UK University to evict pro-Gaza encampment if court grants permission

Campaigners at the Sheffield Campus Coalition for Palestine (SCCP) called on Saturday for support as a court hearing will decide whether Sheffield University can clear its pro-Gaza encampment.

The coalition revealed in a statement that on 8 July, they received notice that the university filed for a possession order.

The hearing is reportedly scheduled for Monday, 15 July. If granted, the university will hire bailiffs to evict them from the campus as soon as the following day.

According to the SCPP, the university is "falsely" claiming that because only 15 people are part of the encampment, the camp cannot represent the views of its students, staff, alumni, or the wider community.

The SCPP have been camping outside the university’s Students’ Union building since 1 May in support of the people of Palestine and to hold its university to account for its complicity in Israel’s war on Gaza.

The coalition aims to force the University of Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam University to divest from arms manufacturers and companies tied to Israel, provide material and political support for Palestinian students and those engaged in pro-Palestine political activism on campus, and promote campus awareness and engagement with Palestinian solidarity.

According to its Genocide and Apartheid Complicity Report, SCCP found the University received £72 million in direct funding from arms manufacturers between 2012 and 2022, including BAE Systems, which has long been accused of supplying arms to Israel.

In total, UK universities have collectively invested nearly £430 million in companies complicit in Israel’s war on Gaza, as reported by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC).

PSC found the University of Sheffield has over £1.8 million in investments, while Sheffield Hallam University lists its "industry partners" as companies including BAE Systems, Caterpillar, Hewlett Packard and Rolls Royce.

Since April, students from around the world set up camp on their university campus to demand an end to Israel’s war on Gaza. Of the 36 encampments set up in England, Wales and Scotland in the UK, only a dozen are still active, fighting legal battles to remain so.

On Wednesday, the High Court allowed two UK universities, Nottingham and Birmingham, to remove the encampments. The judge said the protesters had "no prospect" that their human rights would be affected.