UNIVERSITIES have been urged to stop threatening staff and students protesting against Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

The call from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) came after a wave of suppression by university authorities against staff and students’ protesting on campus.

But PSC has instead urged universities to work with the protesters to end their complicity with Israel.

In the latest attempted clampdown, university authorities in Sheffield, where students and staff set up a protest camp more than seven weeks ago, have threatened disciplinary action against staff and students protesting on campus.

Previously police in Oxford arrested 16 students after being called in by university authorities. 

Police were also called to an encampment at Manchester University and the London School of Economics recently became the first British university to evict a Palestine encampment.

PSC director Ben Jamal said research had revealed that British universities collectively invest nearly £430 million in companies “complicit in Israeli violations of international law.”

“Students across the country have been protesting this complicity in Israel’s ongoing genocide,” he said.

“These protests have been completely peaceful and have involved hundreds of students at each university.

“Instead of threatening students and staff, universities should take their demands seriously, negotiate with them, and look carefully at how they can end their complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

“Sheffield University should learn from the example of York, Swansea and Trinity College Dublin, who have taken a constructive and ethical approach to these demands. 

“Then Sheffield University would be on the right side of history rather than trying to hold it back.” 

Sheffield University was approached for comment.