Oxford Actionist for Palestine Arrested
15 November 2024
At 4 PM on 14 November, Nikki Haley - failed presidential candidate and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under the first Trump administration - spoke with the Dean of the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford. Outside the building, over 70 students gathered to protest and disrupt the event. The University deliberately hid Haley's visit from Oxford students, advertising the event as including an unnamed Republican official. Early yesterday morning, OA4P obtained a leak of the Dean's Forum invitation, naming Nikki Haley as the speaker.
Nikki Haley is an unabashed supporter of the Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. On 28 May, Haley visited an artillery outpost in the north of Israel, near the border with Lebanon. She signed an Israeli artillery shell with the words "Finish Them All!" and drew a heart in the phrase "America [Loves] Israel Always!" Instead of rebuking Haley's statement of genocidal intent, the University of Oxford has invited the former U.S. presidential candidate to campus. Students who attended the event report that Haley used her platform to continue dehumanising Palestinians, describing UNRWA - the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees - as a "terrorist organisation".
Outside of the Blavatnik School, student protestors plastered images of Haley signing the Israeli missile around the building. Students chanted into a megaphone and disrupted the event with noise, leading the staff inside the building to close the blinds on the main floor windows. A University Proctor put his hands on multiple students, attempting to drag them away from the protest. The security guards aggressively pushed and injured students.
One student was pushed multiple times, despite not blocking any exit path, and injured their ankle as a result of the aggression. They say: “Earlier this year, Nikki Haley wrote 'finish them' on an IOF shell during a visit to israel. The fact that my university would invite a supporter of this horrific genocide, someone who explicitly condones and advocates for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, to speak as an honored guest is beyond disturbing. Despite the last minute notice students were given about who exactly was speaking, the hours in the cold, and the physical harassment by security, student protestors showed up and the chanting never ceased. This is the bare minimum we can do, and we have a responsibility and an obligation to continue showing up. We will not be silent while Oxford University remains complicit in israeli genocide, apartheid, and occupation.”
At the end of the event, student protestors surrounded Haley and her entourage as they left the building, shouting "Nikki Haley you can't hide, we charge you with genocide!" Followed by protestors chanting and waving Palestinian flags, Nikki Haley left Oxford with full knowledge of where we stand as a community: united against her genocidal crimes.
A 2024 Masters of Public Policy Student at the Blavatnik School of Government condemns the School's decision to invite Haley to campus: "Nikki Haley belongs to the benches of the International Criminal Court, not the benches reserved for speakers at the University of Oxford."