The University of Cambridge has threatened pro-Palestinian students occupying Greenwich House with “permanent or temporary exclusion from the University”.

Cambridge for Palestine (C4P) claimed that the University of Cambridge had sent a letter on Monday afternoon (02/12) “threatening escalated legal and disciplinary action”. They referred to the threat as “tactics of repression,” adding that it will only “further strengthen the urgent fight for divestment during genocide”.

In a statement sent via the University of Cambridge Staff Hub, Emma Rampton, Cambridge’s Principal Administrative Officer, deemed the latest occupation “unacceptable,” adding that it “disrupts University life for our students and staff”.

Referring to the occupation of Greenwich House, she said: “As an employer, and as a trusted partner to many other external organisations, we must take our responsibilities for the information held there, much of which is confidential and/or sensitive, extremely seriously.”

In response to the University’s statement, C4P have argued that “University life was disrupted from the moment that Cambridge embraced its partnership with a zionist genocide.”

They also accused the statement of seeking “to demonise the students occupying Senate House Yard” and pitting student protesters against their peers who were graduating on 30 November.

Another point of contention has been the University’s agreements regarding an ongoing arms review. In the recent statement, Rampton declared that the University Council has “stood by the commitments made” in a statement from July.

However, C4P have said their recent occupations come as a result of the University “breaking” these agreements and “erasing” Palestine from its review after the report’s published terms of reference had no direct mention of the conflict.

The group has also accused Cambridge of “avoid[ing] transparency by siloing discussions,” claiming that University officials have “limited” the involvement of students in the arms investment working group – reducing the number of student participants from six to two.

The University Council has since decided that while an occupation continues, the working group will proceed without the two student members nominated by C4P.

In a letter from C4P addressed to the University, the group stated that the new structure of the working group “established a power dynamic that isolates and intimidates the student representatives”. They also referred to the suspension of student representatives amid occupations as a “weaponisation of Task Force membership in the Working Group”.

C4P have stated that the University has “refused to engage with the student protesters” at both student encampments.

“Students do not protest, occupy, and escalate for empty disruption. We do so in order to make our voices heard within a system which refuses to listen to us,” they said, adding that “Cambridge’s threats will not silence the movement”.

This comes after student members of C4P occupied the University administrative building almost two weeks ago (22/11), claiming it as a “new liberated zone for Palestine” and referring to it as “Kanafani House”.

Members of the activist group also re-occupied Senate House lawn, forming an encampment and disrupting student graduations. The graduation ceremony had to be moved to Great St Mary’s Church on Saturday (30/11).

However, students who attended Saturday’s graduation ceremony did not seem frustrated by the protest. One graduand told Varsity they could hear the drums from inside the church, but said: “I would normally be around here if I wasn’t [graduating],” pointing to the students on King’s Parade that had gathered for the rally. Members of C4P have since vacated Senate House but have stated that they will return.

Tamara Romero, a University worker at the Department of Neurosciences, said that the University’s statement was “manipulative”. Referring to Greenwich House, she said: “It’s not a historic building, and they are not destroying data, just occupying it”.

The University of Cambridge and Cambridge for Palestine were contacted for comment.