better of it as he ‘didn’t want to end up in hospital’.

He said he would not sign a document condemning the ‘Zionist entity’ and backing Palestinian Thawabit.

‘The fact that they allowed in Press TV tells you everything you need to know about them. How many rockets did Iran send at Israel?’

The Jewish student added: ‘They haven’t gone as far as the Americans have done and hopefully it will not. But if it comes to this point, they start harassing, they start blocking entries to buildings then they will have to do something about it. I think it’s not a university job, it’s the police’s job 

‘If it starts getting out of control, they have to do something about it.’

After denying the student entry, the activists returned to their schedule, which included couscous for lunch followed by lectures, poetry readings and eventually a 9pm film screening. 

Dozens of masked campaigners in Cambridge spent the night sleeping in tents outside the universities and have a packed day planned featuring marches, speeches and ‘apartheid workshops.’ 

Leading one of the workshops in Cambridge was serial activist Stella Swain, a student who has been at the university since 2018 and previously voted against the promotion of Remembrance Day and the Poppy Appeal. 

Receiving his letter from the mob in person was Mr Bhaskar Vira, the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education at the University of Cambridge. 

When asked how he felt about protesters shouting ‘shame’ when they read out his name, Mr Vira told MailOnline: ‘They are entitled to their views.’

Following their march through the city, Cambridge demonstrators lounged on the lawn and tucked into a lunch of pesto pasta and focaccia bread. 

In Coventry, a copycat protest to those at Oxbridge has struck up in protest of the University of Warwick’s ties with arms manufactures. 

The sit-in rallies, which echo protests seen in the US which later saw violent students clashing with police, have sprung up at other UK universities including Manchester, Leeds, Bristol, Sheffield and Newcastle over the last week.

In a statement, the president of the Oxford Jewish Society said: ‘Since the attacks in Israel on October 7, Jewish students across Oxford are facing a wave of intimidation and harassment. 

‘This includes protest chants and signs which violate the University’s commitment to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliances’ definition of antisemitism.

‘Now, with the encampment seeking to mimic what has been seen across United States campuses, we are deeply concerned that there will be further escalation in the vilification of Jewish students in Oxford.’

The concern was echoed by Jewish students in Cambridge where 60 tents have been pitched up.

The confrontational demonstrations have been slammed by the government. 

When asked about US-style encampments cropping up on British campuses, Prime Minster Rishi Sunak’s spokesman said: ‘The right to free speech does not include the right to harass people or incite violence.’

No10 also said Mr Sunak would back the police in crackdown on ‘disruptive’ protests adding that ‘a vocal and aggressive minority must not be allowed to intimidate other students or academics.’

No10 says PM would back the police in crackdown on ‘disruptive’ protests

Ella, the co-external affairs officer of Cambridge University Jewish Society, told MailOnline that their main priority was keeping Jewish students safe while the protest movement builds.

She said: ‘The Jewish society doesn’t take an official line on these protests. But our main concern is about the welfare and safety of Jewish students’ safety.

‘As long as they remain peaceful and no clashes between Jewish students and protesters, we are fairly neutral.’

Ella, who did not want to give her surname for her own safety, added: ‘I think the general feeling among Jewish students in Cambridge is that since October there has been a huge rise in anti-semitic incidents, both on and off campus and across the UK.

‘The specifics of the Cambridge protest, we aren’t seeing anti-semitics like Leeds and Birmingham. But there is obviously going to be some anxiety among Jewish students with the protest movement building.’

Reacting to a lone Jewish protester who was confronted after waving an Israeli flag near the encampment yesterday, she said: ‘We’ve spoken to the student personally. I think what is important to say is that the protest movement has a policy that people shouldn’t be interacting with anti-protesters. So the person he was involved with was acting out of the guidelines of the protests.

‘Equally he was not acting on behalf of the Jewish or Israeli society, he was a lone protester. As for his welfare, we’ve checked in and he seems to be OK.’

She continued: ‘I’ve heard from various people, having walked past encampments, it seems to be quite peaceful and non-aggressive, just sort of disruptive.

‘As far as Jewish students are concerned, on the whole I think people feel fairly safe.

‘I think as long as these protests remain peaceful, protesters remain committed to their pledge to not tolerate racism or hatred or prejudice, continues to include, lack of perpetuation of anti-semitic, these protests will not be a problem.

‘Most Jewish students, and students full stop believe in continual right to protest and that freedom of speech on campus is really important.

‘Our main concern is a Jewish society is that Jewish welfare on campus is protected.’

‘I haven’t been properly down, but I’ve walked past it. It seems fairly peaceful, quiet. I saw the rally but I didn’t feel particularly intimidated, I’m sure other students may have done.

‘As long as they remain to be committed to indulge in anti-semitic rhetoric then it should be fine.’

As around 200 protestors held a rally chanting anti-Israel slogans on Monday, student Ari Vladimir, 19, unfurled an Israel flag and shouted support for the country.

In a shocking outburst, one protestor is seen ripping the flag from him and tossing it to the ground as the lone Jewish student was pushed and jostled by other activists.  

Mr Vladimir told MailOnline: ‘I had to come here to express my support for Israel. If these people have a right to protest then so do I.

‘As you saw, I didn’t feel particularly welcome. I was pushed and shoved and felt quite scared. 

‘But I wanted these people to know that the Jewish people will never be defeated and we stand with Israel.’

Mr Vladimir is a first year history student at Christ’s College who comes from New York.

He said he was alone because many of his fellow Jewish students feel ‘intimidated,’ and were too scared to join him.

‘A lot of Jewish students on campus feel quite scared,’ he added. ‘They are just keeping their heads down. But I had to take a stand.

‘This encampment is going to make Jewish students even more concerned. How would you feel walking past people who are supporting Hamas?’

During the rally, protestors shouted: ‘Israel is a terror state,’ and ‘From the river to the sea.’

No police were present at the encampment or rally, something Ari thinks would have ‘made him feel safer’ and given more protection to counter protestors.

Ari added: ‘I have to walk through here all the time. I’m still recognisably Jewish and I would not feel safe’.

The comments come comes as the world continues to hold its breath after an Israeli tank brigade seized control of the Gaza Strip side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt in the latest offensive. 

The Israeli 401st Brigade entered the Rafah crossing and took ‘operational control’ of the crucial crossing for both aid and those able to flee into Egypt, officials said, adding this morning that they had ‘eliminated approximately 20 terrorists’.

Footage circulating on social media showed an IDF tank trundling over the border, with another clip later appearing to show Israeli flags flying at the crossing point.

The overnight offensive came just hours after Israel roundly rejected a new ceasefire deal hashed out by Egyptian and Qatari negotiators that Hamas claimed it had backed. 

The latest development in the war is likely to add further fuel to the fire of student protesters in the UK. 

At Oxford’s camp, named the ‘liberated zone’, students pinned up a board of six demands including calls to boycott Israeli genocide, stop banking with Barclays and help rebuild Gaza’s education system.

Cambridge for Palestine said it will ‘not move’ from the encampment until the university agrees to four demands including disclosing financial ties with complicit organisations and protecting students at risk.

The protests seek to emulate those seen at American universities in recent weeks, where more than 130 college campuses have been targeted by pro-Palestine supporters.

These have resulted in growing disorder and unrest, with more than 2,000 arrests.

As Gaza protests continue to grow in the UK, the government has expressed ‘serious’ concerns they could escalate to violence, as witnessed in the US.

The encampments have been organised by groups Oxford Action for Palestine and Cambridge for Palestine, as well as several other smaller groups. 

The protests had been organised in coalition with each other.

Oxford University’s Museum of Natural History remained open and apparently untroubled by the 25-strong encampment of tents on its front lawn.

Footage from the first day of the protest, posted on X, showed students chanting: ‘We are the people. We will not be silenced. Stop the bombing now, now, now.’

Unlike in scenes across the Atlantic, where there were fierce clashes with ranks of guardsmen, students inside Oxford’s ‘liberated zone’ worked on their dissertations on laptops while others gathered around to listen to the first in a series of lectures on the ‘history of the Occupation’, beginning with the Ottoman period. 

In a printed manifesto, the protestors hit out at the ‘infamous’ museum beside their protest, in an attempt to stoke wider concerns about imperialism. 

‘We have established a Liberated Zone on the lawn of the infamous University of Oxford Pitt Rivers Museum. The museum, which ‘acquired’ items from across the globe through imperial expansionism, mirrors the ongoing struggle of the Palestinian people and connect us to colonised peoples everywhere’, it read.

‘We invite you to struggle with us. Join us in our library, in our study space, in our peaceful protest, in our call for Oxford to sever its institutional relationships that facilitate the genocide and occupation of the Palestinian people.’

The rain quickly reduced the well-kempt lawn into a quagmire, while to gain admittance, visitors had to hand over their details, which will be kept ‘in accordance with our data security protocols’.

The paranoid atmosphere was increased by the insistence that all visitors wear a Covid-era mask – whether this was to protect the protestors’ health or anonymity was not made clear.

The obligatory sign-up procedure told visitors: ‘The University of Oxford is complicit in the genocide of Palestinians. With strong ties to companies supporting the Zionist entity (like Rolls Royce and Raytheon) and academic ties to Israel, Oxford continues to uphold israel’s apartheid regime. The Univeristy’s lack of transparency protects its financial interests in the genocide of the Palestinian people. We have had enough.’

More than 100 dons have backed the encampment. In an open letter, 108 lecturers, faculty members and researchers said they stood ‘firmly in support’ of the students who had set up the encampment.

A spokesperson at Oxford University told MailOnline there is ‘no place for intolerance’ and the protest must be carried out with ‘respect, courtesy and empathy’.

They added: ‘We respect our students and staff members right to freedom of expression in the form of peaceful protests.

‘Oxford University’s primary focus is the health and safety of the University community, and to ensure any impact on work, research and learning, including student exams, is minimised.

‘The Natural History Museum and the Pitt Rivers Museum remain open.’

An Oxford masters student who gave their name only as Wren said: ‘We’ve taken inspiration from students in the USA and also now in the UK as well.

‘We’re going to be here through all weather and there’s going to be loads of us.

‘We’re going to be here until our demands are met. We’re going to be here probably for a while judging by Oxford’s inaction so far.’ 

In Cambridge a food station, tent to make placards and banners, makeshift toilet were set up in the encampment, which currently holds around 30 tents. 

Cambridge for Palestine, the group behind the encampment, asked students to join them in solidarity with Palestinians who are being subject to what they claimed is a ‘murderous campaign of ethnic cleansing’.

They claim their institution is ‘complicit in genocide’ because of its ‘financial and academic ties’ to a ‘settler colonial state’.

It claimed: ‘Cambridge University has over $46 million in defense industry partnerships, contributing to the manufacture of weapons that Israel has used to kill over 40,000 Palestinians, 40 per cent of whom are children, and to destroy every university in Gaza.’

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 antisemitism, Islamophobia and any other form of racial or religious hatred, or other unlawful activity.’

Last week saw students at Russell Group universities including Manchester, Leeds, Bristol, Sheffield and Newcastle, pitch tents and erect anti-Israel signs as they called for an end to military action in the Gaza strip. 

Students from Manchester University filled nearby Brunswick Park with banners, plaques and Palestinian flags to call for the university to ‘end it’s partnership with systems which support Israel’.

One banner read: ‘UOM blood on your hands’, while another claimed: ‘UOM supports Israeli Genocide.’

In Bristol, hand-painted banners were erected between tents, emblazoned with messages of defiance as students lobbied their university to cut ties with arms companies and back calls for a ceasefire.

In Newcastle, students were entertained by a Palestinian DJ and treated to regular food supplies, as well as being enticed by free drinks vouchers at the student union bar.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said police will ‘have our full support’ to tackle potential disorder if students attempt to replicate the violent demonstrations recently seen at US university campuses. 

Jewish community leaders have urged universities to shut down encampments over fears Jewish students may be ‘harassed and excluded’. 

Jewish students said the protests have made them feel unwelcome on their own campuses, due to the aggressive stance on Israel. 

Edward Isaacs, president of the Union of Jewish Students (UJS), said campus bosses have been ‘unwilling’ to be ‘allies’ to his members and are not making them feel ‘included’. 

Last week he called on vice chancellors to ‘muster the moral courage’ to ‘ensure campuses are places where they can study free from hatred’. 

Mr Isaacs said he was aware that students in UK protests are using anti-Israel phrases such as ‘globalise the Intifada’ and ‘do not engage with Zionists’.

He wrote: ‘Encampments are growing and the rhetoric emanating from these encampments is increasing in hostility…

‘Universities have been unwilling to effectively stand in allyship with their Jewish students and ensure they can be fully included in campus life.

‘Now is a bellwether moment for university administrations as to whether they will muster the moral courage to stand in allyship with Jewish students, and ensure campuses are places where they can study free from hatred… The moral imperative is theirs.’