Cambridge University Takes Own Professor to Court for Joining Pro-Palestine Protests

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The University of Cambridge has been accused of stifling protest in a game of “cat and mouse politics” by one of its own academics who is facing legal action from one of its colleges for participating in pro-Palestine protests. 

Hank Gonzalez, an Associate Professor in Caribbean History, was served with an interim injunction by St John’s College earlier this month, banning him from protesting on College grounds after participating in a two-day encampment on land in front of the college on June 2-3.

St John’s is one of two Cambridge Colleges pursuing injunctions against Pro-Palestine protests following occupations. The other, Trinity College, saw a three day encampment on its grounds from May 30 to June 2, before evicting students in a move which Gonzalez said was carried out with “deftness and determination”. 

Both Colleges were targeted for their investments in arms companies protesters claim are “complicit in Israeli genocide,” including Boeing, BAE systems, and Elbit Systems.

Interim injunctions were issued by the High Court on May 31 and June 1. Rulings on both cases are expected in the coming weeks, but until then the temporary orders remain in place and further protests could result in activists being found in contempt of court.

At a hearing on 5 June, Kester Lees KC, for the colleges, asked for the injunctions to be made final and to last for 12 months, arguing that the protests are disruptive to students taking exams, ITV reported.

In written submissions, he said the university was “concerned about the environment of fear and intimidation created by masked protesters”, adding that “some chanting was directly aimed at disrupting the examination season”.

The court action followed a ruling in March where the university was granted a High Court order blocking Israel-Palestine protests on parts of its campus until the end of July. In February, a judge dismissed a request for a five-year injunction blocking direct action relating to the conflict on several sites without the university’s consent.

Gonzalez, who spent three nights sleeping at the Trinity encampment but only spent time at the St John’s encampment during the day, told Byline Times: “I’d entered no mask, faculty face card, purposefully so, to basically push the argument that one of the things the students are troubled by is that there’s a lot of activity to try and punish them.”

He added that students are concerned by the possibility that the University might be able to “delay their degrees, or kick them out, or give them any kind of trouble”. 

On 3 June, court documents were served to “persons unknown” at the St John’s encampment. Protesters were asked to identify themselves, which Gonzalez complied with.

“I gave them the face and name on purpose,” he said, adding that he was filmed by an unknown individual who was “gleeful” about having identified him. 

That afternoon, Gonzalez was served with court documents addressed to him. 

Gonzalez said he was driven to enter the encampments due to a “sense of horror over the war industry,” and the “obvious complicity of the so-called higher-ed” in these wars. 

The central University currently holds an injunction against all pro-Palestine protesters occupying its central offices, following multiple encampments over the past year that forced graduation ceremonies to be moved – but it means little to Cambridge for Palestine (C4P), the group responsible for the encampments. A spokesperson for the group told Byline Times the university can “expect us to come back any time they try to shut us out”. 

Cambridge has consistently denied that the injunctions restrict the right to protest, labelling the suggestion “ridiculous”. 

The University’s use of legal action against its own students has also been criticised by its academic body who called them a dangerous threat to freedom of protest on campus and accused it of “repressive authoritarianism”. 

Jason Scott Warren, an English Professor and member of the University’s governing body, told Byline Times: “The use of injunctions by Trinity and St John’s shows that those high up in the University pay lip service to freedom of speech while they blithely side with repressive authoritarianism.

“The idea that the University is giving Angela Davis an honorary degree at the same time as it is crushing a protest relating to the ongoing atrocities in Gaza is frankly beyond parody.”

The European Legal Support Center (ELSC), which has previously intervened in University action against the pro-Palestine encampments, has also intervened in the cases brought by Trinity and St John’s.

The Center’s senior solicitor, Anna Ost, told Byline Times that ELSC stepped in “due to concerns about the overly-repressive nature of the injunctions being taken”. 

Ost claimed that the scope of the injunctions sought is “much broader than the evidence of any disruption the protests have caused,” pointing to the university’s initial attempt to seek a five-year injunction, and Trinity’s efforts to seek a one-year injunction for its entire campus.

She explained that those “who will most feel compelled to protest university complicity in genocide and apartheid” are Palestinians or “those with anti-racist and anti-Zionist beliefs which are also protected by the Equality Act 2010”.

Ost believes that injunctions “will disproportionately affect these groups, exposing them to risks of contempt of court proceedings which can at worst mean two years in jail”. 

She also criticised the lack of clarity regarding the sort of activity covered by the injunctions, saying: “Students and staff have a licence to be on campus usually, so what activity will tip them over into unlicensed and injunction-breaching activity? Carrying a Palestinian flag across campus? Wearing a keffiyeh on the way to class? Handing out pro-Palestine leaflets at a UCU or freshers stall? Holding up an anti-apartheid sign at your own graduation ceremony?” 

Both the university and colleges have faced continual protests over their investments in arms companies complicit in the Israeli offensive in Gaza since 2023. Last year, students set up an encampment outside King’s College claiming that they would not leave until the university disclosed and divested from all of its arms investments and reinvested this money into Palestinian causes. 

The original encampment was dismantled after the university pledged to review all of their arms investments in July, setting up a working group – including a student task force – to assess the institution’s responsible investment policy. 

However, the group has made slow progress and has pushed back the review after admitting the original targets were too “ambitious”.

C4P claim the working group has allowed the university to put up a “facade” of dialogue, while simultaneously clamping down on protests. 

Following slow progress, C4P activists in November occupied Greenwich House, the university’s central administrative hub, in an attempt to derail their financial operations.

Cambridge alleges that activists stole sensitive documents from the site during their encampment, and claimed that the demonstrations cost it £230,000 in cleaning, security and legal fees.

Trinity College has faced some of the most intense criticism for their direct investments in Elbit Systems, an Israeli firm that produces 85% of the drones and land-based equipment used by the Israeli army.

The College was served with a legal notice over its potential “complicity” in “war crimes” over the investments, and was later referred to the UN special rapporteur for human rights over the same charges. 

A Palestinian protester by the name of Yasser, who recently attached himself to the gates of Senate House in an act of protest, has accused Trinity of having investments which are “directly involved in the murder of children, innocent children”.

Yasser, who did not provide his surname, has alleged that the college’s investments have “completely destroyed” his city, and that its profits are “covered in the blood of children” and “covered in the blood of women”. 

St John’s and Trinity colleges did not respond to requests for comment, but in a statement, Cambridge University said: “We have sought injunctions to protect the right of our students to graduate and for staff to carry out their work. Any claim that the University is trying to restrict protest or stifle debate is ridiculous – there are many ways protests can take place and voices can be heard.

“Protests take place regularly in Cambridge, as is reflected in the judge’s decision which stated that ‘protestors and the campaign are left with ample opportunities and ability to protest their cause in Cambridge’. The judge made clear that the injunction ‘does provide a fair balance between the rights of all parties’.”