15 November 2024 – Anonymous submission
On the night of 14th November 2024, 11 students seized control of the Attenborough Tower building at the University of Leicester, in solidarity with the Palestinian people and their historic resistance to the genocidal, occupying zionist entity in Palestine. The protestors demanded that the University cut ties with arms companies, stop banking with Barclays, implement a boycott of “Israeli” goods on campus, and condemn the genocide.
In the morning, the British state again revealed its violent core defending its alliance with zionism as University Security staff, senior management and Leicestershire police worked in tandem to arrest everyone inside. This sets a dangerous precedent for the repression of the student intifada. To paraphrase Jonathan Jackson, by drawing violence from this beast, we have shown that the University’s complicity with genocide is built upon its own power to organise violence and our acquiescence these powers.
Why do we say these forces worked in tandem? Because security staff refused to wait until communication could be established to talk to the students before contacting the police; because the Registrar Geoff Green himself approved the request for police to be called; because the police decided it was worth showing up and acting on this information. All of these elements have been present at other universities but it takes all three in combination to make arrests. With one security guard caught saying that in case of a fire they should “let them burn”, it is not just a question of a corrupt system but how that system corrupts individuals within it. All of this violence was called in order to defend the University and protect its links with companies complicit with the massacres of the zionist entity, including HP, Siemens, Rolls Royce, Barclays, Airbus and BAE systems.
Around 12 police vehicles in total surrounded the building after a few hours of protestors expressing their willingness to leave the building. With no other option in sight, the protestors left the building with their heads held high. As they did, the entrance was stormed by over 20 police officers who violently grabbed and cuffed everyone, with one person being pushed into a wall by the throat.
This was not a standard day for the local police as they did not have enough officers on hand to arrrest everyone and had to call in officers from other areas. This shows that, for the state, making a stand was necessary. While police involvement in student occupations has increased since the escalation of zionist Israel’s genocidal campaign after October 7th, Leicestershire police’s actions mark a clear escalation point in the field of university struggle. This increased repression is in line with the other massive esclations in recent months by the Starmer government against our united movement, with Palestine Actionists of the Filton 10 being detained under counter-terrorism powers.
The protestors were held in different stations, and the first police interview did not take place until after 6pm. By 2:20am on Saturday 16th November, everyone was released on bail without charge. Bail conditions vary from curfews to being banned from every university in the country. This shows how the violence of that day is not contained just within the walls the protestors were kept in but burst out into their everday lives. People’s ability to work, go to university, and travel have been restricted all in a feeble attempt to crush their willingness to resist. These efforts are futile, for nothing can stop the resistance of the Palestinian people nor those who sees their own liberation as bound up in their struggle. We do not approach this work as individuals easily picked off by the first sign of difficulty. We gain courage from the steadfast resistance of the martyrs and see ourselves as widening the path they have begun walking down.
Our response moving forwards must be to organise. We do not simply resist for the sake of resisting. We resist so that the Palestinian people can live. On campus, this means staff and students rallying behind those impacted and by extension challenging the University of Leicester’s normalisation of the zionist regime. It means using the show of aggression by the alliance of the police and the university administration as an opportunity to double down on our efforts. It means building a plan to win, to understand each individual element of their role in genocide and to end that complicity.
Hypocrisy and violence are the blood in the veins of British imperialism. May the courage of these brave students who have risen to meet the call of their Palestinian siblings be forever known, and may the repression inflicted on behalf of the zionist entity be the seed of its downfall. Nothing can stand in the way of resistance, nothing can stop the new world from being born.