Students have set up camp in Manchester’s Brunswick Park
By Ashitha Nagesh & Christina McSorley
Community affairs correspondent & Education producer
More students are occupying their university campuses in the UK in protest against the war in Gaza.
Pro-Palestinian protesters in cities including Manchester, Newcastle and Leeds have set up tents outside university buildings.
Students at Goldsmiths, University of London, have occupied the library.
The student protests in the UK come after more than 1,000 people were arrested after pro-Palestinian protests on campuses across the US.
While the number of students protesting in the UK is smaller than in the US, the number of universities seeing protests is growing.
One camp, at Warwick University, has been set up in the campus’s piazza for a week.
But others, including at Sheffield and Bristol, started on Wednesday.
‘Full support’
Protest organisers told BBC News they wanted their universities to divest from Israel in response to its deadly military operation in the Gaza Strip.
Divestment means selling off stock in Israeli companies or otherwise dropping financial ties.
The prime minister’s spokesman said police would “have our full support” if students in the UK tried to replicate protests at US universities.
Rishi Sunak’s spokesman said: “We’ve always been clear that people have a right to peaceful and lawful protest – but clearly, people shouldn’t abuse that right to intimidate others, cause unnecessary disruption.”
‘Toxic atmosphere’
Palestine Solidarity Campaign youth and student campaigns officer Stella Swain said: “All the protests so far have been completely peaceful.
“There is nothing to indicate that they wouldn’t be.”
And she hoped no politician, regardless of their views on the issue, would want to see police in the UK respond to protesters in the same way as officers in the US.
On Thursday, the Union of Jewish Students said the encampments were creating a “hostile and toxic atmosphere” on campuses.
“It is time that universities take their duty of care to Jewish students seriously,” it added.
Manchester student Sam said their camp had been co-organised with Jewish students
Student protesters rejected this characterisation of the demonstrations, telling BBC News Jewish students were camping with them.
Samira, who asked for her surname to be withheld, said Jewish students were “very much a part of” the occupation at her university, Goldsmiths.
“I’m proud that there are Jewish students in the occupation with me and on the marches in central London with me,” she said, adding the pro-Palestinian movement supported “peace and justice”.
Manchester student Sam, who also asked for his surname to be withheld, said their occupation had been co-organised with Jewish students.
Students set up camp in Brunswick Park, near the university’s campus, on Wednesday.
And Sam said: “This encampment has been co-organised by Jewish students.
“And there are several Jewish students who are here every day and staying every night,” he said.
UK universities have in general supported the students’ right to free speech and to protest.
Goldsmiths said: “We recognise that people hold strong views over the war, and uphold their right to freely express themselves while being clear about the need to be respectful and within the law.”
It was “in dialogue with students over these issues” and was funding scholarships for Palestinian students.
The University of Manchester, meanwhile, said while it “fully recognises” the right to protest, “setting up camp in a city campus raises potential health and safety concerns, risks disruption to staff, students and our wider community, and ultimately is an unauthorised and unlawful use of the university’s campus”.
“We will do everything possible to maintain business as usual,” it added.
