Students expressing solidarity with Palestinians and protesting Israel’s war in Gaza have set up encampments on campuses around the UK.  Around 15 encampments have emerged in Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Warwick Manchester and others.  They’ve also emerged in other countries including France and Ireland.

Broadly, students are calling for transparency over and divestment from universities’ financial links with Israeli companies (particularly those involved in the arms industry).  They are demanding university leaders cut ties with Israeli universities, increase resources (including scholarships for Palestinian students) and make long-term commitments relating to the rebuilding of higher education in Palestine.

The encampments follow similar action at more than 140 universities in the US. There, scenes of police arresting protesters have sparked intense debate about when (if ever) it is permissible to limit the free expression of students.

Universities have a difficult balance to strike between protecting student speech rights and ensuring campus safety.

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Mitchell Institute Fellow: Rights and Social Justice, Dr Suzanne Whitten is a Lecturer in Political Theory and Philosophy in the School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics at Queen's University Belfast.  Suzzane works in normative political theory and social philosophy.  Her main areas of research include issues relating to freedom of speech/hate speech and neo-republicanism.  Suzanne is currently working on a project which examines the way in which certain political or social arrangements lend themselves to an increase in harmful or divisive speech.