The Cambridge University Palestine Court Case: “Drop your injunction suppressing free speech” says UCU General Secretary, Jo Grady, wrote to Cambridge Vice-Chancellor, Debbie Prentice 

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The University of Cambridge launched a failed attempt to secure a five-year High Court injunction against Israel and Palestine-related protests.

Cambridge University was granted a “very narrow and limited court order”, but the longer-term application was dismissed by the court. University lawyers claimed that the injunction was “urgently” required ahead of a graduation ceremony. A University Statement published on the 21st of March “welcomes” the decision taht “protects the right of students to graduate and to prevent access to buildings that contain sensitive, confidential information”.

“This was never about lawful protest”, the University claims. But, the University and Colleges Union (UCU) have warned that it is a “worsening crackdown” on Free Speech.

In Brief

• Cambridge University brought an injunction hearing before the Royal Court of Justice in London against persons unknown – clearly targeted at the Cambridge for Palestine group which began its encampments of university sites in late 2023, upon the outbreak of war in Gaza  

• Camps were set up on Senate Yard in May and November 2024 – the protest at Greenwich House, an administrative site, in November 2024 was also provided in evidence.

• The High Court Mr Justice Fordham agreed to a short-term ‘narrow and limited’ injunction covering a graduation ceremony at Senate House due to take place on Saturday – only covered until 11pm on the day  

• The threat of legal action was given to anyone who violated this order – would be charged with contempt of court  

• He added that it was clear that the action planned for Saturday 1^st March was aimed at forcing the graduation ceremony to be moved  

• Some graduation ceremonies have already been moved this academic year because of the occupation of Senate House – in November, a ceremony was moved to Great St Mary’s church, following the same decision being taken by university officials in May – these two events affected the graduations of around 1,700 students  
   

• Mr Justice Fordham said that this was an interim injunction, pending further review to take place about the five year period that the university had requested – he was not convinced by the lawyers’ claims that future ceremonies were at considerable risk  

• He added that the court and relevant parties had not been given ‘sufficient notification’ to respond properly  

• A university spokesperson claimed that the judgement was a great success, as it meant that Saturday’s graduation ceremony was protected  

• The Cambridge for Palestine Group celebrated the decision on Instagram, saying that it was ‘significant political victory’  

• The hearing for a wider injunction will occur on the first available date after 17^th March.  

During a 15-day occupation of Greenwich House from November 22 to December 6 last year, protestors from the Cambridge for Palestine group allegedly raided locked filing cabinets containing highly sensitive university documents. In court documents seen by The Telegraph, the University accused activists of engaging in an “apparently intentional search for documents”, entailing “deliberate breaches” of security. Academic officials warned that the raid “posed a significant threat to the safeguarding of the confidential, commercially sensitive and/or personal information stored at Greenwich House”.

However, the judge, Mr Justice Fordham, said: “It was important that the court was given a full factual picture and not simply told about the graduation events that had been disrupted.” He also stated that the university had presented as evidence two ceremonies which were disrupted, and three provisional graduation events which would be impacted by protests, but the fact that they did not mention some 10 ceremonies which were unaffected in the same period meant that the court was not presented with an accurate picture.

Reaction: A “worsening crackdown on free speech”, says the UCU

A UniversitiesUK spokesperson said: “Universities work hard to balance their duty to protect and promote free speech, and to allow legitimate protest, with the obligation to ensure the safety of their campuses and the ability of staff and students to go about their work and study. In any case, they are also obliged by law to prevent hate speech and racism.

“Higher Education Institutions need to reflect on Four Pillars of Concern”, thinktank suggests.

Coinciding with the unfolding legal timeline of the case, The Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) published a report about the “inside story” of pro-Palestinian student encampments in 36 UK higher education institutions, based on interviews with nearly 60 student protestors, Jewish students affected in various ways, institutional leaders and others involved in the protests.

The report suggests that students were motivated to join and start encampments following a precedent established in American encampment protests, although many students joined for personal reasons that were attached to the Israel-Palestine conflict in some manner – including having relatives that were affected in Gaza, or supporting friends or colleagues involved in the protests.

Students involved in protests reported experiencing Islamophobia from both institutions and fellow students, suffering harrassment and assault by their peers. LSE students claimed that protestors that wore headdresses were intimidated by other students.

Students at Queen Mary University of London describe being ‘attacked our encampment and sprayed urine on students in tents’ by two students, leading QMULAction4Palestine to blame institutional ‘disregard and ridicule’ for the safety of Muslim and Arab students. This is only one example of students highlighting negative institutional experiences of protestors. The report also highlights a fivefold spike in anti-semitic incidents in the 2023-24 academic year, with 272 university-related incidents.

The report recommends institutional reflection on the fraught period of student activism, highlighting four pillars of concern: freedom of speech; the representation of the genuine concerns of the students on all sides of political issue; student and staff wellbeing issues associated with an increasingly intense campus environment. Finally, the report encourages the involvement of students’ unions as forums to bridge different sides of contentious issues, as well as the tactful implementation of the Higher Education Freedom of Speech Act by the Department of Education and the Office for Students

A Worsening Crackdown on Free Speech?

“Students have long been at the forefront of movements for social change, whether in opposing apartheid or rising tuition fees”, said a representative from Liberty. “It is not right that universities are curbing students’ ability to do so”

European Legal Support Centre claimed that it was a huge victory for the civil liberties of students, and a warning to other universities considering bringing such draconian restrictions against their students. However, Anna Ost, a Senior Legal Officer for the ESLC, noted that “the extent of the five-year injunction of the University originally asked [sic] demonstrated that they were seeking to restrict protest … We remain deeply concerned about the broader trend of Universities using legal measures to target solidarity with Palestine”.  

The UCU described this as evidence of a “worsening crackdown on free speech”.

The President of the Cambridge UCU, Michael Abberton, commented that the branch “remain[s] concerned that the order granted will have a chilling effect on our members exercising their rights to peaceful protest”.