Open letter on the University of Cambridge's application for an injunction to prevent protests for Palestine at Senate House and other administrative buildings
An urgent appeal from members of the University community
UPDATE - Thanks to everyone who signed this letter. The University was defeated on 27 February in its application for a 5 year injunction, with the judge only granting a very limited order for 48 hours. Read the press report here: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/cambridge-university-israel-palestine-protests-court-b2706442.html - more information will be coming soon along with details of how we will continue our campaign for divestment and to defend the right to protest.
Open letter to the Vice Chancellor of the University of Cambridge
Dear Vice-Chancellor,
We are writing to express our grave concern over the University’s application to the High Court for an injunction aiming to prevent “trespassing” at Old Schools, Senate House, Senate House Lawn and Greenwich House through a court order threatening members of the University community and others with imprisonment, fines or the seizure of their assets for taking part in protests or direct action related to “the Palestine-Israel conflict” either on this land, or on the street outside.
We note that the application to the court is made in the name of the “Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of the University of Cambridge” and wish to state publicly and clearly that you are not acting in our name in preparing such an assault on freedom of expression. Rather, this injunction runs contrary to the collective rights and interests of the University community as a whole to debate, assemble and protest in order to hold those in authority to account.
In addition, the creation of special repressive powers targeted at protests related to the “Palestine-Israel conflict” is inherently discriminatory and unfair, and will disproportionately affect Palestinian and pro-Palestinian students and staff. The fact that you are seeking an injunction which will be in force until 2030, two years after current first year undergraduates have completed their degrees, threatens the rights of future cohorts of students to act in accordance with their beliefs.
We wish to remind you that the demands raised by students in solidarity with the Palestinian people have wide support from members of the University community. These include thousands of staff, students and alumni who have signed public statements in support of the demands of the encampment for Palestine and hundreds who have regularly taken part in protests in these exact locations as part of an ongoing campaign calling on the University to divest from companies and institutions complicit in violations of international law and crimes against humanity in Gaza and elsewhere.
Yet under the terms of the injunction as drafted by your administrators, the presence of even a small gathering outside Old Schools or Senate House in order to hand in a petition might be considered in breach of the court order if it “slowed down” access to the land in question. If a graduating student decided to hold up a Palestinian flag or revealed a placard during a Degree Congregation they could be sent to jail or face the seizure of their assets.
This kind of authoritarian reflex has no place in the governance of a University, which by its nature must be a space where dissenting opinions can be expressed without fear of heavy-handed repression. The freedom to question the decisions of the powerful and challenge injustice is an essential component of academic freedom - without it, the Congregations you claim to be protecting from “disruption” and “trespassers” risk becoming a meaningless charade.
We call on you to withdraw this injunction and reaffirm the University’s commitment to protect the freedom of speech and assembly of its members.
Add your name to this open letter here
Notes and background information: The University's submission to the High Court has been published here and is due to be heard on 27 February 2025.
This open letter has been drafted by current members of Regent House and students. Individual student signatories will not be named in the published version of this statement, members of staff and alumni may choose whether to make their names public.
Signatories to the letter include the following:
Over 200 current members of staff
Over 580 current students
Over 290 alumni
Please note owing to the very large volume of signatories this is not a final list. If your name is incorrectly listed here, please contact camfacultywithstudents@gmail.com.
Current members of staff and emeritus professors at the Collegiate University and University Press who opted to make their names public
Professor Maha Abdelrahman
Professor Andrew Arsan
Professor Caroline Bassett
Professor David Buscher
Professor Michael Degani
Professor Lucy Delap
Professor Graham Denyer Willis
Professor Mette Eilstrup-Sangiovanni
Professor Hamza Fawzi
Professor Priyamvada Gopal
Professor Mia Gray
Professor of Law Henning Grosse Ruse-Khan
Professor Nicholas Guyatt
Professor Aaron Hornkohl
Professor Mary Laven
Professor Charlotte Lemanski
Professor Emma Mawdsley
Professor Drew Milne
Professor Clément Mouhot
Professor Susan Oosthuizen
Professor Fred Parker
Professor Judy Quinn
Professor Michael Ramage
Professor Surabhi Ranganathan
Professor Alice Reid
Professor Pauline Rose
Professor Yusuf Sayed
Professor Jason Scott-Warren
Professor Sujit Sivasundaram
Professor David Sneath
Professor Bert Vaux
Professor Clair Wills
Professor Ross Wilson
Professor James Woodcock
Professor Emeritus Zygmunt Baranski
Professor Emeritus Richard Farndale
Professor Emeritus Raymond Geuss
Professor Emeritus Charles Jones
Professor Emeritus Keith Taber
Mr Michael Abberton
Dr Ruth Abbott
Dr Sahal Abdi
Miss Seherish Abrar
Dr Zoe Adams
Dr Farah Ahmed
Dr Ilias Alami
Dr Anne Alexander
Dr Christina Angelopoulos
Ms Freya Arthure
Dr Arthur Asseraf
Dr William Astle
Dr Dhoyazan Azazi
Dr Tiago Azevedo
Dr Victoria Baena
Dr Rebecca Barr
Sandra Baxter
Dr Belinda Bell
Ms Morgan Bell
Dr Joanna Bellis
Dr Somak Biswas
Mr Jonathan Blaney
Dr Lorna Bo
Miss Tess Bottomley
Dr Deborah Bowman
Dr Christopher Burlinson
Dr Stefano Castelvecchi
Dr Helen Charman
Dr James Clark
Alistair Cooper
Dr Alexander Cowan
Dr Eleanor Dare
Dr Michelle Darlington
Ms Catrin Darsley
Dr. Theo Di Castri
Dr Olena Dmytryk
Ms Simina Dragoş
Ms Shikha Dwivedi
Ms Reham Elwakil
Miss Elleni Eshete
Dr Kareem Estefan
Ms Nadia Filippi
Dr Anna Forringer-Beal
Dr Christophe Gagne
Ms Hayley Gains
Dr Evelina Gambino
Dr Arushi Garg
Ms Katerina Gargaroni
Dr Kaoutar Ghilani
Anthony Godsell
Dr Caroline Gonda
Mr Guy Goodrick
Dr Thomas Graff
Mr. Christopher Greenberg
Dr Safet HadžiMuhamedović
Dr Susanne Hakenbeck
Sarah Hammond
Dr Scarlet Harris
Dr Amelia Hassoun
Ronald Haynes
Mrs Alice Hehir
Dr Lena Holzer
Dr Richard Hopper
Dr Julia Hori
Dr Jana Howlett
Dr Michael Hrebeniak
Dr Dino Kadich
Dr Nancy Karreman
Alina Khakoo
Dr Philip Knox
Dr Tor Krever
Dr Ekin Kurtic
Anne Lacour
Dr Jef Laga
Mrs Lauren Lalej
Mr Tony Leech
Dr Max Long
Dr Saite Lu
Dr Hannah Lucas
Dr Bruno Marinic
Frances Marsh
Dr Chiara Martini
Dr Laura McMahon
Dr Nathan Mercieca
Dr Jenny Carla Moran
Dr Chana Morgenstern
Dr Charles Moseley
Dr Véronique Mottier
Dr Elisa Moutin
Dr Mary Murphy
Dr Rasanat Fatima Nawaz
Dr Sophie Marie Niang
Dr Tommy Nyberg
Dr Erin O'Halloran
Dr Dominic O'Key
Dr Jacob Olley
Dr Jessica Patterson
Mrs. Emily Perdue
Dr Helen Pfeifer
Dr Holly Porter
Research Assistant Hridya Rajesh
Ms Karolina Rawdanowicz
Mr David Redhouse
Dr Richard Riddick
Michael Rizq
Dr Syamala Roberts
Dr Martin Ruehl
Dr Andrew Sanger
Dr. Tanish Satoor
Dr Robert Lucas Scott
Dr Joe Shaughnessy
Mr Maximus Shenton
Maha Shuayb
Mr John Sloan
Dr. Marissa Smit-Bose
Dr Holly Smith
Lucian Stephenson
Peter Storey
Dr Demosthenes Tambakis
Dr Michelle Taylor
Dr Arianne Urus
Dr Vidya Venkatesh
Dr Vincenzo Vergiani
Dr Jennifer Wallace
Ms Jackie White
Dr Claire Wilkinson
Dr Evan Wroe
Dr Ksenia Zanon
Dr Doriane Zerka
Dr Andrew Zurcher
Students Union officers and student societies
Elleni Eshete, Cambridge SU
Maroof Rafique, Cambridge SU
Cambridge University Ahlul Bayt Islamic Society
Cambridge University Islamic Society
Cambridge University Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) Society
CU PalSoc
CUAFC
Faculty of Education Research Students' Association (FERSA)
Fitzwilliam College JCR
Fitzwilliam South Asian Society
FUSE
Gender Agenda: Cambridge Feminist Collective
Lucy Loves the Arts
Newnham Feminist Society
Queens’ for Palestine
Socialist Worker Student Society Cambridge
Sociology Society
Somali Society
St Catharine's College Islamic Society
The Cambridge Majlis
Union of Clare Students
In addition to 586 individual student signatories
Former members of staff who opted to make their names public
Dr Jean Cjothia
Miss Eleanor Connery Needham
Dr Julia Empey
Professor Vic Gatrell
Professor Heather Glen
Dr Eivind Kahrs
Arthur Kaletzky
Dr Talitha Kearey
Professor Peter Kornicki
Dr Mark Manning
Dr Nick Posegay
Dr Sophie Seita
Dr Siddharth Soni
Associate Professor Asma Zubairi
Alumni who opted to make their names public
Mr. Ali Abughoush
Dr Sam Agbamu
Dr Mahvish Ahmad
Cllr Pav Akhtar FCIPD
Dr Mira Al Hussein
Dr Jelena Aleksic
Mrs Ariana Alexander-Sefre
Ms Sawen Ali
Ms. Jana Aljamal
Robin Allez
Miss Symrah Amir
Miss Kayinsola Amoo-Peters
Emmanouil Angelidakis
Thaqif Aris
Mr Zachary Aw
Dr Peter Barham
Dr Eunice Barker
Carol Barker
Lindsey Barnes
Bryony Bates
Gracie Battson
Dr Anna Bernard
Dr Linda Birkin
Miss Qawiiah Bisiriyu
Miss Helena Boateng
Miss Mariana Bongou
Mr Thomas Booth
Ms Saskia Borchardt-Hume
Miss Dimitra Damaris Braoudaki
Mr Macsen Brown
Mr Harvey Brown
Ms Anastasia Bruce-Jones
Ms Agnes Cameron
Dr Michael Campbell
Ms Eleanor Cawte
Mrs Rubina Chamberlain
Ms Evie Chandler
Mr Ismail Chishti
Miss Nurin Choudhury
Miss Tara Choudhury
Mr Sharafiab Chowdhury
Dr Michael Clase
Professor Catherine Clase
Dr Howard CLASE
Mr Daniel Connelly
Dr Yasmeen Cooper
Dr Tom Cornford
Mr Tom Corran
Miss Jyothi Cross
Bella Cross
Dr Alexandre Da Trindade e Oliveira
Will Davison
Dr Khaled Dawas
Dr Elisa De Padua
Ms Bamba de Teissier-Prevost
Ms Rebecca del Tufo
Lia den Daas
Robin Denham
Mr Cormac Devlin
Miss Chiara Di Filippo
Dr Andrew Diver
Dr Hosnieh Djafari Marbini
Mr Jan (Nico) Dobben
Mrs Amy Doust
Dr Koshka Duff
Dr Karim El Taki
Lucie Elven
Ms Areeg Emarah
Mx Milo Eyre-Morgan
Dr Alejandro Ezquerro Nassar
Dr Michael Farquhar
Mr Andree Feinstein
Dr Merve Fejzula
Mr Agustin Ferrari Braun
Ray Filar
Dr Lorna Finlayson
Ms Kate Fothergill
Mr Ben Galvin
Isabella Gambill
Ms Martha Gartside-Mitchell
Dr Miriam Gauntlett
Ms Alice Gilderdale
Joshua Gottlieb
Mr. Nicholas Greenberg
Ms Lauren Grest
Mia Griso Dryer
Dr James Hall
Dr Fergal Hanna
Miss Sara Haque
Dr Maria Harvey
Alex Haydn-Williams
Mrs Aya Helmy
Rod Hibberd
Ms Laura Hone
Ms Dorothy Hoskins
Dr Lieske Huits
Dr Edward Hulme
Dr Madeleine Hunter
Dr N. Idris
Dr Lamia Irfan
Dr Mujahid Islam
Khalida Jabarzai
Ananya Jain
Dr Matthew Jeffryes
Dr Sarah Jilani
Daniel Jones
Mr Gwilym Jones
Professor Stephanie Jones
Ms Sarah Kadri
Sorcha Kahn
Miss Sahana Kalam
Elissavet Karamichail
Miss Jasmin Kaur
Ms Amal Kazmi
Dr Masud Khan
Ms Fathima Khan
Dr Anja Komatar
Ms Paula Lacey
Jasmine Lee
Professor David Lewis
Mr Alistair Logan
Dr Christine Louis Dit Sully
Iona MacPherson
Miss Valentina Majolo
Professor Willy Maley
Professor Karim Malik
Miss Georgina Malone
Dr. Mukti Mangharam
Miss Esther Mano
Ms Chloe Massey
Dr William McEvoy
Ms Erin McFadyen
Mr Chris McFarlane
Dr Jack McKenna
Ms Bronwen Mehta
Mrs. Alyson Melling
Dr Ahsan Memon
Mx Elias Michaut
Dr Shayne Mitchell
Miss Precious Modeme
Isaac Mond
Cora Morris
Dr Ben Mortishire-Smith
Mr Umar Moufeed
Mr Conor Muller
Dr Shane Mulligan
Dr Naoise Murphy
Ms Rayen Naghi
Mr Lukhanyiso Ndevu
Ms Ella Nevill
Mr Thomas Niblett
Dr Chinedu Nwokoro
Olivia O'Neill
Mr Seng Ong
Ms Kate Ortizwin
Dr Rhiannon Osborne
Mr Eren Ozturk
Mr Sam Pallister
Jun Pang
Dr Kurien Parel
Mr Alexander Parnham-Cope
Mr Joseph Pearce
Miss Joyce Pereira
Dr Javier Pérez-Osorio
Miss Savannah Phillips
Ms Lydia Phillips
Dr Hannah Piercy
Dr. Alejandra Pizarro
Dr Tom Price
Mr Matthew Price
Dr Ben Pritchett
Dr Sarah Pyke
Dr Dena Qaddumi
Mr Yahya Qadri
Ms. Janna Ramadan
Abigail Reeves
Dr Saif Rehman
Alex Rhys Wakefield
Cleodie Rickard
Mr Alan Robson
Khem Rogaly
Dr. Olivia Rosane
Ms Katrina Rose
Mr Mahmoodur Roshid
Mr Noah Rouse
Ms Alex Rowe
Dr Roan Runge
Professor Kanchana N Ruwanpura
Georgia Ryan
Ms Clare Sambrook
Kiara Sarronwala
Mr Daniel Selwyn
Dr Arianne Shahvisi
Miss Zahra Shaikh
Ruweyda Sheik-Ali
Dr Elen Shute
Matilda Sidel
Jake Simms
Mx Scarlett Stevens
Dr Katie Stone
Miss Sasha Swift
Hanna Thomas Uose
Mr Simon Timmins
Dr Laura Tisdall
Professor Kate Tunstall
Mr. Colin Vaida
Dr Graham Van Goffrier
James Vincent
Dan Rhys Wakefield
Ms Hannah Walsh
Mr Ben Ward
Ms Natasha Wardle
Miss Alice Warrington
Mr William Wearden
Mr Robin Webber
Nell Whittaker
Mr Paul Wilkinson
Wan Woo
Dr Tristram Wyatt
Miss Sumaya Yasmin
Dr Syed Ali Zaidi