SOAS Palestine camp organisers served with eviction notice and dragged to court

On Tuesday 30 July, the University of London served the SOAS Palestine solidarity encampment with accelerated proceedings for eviction, less than 24 hours before the court hearing.

SOAS: escalating action against Palestine camp

This comes after months of escalating repression from SOAS management, who would rather pressure University of London into removing the encampment than commit to students’ seven demands which are widely supported by SOAS students, staff, and alumni. These demands include:

• Divesting from companies complicit in the genocide.
• Cutting ties with the University of Haifa.
• Terminating its banking relationship with Barclays.
• Ending this targeted and escalating repression of solidarity with Palestine on campus.

Abel Harvie-Clark, who was dismissed from his democratically elected role as Democracy and Education Officer at the student union and expelled from the university months before he was due to graduate, has stated:

Shamefully, University of London and the ‘School of Oriental and African Studies’ have once again proved themselves to be on the side of genocide and colonialism, as they seek to evict our encampment and shut down protest in support of Palestine.

We have seen other universities carry out similar repression, but SOAS have gone even further by naming us in proceedings, targeting us for our organising on campus in clear violation of their supposed commitment to free speech and the right to protest.

Abel was named by SOAS, alongside Tara Mann and Haya Adam, in a move that followed their continual pattern of what students say is maliciously escalating repression, despite their claim to having initially supported the Liberated Zone.

Tara, a second-year student, added:

We have been in encampment for over two and a half months, because the genocide in Gaza continues, and SOAS remains complicit. Throughout this time, SOAS has used every trick in the book to get us removed: smearing us, suspending and expelling us, setting their security guards on us, watching idly as we are attacked by Zionists, and blaming their own students who were victims of racialised police brutality. Now, they seek to take their own students to court and threaten us with exorbitant legal fees.

The SOAS Liberated Zone for Gaza has, students say, “exposed the hypocrisy of this so-called ‘World’s University’, which refuses to end its complicity in genocide and which uses any means necessary to shut down protest against this”.

A ‘shameful response’

Haya, a first-year student who was subjected to police violence on 9 July, is clear:

Although management have persisted with their shameful response to our protest, serving over 200 pages worth of legal documents with less than a day to respond, we will remain steadfast in our solidarity with the Palestinian struggle and we will not rest until our seven demands are met.

To this end, the SOAS Liberated Zone for Gaza will be holding a rally on Wednesday 31 July at 2:30pm outside the City Court House in solidarity with the encampment.

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