Cardiff University urged to drop disciplinary action against students involved in pro-Palestine demo

Martin Shipton

A public campaign has been launched urging Cardiff University to drop disciplinary action against two students who participated in a pro-Palestine protest on campus.

In an open letter to the university’s chief operating officer and university secretary Dr Paula Sanderson and the university’s academic registrar Simon Wright, students, staff, societies, alumni and members of the public state: “We … stand in solidarity with the two suspended Cardiff University students, who have been accused of ‘using abusive language, harassing, and intimidating behaviour’ for their participation in a pro-Palestine protest on campus.

“Cardiff University has viewed this as a serious allegation and has chosen to suspend these two students pending investigation and outcome, as well as banning them from Cardiff University and Students’ Union premises. This includes full academic suspension.

Right of assembly

They continue: “These students were exercising their right of assembly and protest outside the MLANG [School of Modern Languages and Translation] event that had invited the Royal Air Force (RAF) to campus on October 14 2024.

“This was only one day after Israeli warplanes targeted Shuhada al-Asqa Hospital and completely ignited the building, which directly caused the deaths of at least four people who were burned alive, and injured over 40. At the time of this occurrence, RAF Shadow R1 spy planes were present in Gaza performing a reconnaissance mission.

“This reconnaissance mission was one out of 200 that the RAF has performed since October 7 2023. The RAF has at least 1,000 hours of surveillance footage over Gaza, and only as late as the October 25 2024 has it stated that it ‘would consider’ providing intelligence gathered from surveillance flights over Gaza to the International Criminal Court (ICC) if requested.

“The United Nations, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the ICC and numerous journalists and human rights experts have described the current onslaught in Gaza as a plausible genocide. The ICJ has now issued an arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes. Legal experts have suggested multiple times that the United Kingdom and its armed forces, including the RAF, could be complicit in war crimes and genocide. Students were exercising their duty to hold their university to account and demand it fulfils its legal duty to divest from war crimes and genocide and should not be punished for doing so.

“The action that Cardiff University took by inviting representatives from the RAF onto campus directly violates the commitment it made to review the current Code of Ethics. This review includes alignment with principles from the Funding Advisory Panel, School-specific recruitment events, and would involve student representation. This was just one of many moves that the University made that went back on terms that were negotiated by students during the encampment.

“We believe in, and fully support, the students’ right to free speech and peaceful demonstration, under our Freedom of Speech Policy clause 12. We also note the importance of the Code of Conduct under the Freedom of Speech Policy clause 11, whereby all staff and employees of Cardiff University have a duty to ensure that the freedom of speech policy is not interfered with by any employee of the university.

“On October 14 2024, the right to freedom of speech and the right of peaceful demonstration was interfered with by Cardiff University Campus Security, who became physically violent towards students and Cardiff community members by pushing them, attempting to rip banners out of their hands, using excessive force, and driving a security vehicle into a crowd of protestors. They also used insulting language, in clear violation of Cardiff University’s Dignity at Work and Study Policy.

“Cardiff University’s own students near-unanimously voted at their AGM in November 2024 to call on the university to support Pro-Palestine activism on campus and, as student campaign group Time to Act Cardiff has highlighted, the university is more likely to suspend protestors than those accused of rape or sexual assault.

“We … publicly condemn Cardiff University’s decision to suspend the two students, and demand their immediate reinstatement to their courses and that the disciplinary investigations be dropped. We urge Cardiff University senior management to protect freedom of speech, assembly and protest on campus and to sever all ties they have with companies complicit in the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people.”

Lawful protest

A Cardiff University spokesperson responded: “We support the right to peaceful and lawful protest, but actions that breach behaviour expectations, our dignity at work and study policy and result in disruption to the wider university community will not be tolerated. As these cases are subject to confidential and on-going investigations it would be inappropriate to offer further comment.”

Cardiff University is one of many across the world that has seen demonstrations against the Israeli Defence Forces’ invasion of Gaza.

Stella Maris, the student-elected Rector of St Andrews University in Scotland, is currently taking legal action against the university after she had restrictions placed on her when she referred to Israel’s invasion of Gaza as “genocidal”.

More than 44,000 people in Gaza have been killed since October 7 2023 when Hamas launched an attack on Israel, killing 1,139 people and taking around 250 hostages, some of whom were dead.