Universities Fear Student Arrests Over Palestine Action Protests
5 min read
University leaders fear that large numbers of students could receive criminal records over Palestine Action protests and are urging them to resist joining campus demonstrations.
As universities prepare to open their doors for the new academic year this month, senior figures in higher education told PoliticsHome that they fear domestic and international students could face arrests.
With Palestine Action protests continuing to take place nationwide, institutions plan to warn students about the risk of getting a criminal record and the impact it would have on their future.
Professor Malcolm Press, vice-chancellor of Manchester Metropolitan University and president of Universities UK, said he was "absolutely" concerned about students ending up with criminal records.
“My responsibility is to ensure that our students do not break the law," he told PoliticsHome.
"Engaging [with] any proscribed organisation is illegal, and I would strongly urge all my students and all my staff to remember that.”
PoliticsHome understands that many universities share this concern and plan to engage with students about the risks of joining Palestine Action demonstrations when they return to campus, particularly through student societies.
Press added that it is “incumbent” upon universities and student unions to “ensure international students understand that whilst in the UK, they are bound by UK law”.
Palestine Action, which was established in 2020, has been banned in the UK under terrorism legislation. The Labour government announced it would proscribe the group in June after members broke into and vandalised RAF base Brize Norton.
Pro-Palestine Action protests have continued to take place across the country, leading to hundreds of arrests. Almost 900 people were arrested in London on Saturday, with the majority taken into custody for supporting a proscribed group under the Terrorism Act.
While universities saw a wave of pro-Palestinian protests take place across campuses last year, these were before Palestine Action was proscribed by the government.
The former extremism tsar Lord (John) Walney told PoliticsHome that he shares the concerns of higher education leaders that a large number of students could end up with criminal records as a result of being drawn into protests.
“The return of universities is going to be a target for the ring leaders of this campaign to try to hook students in, with the idea that support for the people of Gaza equates to some expression of support for Palestine Action, which is manifestly not true,” Lord Walney said.
“It will make not one bit of difference to the lives of a single human being in Gaza if they [show support for Palestine Action], but it could wreck their own life,” he added.
Lord Walney was extremism tsar for the government before his role was scrapped (Alamy)
The former MP warned that receiving a criminal conviction for a terrorism offence could mean restrictions on foreign travel and career paths being closed to students.
"The warning that everyone should be giving to students and whether it is interested people like me, or the government, or the universities themselves, is that students must not put at risk their future over the lie that supporting Gaza must equate to this stand of support for a now proscribed organisation, " Lord Walney later added.
At the same time, universities are also under pressure to protect free speech on campuses
Speaking to PoliticsHome, the Director for Freedom of Speech and Academic Freedom of the university regulator Office for Students, Professor Arif Ahmed, said there is a place for universities to be clear with students that “some kinds of activity would be in breach of the law and would not be protected by their free speech protections”.
But he added: “Whilst doing that, they should also make clear that lawful speech, including political speech, perhaps especially political speech, is protected, and that they have an absolute right to engage with that.”
Vivienne Stern, CEO of UUK, said it is the job of university leaders to "ensure that the law is understood" by their students.
UUK wrote to vice chancellors when Palestine Action was first proscribed this summer, with Stern saying the purpose was to ensure people understand they may disagree with the decision to prescribe Palestine Action, "the law is the law".
She told PoliticsHome: "We know that there are lots of people on campus who feel very strongly about what's happening in Gaza. University leaders have had to work very hard to balance the obligations they've got under law to protect and promote free speech, with their obligations under the law to prevent radicalisation, to prevent hate speech, to prevent people expressing support for proscribed groups."
More widely, Stern said universities have a responsibility to help newly-turned adults "understand how to disagree well in a university setting. And that's an extraordinary responsibility. It's not easy."
She added: "There is an extent to which university leaders, just like the police, have been playing a game of Twister with the various legal obligations that they're subject to, and they will do that. They're serious professionals, but people shouldn't imagine it's straightforward".
The Home Office has been contacted for comment.
