Students protesting against the war in the Gaza Strip occupied UK university campuses

Students pitched tents outside university buildings in Leeds, Newcastle and Bristol on Wednesday to protest against the war on Gaza. Bristol students said they had staged an action “against the university’s complicity in Israel’s genocide of Palestinians”. In Newcastle, students said the demonstration was aimed at drawing attention to “the institution’s investment strategy and its complicity in contributing to war crimes by the Israeli military in Gaza and the West Bank”. Elsewhere, student activists staged marches and isolated protests.

University of Warwick students set up camp in the town square. The groups are calling on universities to respond to Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip, cut financial ties with Israel, and divest themselves of shares in Israeli companies. Students are asking sponsors to donate food, drinks and hygiene items.

The UK-based Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which claims to be Britain’s largest such group, wrote on X that “students from Warwick were today joined by students from Leeds, Newcastle, Bristol and Sheffield to demand that our universities stop investing to the genocide carried out by Israel!”.

Images shared by the group show large groups of students gathered on university campuses, tents and posters at various university locations.

Violent protests and clashes broke out at US universities, including the universities of Columbia and California, with more than 1,000 protesters arrested.