Statements on the Palestine solidarity encampment at SOAS

A serious incident took place on Tuesday 4 June that marked a significant escalation in the SOAS encampment’s protest activities. 

A large group of individuals from the camp attempted to force their way into the main building at around 6:30pm. Video footage of the event shows that a member of our security staff was assaulted by members of the camp. 

This is wholly unacceptable. We have said before and say again, our rules apply equally to all. We will not tolerate violence or behaviour that infringes on the rights of others, threatens members of our community, and undermines the free and safe space that a university is meant to provide. Those who believe that the rules do not apply to them because they are part of a progressive cause or espouse radical political rhetoric are seriously mistaken. Anarchist populism must not be confused with democracy and empowerment, and we will not be prevented from holding accountable those who use the tragedy of Gaza for their own purposes. 

We know that the encampment now also includes participants who are not known to SOAS that are contributing to the unacceptable conduct and behaviour we have witnessed. We cannot allow some to use the encampment as a base to try and occupy our buildings and physically or verbally attack our staff. The footage of this incident is being reviewed to identify the individuals involved. The police were on campus at the time as part of their regular welfare patrols and are independently investigating possible criminal activity. 

We have written to the representatives of the encampment to make clear that there should be no repeat of what was seen yesterday. We have also given the encampment 24 hours to move from the precinct back to the green space. We have requested that they better manage the collective behaviour of individuals that is now threatening the entire encampment.   

Our primary responsibility is to protect this institutional community and university as a free and safe space. Should our agreed conditions be breached again, we will be left with no choice but to seriously consider taking steps to bring the encampment to an end. We do not want to take such action, given that we support the right to peaceful protest and in view of the tragedy affecting Gaza. 

We remain committed to constructive dialogue with the Student Union, UCU, UNISON and other groups on the demands that stakeholders have raised, keeping the tragic circumstances in Palestine at the centre of our concerns. 

In the context of the devastating situation in the Israel-Gaza war, the values we hold dear as an institutional community are tested as we seek to put principles into practice.

As a university that is committed to social justice and the pursuit of knowledge, when we witnessed the devastating destruction of the university sector in Gaza and the humanitarian catastrophe that the people of Gaza are facing, it was right that SOAS condemned the attacks on universities and added its voice in support of a ceasefire. Since then, colleagues at SOAS have continued to identify new opportunities for SOAS to respond to the crisis, such as the creation of a scholarship programme to support Palestinian students.

As Palestine solidarity protests have emerged on campuses in the US and the UK and when an encampment began at SOAS on 6 May, freedom of expression could not simply be something we talked about but was something we would need to apply in practice. We stated clearly in our communications to students and staff that we would not seek to remove the encampment as long as it remains peaceful, is confined to the green, and does not threaten or disrupt our teaching, learning and examinations. A number of journalists visiting SOAS since 6 May have noted the open atmosphere that exists here in contrast to some campuses.

We are grateful to the overwhelming majority of participants at the encampment who have exercised their right to freedom of expression while respecting the rights of others, enabling their fellow community members to come onto campus to study, to teach, to take exams, to meet with friends and colleagues, and in respect of those rights ensure the normal running of the university.

There are, however, a small minority of protesters who have not respected the rights of others, who wrongly believe that creating a crisis at SOAS will help victims in Gaza.

In May, a Board of Trustees meeting was disrupted by student protesters, individual members of staff were targeted which caused alarm and distress, and toilets have been vandalised. Protests have also been conducted inside SOAS buildings and there was an attempted occupation, disrupting the normal operation of the university. Some of these activities were carried out by students wearing face masks to conceal their identities.

Our Provost has written to those students who have been involved in these incidents and made clear that if they continue to break the rules, we will be forced to act. In addition those who have already received a final warning for their involvement in previous incidents have been suspended with immediate effect. To date this applies to one student.  

These disciplinary procedures do not change our approach to the encampment that we set out on 6 May. We have committed to further engagement with the Student Union in relation to the seven demands of the encampment and we met with the sabbatical officers last week to agree a way forward. We will be widening these discussions to include UCU, Unison and representatives of the encampment in the coming days.

However, we are concerned to see that there has been an escalation of the encampment across the precinct area. To ensure the normal running of the university we simply cannot allow any attempt to occupy the university and we will be forced to act if this happens. Any attempt to target individuals with defamatory language will not be tolerated and contributes to an intimidatory environment.

Freedom of expression clearly cannot mean ignoring the rights of others on campus. When the SOAS administration intervenes to uphold the rights of our community it is dishonest to claim that this is about silencing activists, as some have claimed since last October.

We hope that our measured approach to the encampment makes clear that our aim is to run the university in the interests of the entire community. We want SOAS to be a place where the voices of all can be heard and engaged with, and where everyone feels safe and welcomed. Maintaining this environment sometimes means making difficult decisions and taking action against individuals who flout the rules at a cost to others.

We thank everyone who continues to be a part of building the inclusive and welcoming environment that makes SOAS a thrilling place to learn, teach and work.  

We also want to recognise the ongoing suffering of people in Israel and Palestine and the distress of members of our community, especially those with connections to the region. We want to pay tribute to everyone in our community who is contributing to a way forward in Israel and Palestine in the many and varied ways we hear about when on campus. Each act might seem insignificant against the scale of the crisis, but they light a different way forward in the darkness of conflict and war.  

As students establish Palestine solidarity camps at universities in the US and the UK, this is our statement on the camp at SOAS which began on Monday 6 May. 

Our position as a university has always been that protest and dissent can take place at SOAS as long as it remains peaceful and does not undermine the safety and security of all within our community. We have written to our students, staff and communicated with protesters to make clear that these principles will govern our approach to the encampment. 

SOAS as a university community is appalled by the loss of human life in the Israel-Gaza war and the destruction of higher education in Gaza. Last year, when a former SOAS student was killed by an Israeli air strike in Gaza, we issued a statement which echos the UN call for a ceasefire. 

Reflecting our community’s mission to contribute to a better world, SOAS’s ethical investment policy instructs our investment managers not to invest in the arms trade, companies which breach human rights or benefit from war, or the tobacco and fossil fuel industries. We are committed to divesting from any company that breaks the principles set out in the policy. 

We believe in transparency about our investments, and we have always supplied a list of the companies we are invested in when this has been requested. These details are now available on our website. 

We know that some have asked if there is more that we can do, such as changing who we bank with. While our choice of bank has been constrained by our requirement to access credit facilities to ensure the viability of the university, who we bank with, our investments, and our ethical policy is regularly reviewed, and we are committed to constant improvement limited only by what is currently possible.  

We are mindful that SOAS is a home to people who hold many different perspectives. Some members of our community will agree with protests that take place on campus, while others will disagree and have serious concerns about the presence of a protest. We have a duty to every single SOAS community member to ensure that we are all able to come on campus to study, to teach, to take exams, to meet with friends and colleagues, and that the normal running of the university is maintained at all times. 

Despite our community’s differences, affiliations, and backgrounds, we are a community united by a belief that the future can be better than the present. We hope that when we engage with others who disagree with us, we can always remember what unites us as well as the progressive mission of our university.