Students at Oxford University have joined a growing number of pro-Palestinian protests
Pro-Palestinian protest camps have sprung up at universities across the UK. The groups are asking universities to divest their funding.
This follows similar events in America.
CGTN’s Jen Copestake has spoken to students at Oxford University.
This follows similar events in America.
CGTN’s Jen Copestake has spoken to students at Oxford University.
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00:00Around 60 people stayed overnight in these tents on the lawn of the Pitt Rivers Museum
00:07at the heart of Oxford University.
00:10The majority here are students, but some staff are staying too, and supporters from the local
00:15community.
00:17They say they will stay as long as it is effective to put pressure on the university to be open
00:21about any financial connections they have with Israel and divest from those interests.
00:27One of our big divestment asks is to stop partnering with Barclays.
00:30The main reason that we want to divest from Barclays is that Barclays holds millions in
00:34assets for the Israeli military.
00:36So we would like to ask Oxford University to hold its assets in a different bank, one
00:40that is not complicit in Israel's genocide.
00:43Dr. Rebecca Inglis is an intensive care doctor and regularly traveled to Gaza to train junior
00:49doctors before October 7th.
00:51She says some colleagues have been killed and others have been detained in Israel.
00:56Both universities she was teaching at have been destroyed.
00:59She is currently studying for a PhD at Oxford.
01:02I really want to support the students in this amazing stand that they're taking.
01:06And at the moment there are also a number of doctors who have been stopped part way
01:11through their training, so medical students who have had their training interrupted because
01:14of this current conflict.
01:16They are desperate to find some solution.
01:19Some universities internationally who will be able to take them in, and we're hoping
01:23that maybe the UK is going to come and maybe accept some of these medical students and
01:27take over now that their studies have been interrupted.
01:30Away from the camps, the UK's education secretary, Gillian Keegan, said that Jewish students
01:35must not be intimidated by these new protests.
01:38Writing in newspapers, she said that while freedom of expression is vital to academic
01:42communities, the camps could cause a toxic and hostile atmosphere on campuses as students
01:47are writing their final exams.
01:49I actually find that as a Jewish student, it is so much more comforting to be surrounded
01:55by an environment of people who understand the gravity of the situation.
01:59Part of what I want to avoid is excess killing and death remaining to occur.
02:06And the truth is that tens of thousands of Israelis agree with me.
02:09You know, on the eve of the invasion, there were tens of thousands of Israelis in the
02:12streets of Tel Aviv protesting the decision to continue the war.
02:15Actually, the closest avenue to returning the hostages to their families is through
02:19a ceasefire.
02:20So far, more than 170 staff have signed a statement supporting the students' protest
02:24and calling for divestment, and also for support for rebuilding universities for Palestinians.
02:30Jen Kobstake, CGTN, Oxford.