OA4P Protests Oxford's Invitation of Genocidaire

22 November 2024

Yesterday evening, Oxford Action for Palestine (OA4P) organized an emergency sit-in to protest a talk hosted by Brasenose College of the University of Oxford featuring Eylon Levy, a war crimes apologist and former israeli government spokesperson. As has been patterned in recent talks this term, the University deliberately concealed the identity of the speaker until shortly before the event began, to avoid rightful accountability and reputation damage.

Dozens of staff and student attendees brutalised student protestors whilst exiting Levy's talk. Witnesses identified Professor and Brasenose Fellow Russell Foster who punched a protestor in the head, deliberately fell onto students, and kicked multiple protestors.

Foster was accompanied by another person whom witnesses recognized as a University property lawyer, who was shouting continuous insults at the students. Instead of protecting students, University porters and security emboldened the attendees: encouraging the violence directly or observing without intervention. An anonymous student said of Foster, "I asked him, 'Are you proud of yourself for punching a woman?' To which he just laughed." An anonymous member of research staff said, "I think it is deeply embarrassing and shameful to see faculty behave physically and violently against students without care. It is pitiful when they ought to know better. They are hired to guide students academically, not assault them physically."

The university demonstrated clearly the tone it has been increasingly setting throughout the term: violence against pro-Palestine student protestors is tolerated and even encouraged.

A pro-Palestine protestor was arrested at the demonstration yesterday, yet another instance of the concerning pattern materialised earlier this term with the arrest of a Palestine Action actionist. This arrest exemplifies the extension of vague policing as tactic for suppression of protest for Palestine.

As we write, Oxford money continues to fuel israel's murder of over 186,000 Palestinians in Gaza and horrific violence across Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, and beyond.

The University should commit to end that support immediately. Instead, it resolves to host the perpetrators of the genocide on campus and stand by as its students have their heads kicked on the pavement. We continue to stand in solidarity and unequivocally call for a free Palestine and remain dedicated to our obligation to end the University's complicity in israeli genocide, apartheid, and occupation.