Students from several institutions, including the universities of Manchester, Bristol and Leeds, are taking part in a protest movement in response to Israel’s devastating war in Gaza.
The conflict has killed more than 34,500 Palestinians so far, and another 10,000 people are believed to have been killed and buried under rubble.
Women and children make up the vast majority of those killed by Israel.
The remaining population of the besieged strip faces famine, with limited food supplies as a result of Israel’s blockade of food and aid from entering the territory.
Similar protests have taken place on campuses in the United States and France, and authorities in both countries deployed riot police to violently remove participants.
At the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), late Tuesday, a pro-Israel mob armed with sticks and poles attacked pro-Palestinian students in an attempt to destroy their makeshift student camp.
Witnesses complained that the police did not seem to do anything to stop the attackers.
At Columbia University in New York City, riot police cleared students from Hamilton Hall, which had been occupied by pro-Palestinian students.
The students’ key demand is that their institutions end investments in companies that supply weapons to Israel or engage in business in illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
The students also want their institutions to end their affiliations with Israeli universities, which they say are complicit in the plight of Palestinians.
In a comment sent to Middle East Eye, Hala, a PhD student who took part in the protests at the University of Manchester, said: “We will not allow ourselves to be complicit in crimes through the university’s partnerships with companies such as BAE. Systems and Israeli academic institutions such as Tel Aviv University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which are built on stolen land.”
Hala added: “As a doctoral student, but above all as a Palestinian, I have a duty to take action against those who allow and prolong the suffering of our people in Gaza and throughout Palestine.
“The students have set the tone for what solidarity with Palestine means and the role of students in cutting the murderous chains from Manchester to Gaza.”
On Wednesday, the London-based International Justice Center for Palestinians (ICJP) said it had written to 82 British institutions, warning that university officials could have committed a criminal offense if their institutions had benefited from investments linked to weapons that have been used in the commission of a war crime.
In a statement, ICJP legal director Dania Abul Haj said companies such as Elbit Systems, Caterpillar and BAE Systems, in which British universities have invested, were potentially complicit in Israel’s attack on Gaza and had supplied equipment used in other Israeli human rights. violations against the Palestinians.
Israel is currently facing genocide charges before the International Court of Justice, after South Africa brought a case in late December.
Their leaders could also receive arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court.