Universities accused of ‘spying’ on student protesters for police
JVL Introduction
In an extremely worrying development, Liberty Investigates and Metro, the editorially independent journalism wing of the human rights advocacy group Liberty, reports that universities have been sharing protesters’ data with police despite not being asked to do so.
“One University of York student said officers visited her home on November 19 to refer her to the counter-terror programme Prevent because she posted, ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,’ on X at a campus rally.”
According to the Network for Police Monitoring (Netpol) there seems to be a “cosy relationship” between the police and campus security acting as “gatherers of political intelligence”.
Campaigns coordinator Kevin Blowe said:
“Universities [are] appearing to accept without question the police’s paranoid belief that political activism is a dangerous ‘outside’ influence on the student body, even one ‘imported’ by overseas students.”
RK
This article was originally published by Metro on Tue 2 Jul 2024. Read the original here.
Universities accused of ‘spying’ on student protesters for police
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Is it just me, or does this smack of McCarthyism, the crackdown on the American Civil Rights movement, the Anti-Vietnam War movement and the use of undercover police [Special Demonstration Squad] in the UK against Environmental Protesters. It reminds me of blacklisting striking builders [The “Shrewsbury Two”] and police building dossiers on striking miners and monitoring their movements. It fits in well with the deep state, British Intelligence, the political elite and the establishment to double down on protests and use any pretext to stop them: “by any means necessary”. Not only that, but it’s very sinister and, many younger people might feel intimidated and fearful of the consequences. It’s not something new, but the whole surveillance state has been forced into the open by the resistance in Palestine. Quite astonishing just how much those events in Gaza and the West Bank have laid bare the lies and true intentions across the world, of politicians, the police and all the forces of the state, including foreign interests like the Israeli Lobby. Universities have no right to breach data protection under “normal” circumstances, but clearly some senior Managers and Administrators feel the way to answer protest is to silence and potentially criminalise their own students. For the Universities, using the police and force to silence students is really a sign of their weakness. But, for the pro-Palestinian rights movement, it shows the strength we continue to have in getting our message across.
It was the Zionist who first made that clarion call… An early Zionist slogan envisaged statehood extending over the two banks of the Jordan river, and when that vision proved impractical, it was substituted by the idea of a Greater Israel, an entity conceived as extending from the Jordan to the sea. The Palestinian phrase has also been used by Israeli politicians.
I can’t remember whether or not JVL has carried this posting from Chris Hedges and Craig Murray, but it seems to confirm Murray’s experience of what prompts Police interest in his movements.
https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/craig-murrays-campaign-against-empire-8cc
I’m disappointed at the news from my old university, York, because it had already disinvested two years ago and seemed to be taking a sensible approach to the student protest camps. It’s good that the authorities refused to install CCTV on campus! But how horrible that they caved in over outlawing ‘from the river to the sea’. I will contact JVL’s Education Group in the hopes we can do something about this.
It has taken some time for me to find out more about the York case/s . The alumni office strongly denies that the university authorities had anything to do with shopping a student to Prevent: ‘I can definitely say we are not informing the authorities and I’m sad to hear about this rumour. The Police approached us about a case (not the other way round), and we did not share any personal information with our students relating to this matter and we’ve said this to the media.
‘We have never spied on our students and staff and never will; we are an institution that will always support the right to take part in lawful, peaceful and respectful protest. The University would only consider the release of personal data if a formal request was submitted and our response to the police made this clear. We did not receive such a Data Protection Act request from the police. ‘
So, pressure on the police must have come from another direction (UJS, local or national politicians, media reports?) . Here is York’s response to pressure to close down the solidarity camp:
https://www.york.ac.uk/about/sanctuary/israel-gaza-response/
I’m now feeling happier, if fact proud of my old university. I believe much of the divestment and sanctuary policies are also the result of patient campaigning from faith networks around Bradford. I still hope to meet some of the Gaza campaigners when I visit York next week, any contact details gratefully received.