University of Sussex students escalate protests, launch encampment

University of Sussex students have launched an encampment, demanding that the university divest from all companies complicit in Israel’s war on Gaza and urging governments to stop arming Israel.

An encampment spokesperson said in a statement on Monday that students were escalating their protest activities after receiving a “vague response” from the university to seven key demands they made last month.  

On 17 April, students and staff sent an open letter to Vice Chancellor Sasha Roseneil with the demand list which, along with divestment, asked the university to fully disclose its investments and publicly condemn “Israel’s colonial genocide in Gaza”.

Roseneil responded on 2 May after she and members of the university’s executive team met with representatives of the University and College Union and the Students’ Union, offering an internal review process of the university’s investment policies.

The encampment spokesperson said her response “fell short of making a commitment towards decisive divestment and boycott action”, pointing to Trinity College Dublin which announced it was divesting from Israel last week after student protests and 76 universities in Spain which have suspending collaboration agreements with Israeli universities.

“We (the students) fail to see how the [vice chancellor’s] vague response properly addresses the demands of the letter and believe this to be an attempt to pacify the student body,” the spokesperson said in a statement on Monday.

“We argue that there is no room for ambiguity when it comes to condemning genocide committed in our names.”