Mads Brown, Rebekah Wright and Shaza Hafez
On Friday the 17th November, UCL’s main quad was crammed with over two hundred students, converging at the epicentre of the University, all fuelled by a shared conviction. The crowd swarmed the Student Centre, before parading through the south cloisters passionately chanting “Spence, Spence you can’t hide, complicity in genocide” to the echoing rythm of drums.
They eventually congregated outside the Portico, saturating the quad with signs and banners decorated with the striking black, red, and green of the Palestinian flag.
This was the first of two walkouts (the second a similar story occurring on 29th November) in which UCL students and staff demanded that Provost Michael Spence endorse an immediate ceasefire in the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The most recent spark in the conflict has been catalysed by a territorial dispute over Gaza, an area home to Palestinians that Israel claims as its own. On October 7, the Palestinian militant group Hamas launched an attack on Israel killing around 1200 and allegedly taking 200 Israeli hostages. Israel’s artillery strikes, committed in retaliation, have killed more than 14000 people in Gaza, including 6000 Palestinian children; a response which was vastly disproportionate.
Despite Spence’s claims that the situation is “complicated”, protestors speaking with The Cheese Grater have made it clear that they have taken action because the people of Gaza need aid, and ultimately, a ceasefire, to stop a genocide causing needless bloodshed and excessive loss of life.
On the 27th October, the UCL University and College Union (UCU) called an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) to create a forum for discussion on the conflict. When the meeting notes were later published on the official UCL website, the colon after ‘Motion 1’ was followed by bold block capitals reading ‘THIS MOTION HAS BEEN CENSORED BY UCL’.
We can only speculate as to what was actually discussed under this motion, but given the University’s supposedly unwavering commitment to free speech, their decision to censor it is certainly strange. When we interviewed members of the UCL community about the line between protection and censorship, one philosophy student explained to us that in the UK:
“We have the Equality Act which protects certain characteristics, so you can’t discriminate against people on the basis of disability or race or gender or sexuality. I think that’s a good way to draw the line. For example, if a court would look at that and define it as hate speech, then the university probably should censor it.”
We may never know what Motion 1 actually discussed, although it seems highly improbable that an official UCU meeting would have included hate speech.
In the EGM, the UCL-UCU affirm that they “strongly condemn all forms of violence” and are “speaking out to demand an end to the killing and destruction in the Gaza Strip”. They state that “no one can ever be justified in targeting defenceless people”.
Even more significantly, however, the UCL-UCU accuses UCL of “institutional silencing”. They go on to criticise UCL’s communications regarding the conflict and accuse them of having failed to acknowledge the word “Palestine” or “Palestinian” in their communications.
The ULC-UCU accuses UCL of creating “an atmosphere of threat and censorship”. Ultimately, it’s overwhelmingly clear from the meeting that the UCL-UCU are in full support of Palestine. UCL was deeply offended by UCL-UCU’s stance. This evident in a statement they put out responding to the EGM in which they express:
“Our local branch of the national University and College Union (UCU) […] passed a series of incoherent and disturbing motions on Friday. […] While they ‘condemn all forms of violence’ and note that the ‘deliberate killing of civilians is always an atrocity’, they also use language that clearly incites indiscriminate violence. We wholly condemn this incitement to violence […] Language such as this has no place on a university campus”.
The fact that UCL went to the effort to put out a statement, rather than just ignoring the UCU meeting, is in itself demonstrative of their acute irritation. They even broadcast their response around the student body via a notification on the UCL Go app.
UCL makes it clear that they want to “take action” against UCL-UCU because of language supposedly endorsing violence. Yet, they offer no examples in their statement of what language this is. It is reasonable to infer that perhaps it is contained within Motion 1. However, UCL’s decision to censor the motion offers no transparency on this and makes it seem like they’re being overly defensive because they simply disagree with the UCU, unable to offer any convincing evidence about why the content of their meeting was so “disturbing”.
A second controversy, this time involving the Students’ Union (SU), also occurred back in October. The UCL Marxist Society was suspended from the SU for distributing posters displaying an image of an Israeli soldier shooting a Palestinian child, accompanied by the slogan: Intifada Till Victory.
The intifadas were two Palestinian uprisings against Israel, the first of which occurred in the late 1980s and the second of which occurred in the early 2000s. It’s not exactly clear why the SU took such a serious issue with this. It could possibly be because it was seen as an incitement of violence or because of the association between Palestinian uprisings and the militant group Hamas, who are a proscribed terrorist group in the UK.
However, despite its strong associations, one Student Justice for Palestine committee member explained to The Cheese Grater that, in Arabic, the word “intifada” literally means “revolution” or “uprising’’. Though some have claimed that this connotes unjustified violence, the term merely states a warranted retaliation from those under an oppressive regime.
One Jewish student we spoke to strongly condemned the actions of the SU, and told The Cheese Grater that “it really makes me lose all faith in the Students’ Union forever”. Another student, speaking explicitly about Marxist Society’s posters explained that “there’s just a photo of violence that’s already happening, I don’t think that’s necessarily inciting anything”.
Another student informed us that they feel like the SU’s actions against Marxist Society represent a “massive double standard”, acknowledging a Port and Policy meeting conducted by the UCL Conservative Society last year, in which one motion was: This House Would Reinstate the British Empire. Following backlash, the Conservative Society published an apology on their Instagram story, but no action was taken by the SU, despite the belief held by this society that this was an acceptable topic for debate.
The EGM held by the UCL-UCU and the circulation of the word “intifada” around campus have also generated a response from the Union of Jewish Students (UJS). Guy Dabby-Jorry, the UJS’s Head of Campaigns asserted that it is an utter disgrace for the UCL’s UCU branch to call for an ‘intifada until victory’ and a ‘mass uprising against Israeli civilians’. Though not directly incited by pro-Palestinian activism, communication from the Provost has indicated an increased level of anti-Semitism on the UCL campus which is revolting and abhorrent. The fears and frustrations of Jewish students at UCL, in light of this increase in anti-Semitism, are of overwhelming validity given the circumstances.
However, it appears that there are differing views across the community, with one Jewish student articulating that “I think that [the UCL-UCU’s use of the phrase ‘intifada till victory’] is significantly less of an incitement to violence than the Jewish society posting on their Instagram that they’re praying for their soldiers and siblings in Israel”. Another student representing the Student Socialist Alternative Society (SSA), a group which has expressed explicit support for a free Palestine and an immediate ceasefire, neatly summarised the need for “cross community dialogue’” as “the most effective” solution for “rooting out anti-Semitism and rooting out Islamophobia”.
The SSA have also been contacted by UCL, who requested they change the advertisement for their event: Palestine-Israel: Stop the War, Siege and Occupation – How Can Liberation and Peace be Won? When speaking to The Cheese Grater, a committee member explained that UCL believed the title could be a way of announcing support for Hamas and, once again, “inciting violence”.
“We obviously absolutely oppose that”, the committee member articulated. “We also said that we oppose indiscriminate attacks on ordinary Israeli Jews, Palestinian Arabs etc.”, they explained, “[UCL] had a problem with that as well”. Supposedly, this wording insinuated that IDF soldiers were legitimate targets, but the committee member argued the “absurdity” of this given that IDF soldiers are military combatants and not ordinary civilians.
Though UCL have opposed the statement made by the UCU, this hasn’t stopped them from making plenty of their own. UCL’s primary forms of communication regarding the crisis have been through emails or online statements. The latest of these statements (of which there are many) was released on the 24th November 2023. The statement extends support to all students and staff affected by the crisis, urging them to speak out if they’re in need of counselling services, financial assistance, or academic adjustments. There’s no doubt that UCL are compassionate towards their students, and willing to provide aid in such a distressing situation.
However, their communication isn’t without its flaws. As the UCU have noted, there is a distinct lack of support for the Palestinian community. UCL’s latest statement is testament to this. There is mention of “anti-Palestinian prejudice”, however the titular focus is on anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. Obviously, prejudice of any form is to be condemned, and there has undeniably been a rise in anti-Semitic and Islamophobic hate crime.
Yet, whereas UCL dedicates an entire section of their statement to resources and support on reporting “Islamophobia or anti-Semitism”, they fail to give name to the Palestinian students on campus, who no doubt have connections to those trapped in the midst of the siege on Gaza. Furthermore, not all Palestinians are covered by the term “Islamophobia”, as one student explained that “a lot of people in Palestine aren’t Muslim” and that actually “many are Christians, atheists etc.”.
The Cheese Grater has been privy to an array of student opinions on the support being provided. One student sought out the UCL’s war support services after being referred by the University’s wellbeing team and found it “really helpful”.
The service provided them with a “needed safe space” where they could speak about how, because the war was “so close to home”, it was “quite difficult to just go on with everything and pretend like everything was fine when all our closest family friends didn’t know if their families were even alive.” However, one of the reasons that this student contacted support services was because they felt that there were “no safe spaces to talk about the situation” elsewhere on campus, so though this may be a good first step, it’s certainly not enough.
Overall, the student opinion on UCL’s provision of support is less than enthused. A comment made by an SJP Committee Member to The Cheese Grater is indicative of the student opinion that UCL should be doing a lot more for those students affected by the crisis:
“More than just drop-in sessions, I would like to see a greater commitment to offering assistance for Arabs, Muslims, and pro-Palestine students in general, on campus. I believe that not enough steps have been taken to stop and address Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism on campus. UCL’s inaction means that a number of students no longer feel comfortable in vocalising their support for Palestine on campus.”
From conversing with students across the University, The Cheese Grater has been made aware of a general feeling that UCL’s response is incredibly ingenuous, primarily because it is lacking in actionable sentiment. Students, even those who are yet to reach out to support services, don’t feel like they’re being listened to. “I think that it’s entirely worthless if you’re not going to do anything material to stop people getting killed”, stated one Jewish student in support of Palestine.
The University’s focus seems to be on what it looks like to the outside world, and not on what they can actually do to help. This has ultimately backfired, and has left students questioning: “When does the time come to put aside things like your image and actually think about human emotions and what is going on in the world?”
The negligible amount of aid and sympathy extended to pro-Palestinian students has negated any attempts to provide a safe space, and has instead harboured an atmosphere of fear. Amongst the students who want to take action but are scared about the repercussions is a member of Student Socialist Alternative society:
“Students who want to get politically active on this issue have found it incredibly difficult. They’ve constantly had to watch themselves. They feel as if they’re constantly being spied on, they feel as if they’re being watched […] Because of the Students’ Union’s rhetoric, there is certainly an atmosphere of fear.”
As a society, they’ve even found that “many of the security guards are actually very supportive of the demonstrations for Palestine.” However, due to the actions (or lack-thereof) of the University, these opinions are being held back, and ultimately helping no one.
In an episode of Sabbs on the Sofa, UCL’s Provost Micheal Spence expressed his disinclination to show support for Gaza. When asked why “UCL has refrained from taking a stance on Israel/Gaza”, Spence replied: “Because I’m not the Pope and I’m not the Secretary General of the United Nations.”
He fears that due to the “widely different views held in the University”, standing in solidarity with Gaza would create a “hostile” environment. Spence advocates for UCL’s function as a “liberal democracy”, in which students should be able to have a “constructive” conversation. Yet considering the fact that there is a genocide happening in Gaza as we speak, Spence’s claim that “few things are quite so black and white as Twitter makes you believe” feels wildly inappropriate.
The Provost’s hesitance to show support for the people of Gaza has led students to take action of their own. One third-year student questioned: “Micheal Spence, why do you seem allergic to doing the right thing?” Frustrated by the University’s ambivalence, one student told The Cheese Grater:
“I feel like one of the most important things I can do is be explicit and be open and be non-ambivalent because a lot of people are saying it’s complicated […] It’s not complicated at all. There’s lots of people being killed indiscriminately in a colonialist state and that’s bad. UCL is trying to sweep it under the rug and censor it in the same way that the entire country is.”
On Friday 17th November, students across UCL felt so compelled to act that they attended a walkout in solidarity with Gaza. “Saying nothing is saying something”, stated a second-year student at the walkout, ‘“for a globalised University that has so much to say about their international links, to not take a stance is quite horrific”. At the walkout, The Cheese Grater spoke to students who found UCL’s promises of support to be “kind of empty”. One student felt as if the University is “vindicating itself of any blame” without taking any kind of “positive stance”.
However, by saying nothing, UCL are implicitly choosing to support Israel. Speaking to a member of Student Socialist Alternative, The Cheese Grater learnt one of the key demands of the Gaza walkout: that UCL cuts all ties with arms companies. “Arms companies have a significant influence over hiring boards and job advertisements. These are things that students need to organise against and that staff at UCL can oppose”, said a committee member of SSA. UCL’s continued links to these companies has left students demanding change. “Do you not feel like relationships with Lockhead Martin and Airbus are inciting violence more than an infographic that says Intifada Till Victory?” asked one student.
According to UCL’s Provost, the University is yet to stand in solidarity with Gaza, call for a ceasefire, and cut their ties with companies directly funding Israel because there is too great a diversity of student opinion to express such support for Palestine. Yet despite the UCL’s claims that they are unable to stand with people of Gaza, the last thing the University should do is “repress people who are trying to speak about, call out for a ceasefire, call for a free Palestine”, stated a student at the Gaza walkout.
It is this very act of protest which not only shows the “rage and indignation” of UCL students, but also initiates a “call for demand”, articulated an SSA committee member. It is now that students who want to show solidarity with Gaza should “discuss the next steps to get organised, and more importantly, also to begin thinking about how we can build a student movement of our own”, they told The Cheese Grater.
Students understand the power and influence which UCL holds, and the capacity of their University to incite change if it were to project a decisive stance. Yet, regardless of UCL’s relative neutrality, students are evidently committed to communicating their support for the people of Gaza, and will continue to do so.
Additional Reporting by Sirjan Narang