Pro-Palestine activists have set up an encampment outside Trinity College, calling for the University to end its “complicity in genocide” by divesting from arms companies.

The encampment has been organised by Cambridge for Palestine (C4P), with students occupying the College’s lawn at around 5:30 pm this evening (30/05). The protesters are calling on the University to disclose and divest from investments associated with Israel.

C4P claims that the encampment has been set up following the University blocking “meaningful progress on divestment” in a working group on arms divestment, and adopting “anti-protest” policies against them.

This comes after allegations that Cambridge had “watered down” their commitment to divestment by reducing the number of students on a working group on arms divestment.

The working group on divestment was originally set up last year to “review” the University’s arms investment, following a 100 day encampment by C4P outside King’s College.

Following claims of Cambridge limiting student voices on the working group in autumn, C4P set up occupations on Senate House Lawn and Greenwich house, the University’s financial centre, in order to prevent them from “stalling negotiations”.

This led the University temporarily exclude students from arms negotiations and take legal action to stop pro-Palestine activists from occupying these sites to prevent further disruption to “essential University life”. The University has denied any allegation that the injunctions restrict protest, labelling this claim “ridiculous”.

Students speaking at the encampment took aim at research partnerships between the University and companies involved in military research, criticising the Cambridge Service Alliance (CSA) – a partnership between “the world’s leading businesses” and Cambridge – for its alleged partnership with Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, and Boeing.

One speaker claimed that the alleged alliance existed to “to link industrial partners and Cambridge research and research into the way innovation can be marketed and that, and that includes the ability for BAE systems to use Cambridge facilities to do its own internal research”.

BAE systems, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Rolls Royce are all companies on the Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions (BDS) Movement list, which urges individuals to cut ties with companies linked to Israel.

However, Varsity understands that the CSA is no longer connected to BAE systems and have no partnerships with Lockheed Martin or Boeing. 

Protesters also criticised the Whittle Lab – a climate research and jet engine lab on West Site – for its partnership with Rolls Royce. A representative of the group claimed that “without Rolls Royce, this lab does not exist”. The Lab, which is part of the Department of Engineering, works on climate initiatives to help its “industrial partners to achieve net zero by 2050”.

They added that students who were working at the lab with “charitable goals in mind” are obliged to do research with a company that was “not only participating in, well, the climate change but also, well, genocide”.

The group also cited the recent decision of King’s College to divest from arms companies as evidence the University could follow their lead, with one speaker saying that “we want to encourage more of this”.

C4P has decided to launch the encampment now because “It is impossible to stay still,” according to one speaker.

“Palestinians deserve that we stand up for them. Especially from where they’re being killed, right? Because Israel would not be able to function, to do what it’s doing, without Cambridge University, without support from strong international institutions,” they continued.

This is not the first time Trinity College lawn has been targeted by activists. In 2020 activists from Extinction Rebellion dug up the lawn over its role in a major development in the Suffolk countryside, accusing Trinity of “destroying nature”.

Trinity has also faced significant criticism for its own investments in arms funds, after it was revealed that the College held shares in Elbit systems, a company responsible for manufacturing 85% of the Israeli Military’s drones. This investment was described by one speaker as the “reason why we’re here specifically on Trinity grounds”.

Following this, the College told students that it planned to divest from all arms investments by the end of 2025. However, in November, Varsity revealed that the College had backtracked on this decision, with Dame Sally Davies, the College’s master, claiming that Trinity had “no interest” in divesting.

Speakers at the event criticised these investments to, with one accusing the College of “supporting Israeli genocide”. Another student claimed that they had chosen to encamp at Trinity, not King’s, for this reason.

Commenting on the College’s ongoing policies on divestment, a spokesperson for the Trinity College Student Union told Varsity that: “The TCSU is responsible for representing students’ interests. In response to the news of college’s investments in companies involved in exporting arms to Israel, students voted for divestment. The TCSU is committed to voicing students’ concerns and pushing for this change internally.”