In the early hours of this morning, a group of autonomous students took direct action at Cambridge University in solidarity with Palestine. The action, carried out in collaboration with Palestine Action, involved painting the Old Schools building – the office that manages the University’s Endowment Fund – in blood-red paint.
This action follows a similar one at Oxford University last week [1], as part of a growing wave of confrontational actions at the UK’s most prestigious universities, to hold them accountable for their financial support of systems of violence and oppression. While Cambridge University continues to conduct research partnerships with Israeli institutes [2], its constituent colleges invest heavily in Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest weapons company. The protestors demand immediate divestment from companies complicit in war crimes and the Israeli apartheid regime.
“Each life lost in Palestine is a human being with dreams, loved ones, and a future stolen. As long as the university continues to profit from violence, we will continue to take action in solidarity with Palestinians who endure daily oppression and destruction,” said a spokesperson for the group. “Now is the time to act. The university must understand that its profits from war crimes will never outweigh the damage done to its reputation and bottom line.”
The Cambridge protest comes on the heels of a significant court victory after Cambridge sought, and failed, to prohibit protest activity at the University for five years [3]. The group has vowed to escalate direct actions, targeting the university’s financial interests and reputation in their call for full divestment and accountability.
Cambridge University has been targeted by numbers of actions for its refusal to address its ties to war crimes. In November, the Institute for Manufacturing [4], which supports many Israel-supplying arms firms, was sprayed red, as was the historical Senate House building in June 2024 [5]. Trinity College at Cambridge, which held $78,089 in Elbit shares as at last disclosures, has been targeted numbers of times for its complicity in the US-Israel and Elbit genocide, including the slashing of the historical portrait of Arthur Balfour in March 2024 [6]. Trinity continues to hold these investments in Elbit, after misleading its students otherwise [7].
[1] https://www.thecanary.co/uk/news/2025/03/02/oxford-university-elbit/
[2] https://palestineaction.org/cambridge-balfour-manufacturing/
[3] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/cambridge-university-israel-palestine-protests-court-b2706442.html
[4] https://palestineaction.org/cambridge-balfour-manufacturing/
[5] https://palestineaction.org/cambridge-collab/
[6] https://www.artforum.com/news/activist-damages-painting-of-lord-balfour-who-played-key-role-in-creation-israel-550588/
[7] https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/Trinity-College-Cambridge-misled-students-over-Israel-arms-investments