More than a dozen Oxford University students were arrested on Thursday after police suppressed a demonstration in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. Over the past two weeks, Oxford students have launched protests and organised camps, demanding that the university end investments and partnerships with companies and institutions involved in Israel’s war on Gaza and its occupation of Palestinian territories.

According to Oxford Action for Palestine, students began a peaceful sit-in on Thursday morning at the Wellington Square office building to demand that the university administration meet with the demonstrators – which has not yet been negotiated.

The group said that instead of engaging in dialogue, the university’s vice president closed the building and called the police.

When informed of the threat of arrest, the students willingly stood up and voluntarily offered to vacate the building, Oxford Action for Palestine said in a statement. In an escalatory step, all students were arrested, their phones were confiscated, and their ability to record or photograph from inside was confiscated. 

Activists said that 16 students were arrested and prevented from accessing bathrooms while they were detained in the building. The administration would instead arrest, silence, and physically assault its students than confront its enablement of the genocide being committed by Israel in Gaza,” the statement read.

The statement added that more than 2,400 students, 600 employees and 14 local trade unions called on Oxford University to “sever ties with Israeli genocide, occupation and apartheid.”

Dozens of students and faculty rallied in defence of the detained students on Thursday, with some blocking exits and others sitting in front of vehicles to prevent police from leaving with the arrested students.

Students cross the street. The police truck moves towards them, but the students do not move. A video shared on social media showed a student being carried out of the Wellington Square office building on a stretcher.

The Universities and College Union (UCU), a union of academics and higher education staff in the UK, said: We condemn the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford, Erin Tracey, in the strongest possible terms for bringing in police to violently arrest her students, who had taken part in a peaceful protest against genocide.

Thames Valley Police in Oxford said they were “aware of the ongoing protest” at the university. She demanded that “any photos or video clips of the incident be shared with us, not on social media.

In recent weeks, students at several UK universities, including the University of California, the University of Manchester, and the University of Warwick, have set up camps to demand divestment from Israel.

It was revealed earlier this month that Trinity College, the wealthiest college at the University of Cambridge, had voted to divest from all arms companies. But the college decided not to announce it publicly after a campaigner defaced a picture inside the Trinity of Lord Arthur Balfour. The camps in the UK come after violent crackdowns on pro-Palestine solidarity movements on campuses across the US.