Students disrupted Trinity College’s maths open days this morning (27/05) as they protested the College’s ties to Israel’s largest arms company.

The College has come under persistent pressure from students since it was issued a legal notice by a UK human rights group over its investments in Elbit systems.

The demonstrators urged prospective students not to apply to Trinity due to their “complicity in Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people”. They also stated that they “will keep coming back and making noise” until the College divests from Elbit.

The protesters later moved to Trinity’s side gate, after noticing that open-day attendees were no longer entering through this gate. Cambridge Stop The War, one of the groups that organised the event, later claimed on Instagram that they had “shut down” Trinity’s main entrance.

Open day attendees were handed leaflets by protesters, who told them: “If you apply to Trinity you will be part of a college which profits from the murder of civilians [and] face regular protests from your local community.”

Speaking to Varsity, an open-day attendee condemned the College’s investments, saying: “Stuff like this would definitely make me think twice about applying to Trinity, I don’t want to be part of an educational institution that funds these kinds of companies.”

Students had already protested outside Trinity in March, with today’s event organisers planning to hold another protest at the start of May.

The legal notice issued to Trinity came after the Middle East Eye reported that the College has £61,735 invested in Elbit, as well as holdings in Caterpillar, a US-based heavy equipment company, General Electric, Toyota, Rolls-Royce, Barclays Bank, and L3Harris Industries.

One of the protesters told Varsity: “The college’s silence on this has been deafening, for me it shows how performative any previous divestments have been. They seem to be happy to cut ties with ecological collapse, which is great, but then not genocide.”

“I think the fact that we haven’t even had a statement from the College over tells you all you need to know really, they fully know they’re in the wrong and have blood on their hands, but are happy to keep doing it anyways,” they said.

Trinity College has been contacted for comment.