Students Arrested and Assaulted at Peaceful Sit-in

23 May 2024

Today, Oxford students staged a peaceful sit-in to demand that the University meet with us after two weeks of non-response. Students walked into the Wellington Square Office building complex this morning at 8 AM and faced no confrontation. After arriving in the Vice Chancellor's office, they initiated the sit-in. The intentions were clear: students would only stay in the building until the Administration agreed to meet for negotiations. Instead of engaging in productive dialogue with her students, the Vice Chancellor chose to immediately evacuate the building, place it on lockdown, and call the police to make arrests.

Before leaving the building, the Vice Chancellor came to speak with the protestors, falsely stating that the University was attempting to use "established channels" to communicate with students - despite the fact that she has repeatedly ignored meeting requests from OA4P student representatives for weeks. When police arrived at the scene, they found student protestors engaging in a peaceful sit-in demonstration. When informed of the threat of arrest, the students willingly stood up and voluntary offered to vacate the premises. In an escalatory move, all students were arrested and their phones were confiscated, taking away their ability to record or film from inside.

Immediately, over a hundred students, faculty, and staff rallied at Wellington Square in defense of the student protestors. The police responded disproportionately, with over twenty police vehicles deployed on the scene and dozens of officers. 16 student demonstrators have been arrested, and were being denied bathroom access while detained at Wellington Square. Our community members mobilised to block the exits and prevent police from leaving with the arrested students, but the police have violently pushed and thrown demonstrators to the floor. The Oxford UCU have issued a statement calling on the Vice-Chancellor to call off the police, release all arrested students and stand in solidarity with our sit-in demonstration.

We initiated today's protest because we had exhausted all other possible avenues of communication, and it was clear that the University would not listen to its own students, employees, or wider community unless we disrupted business as usual. Now, it is evident that the Administration would rather arrest, silence, and physically assault its own students than confront its enabling of israel's genocide in Gaza.

In just two weeks, OA4P's encampment and its demands have recieved overwhelming support. Over 2400 students, 600 members of faculty and staff, 14 local trade unions, and 200 University healthcare workers have signed open letters calling on the University of Oxford to cut ties with Israeli genocide, occupation, and apartheid. Dozens of college common rooms have passed motions in support of our demands. Thousands on campus have mobilised for the rallies, teach-ins, vigils, and community events we've organised at the encampment, and millions around the world have watched Oxford emerge as a central stage in the global higher-education struggle for a free Palestine.

Today and always, we protest for Gaza. Today's events have only reinforced our commitment to this struggle, and the University's continued reluctance to negotiate has enraged members of the community. We demand the Univesrity Administration end hostility towards its own campus community, call for the release of the arrested students, and meet with us to negotiate immediately.