Court D-Day for pro Palestine camp at Birmingham University amid angry backlash

Furious staff, unions and students at the University of Birmingham have condemned a decision to take court action to seek to shut down a protest camp over Gaza. The university was due at Birmingham County Court today, Friday June 14, to seek a possession order that will enable it to evict students who set up a 'peace camp for Gaza' at the heart of the Edgbaston campus.

The decision to go to court was announced in a statement from Vice Chancellor Adam Tickell earlier this week. His statement claimed legal action was being taken 'with a heavy heart' because of 'escalating action' linked to the camps, which are on the campus's Green Heart and Chancellor's Court spaces close to the library, management offices and arts buildings.

He claimed staff had been intimidated and harassed; and that grafitti that had appeared around the campus was due to the existence of the encampment. Those claims were condemned by those involved, who have denied any involvement in criminal activity. Birmingham is one of several universities where camps have sprung up protesting over the Gaza crisis.

READ MORE: University of Birmingham to take legal action to shut down pro-Palestine encampments

Ahead of today's court action, the student campers said they would be fighting the order. They said: "We have consistently asked for a meeting with the Vice Chancellor which has been refused. On Wednesday, June 12, we invited him to a meeting...this invitation has also been ignored.

"We later found out senior management had informed our Student Union that they will be dropping the legal case if the (encampment) agrees to a meeting...yet...the university is ignoring our emails and refusing to engage in dialogue. As it stands, we will be taken to court...we will be fighting this and won't let the university continue its complicity in genocide."

The campers particularly denied involvement in acts of grafitti around the university, which they joined in condemning. "The student-staff coalition of the encampment had no involvement in the direct action carried out by, and admitted by, Palestine Action activists. We also reject the claim that our peaceful encampment is intimidating to students and staff."

In a joint statement earlier this week, the Birmingham University branch of the University and College Union and Unison, which represents university staff, said they were disappointed at the Vice Chancellor's actions which will see the university acting against its own students 'based on their peaceful, disciplined and orderly protest.'

"This protest asks us not to turn our gaze from the extreme level of suffering experienced in Gaza...this on-going carnage has been widely condemned by the international community. Our position is students are standing up in a reasonable, thoughtful, humane and courageous action to ask the university community, the region and the world at large to notice and prevent an appalling human tragedy.

"We regret the Vice Chancellor has chosen to enter this context with threats (of legal action) and misleading information. He writes from a distance, via an email, that belies the few steps it would take him to cross from his office to the students whose education supports the institution he leads."

They added: "There is disruption, of course, that is the very point of a protest...but we completely reject the accusation that students have been 'shouting at, harassing and intimidating staff at their place of work.' Many of us (staff) have visited students at the encampment. It is not a place of fear and intimidation - it is a community space of joy and creativity...with crochet and art classes, food drives for the homeless, tea, poetry and outdoor prayers."

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Addressing the vandalism claim, they added an episode in which paint was sprayed on the Aston Webb building was done by outsiders and not by students involved in the camp. They added: "We stand together to support the right of students to protest peacefully...rather than embark on costly and damaging legal action, the university senior management should recognise the effort and thought of the students and...take them seriously."

In a statement the university said: "We recognise some students and staff may wish to take part in protests about issues that matter to them and respect their right to do so peacefully within the law and University regulations. However, this does not include setting up a camp and occupying University land, to the detriment of the rest of the University community.

"Unfortunately, there has also been an escalation in recent actions, including disrupting student activities such as Grad Ball, red paint being sprayed across the Aston Webb building causing significant damage, and mask-wearing groups shouting at staff. It is important that everyone on campus should be able to go about their business without fear of intimidation and without feeling that there are parts of campus where they cannot go.

"Taking legal action is not a decision taken lightly but is necessary to look after the interests of the whole University community. In parallel we will continue to seek dialogue and push for an alternative resolution, something the camp has so far refused to do despite repeated offers."

The case is due to be heard at 10.30am at the Civil Courts in Bull Street in Birmingham city centre, when the university will seek an order to repossess the land. If granted, campers will be given a deadline to vacate the land, after which time they could be forcibly evicted.