Kent Union responds to claims of silencing student-led pro-Palestine protest

Nathan Collins-Cope 3 July 2021

This article was updated on 8 July 2021

Image courtesy of Unsplash/Patrick Perkins

On the 2 June 2021, a pro-Palestine protest was scheduled take place in Dane John Gardens. Arranged by a collective of University of Kent societies, the action aimed to bring greater awareness to the plight of the Palestinian people and allow for people in the Canterbury student community and beyond to voice their frustrations and support. This was planned in the wake of the most recent bombing of Gaza, a Palestinian controlled territory, by the Israeli government.

However, many students felt let down when they noticed the Afro-Diasporic Legal Network’s (one of the organising societies) Instagram post, the day before the action was scheduled. A big red banner saying ‘SILENCED’ was branded over the centre of a poster advertising the protest.

Image courtesy of the Afro-Diasporic Legal Network (via Instagram)

The caption outlined how the protest had the rug pulled out from under it, 'by the very institution which should be uplifting them within such a dire political climate', due to Kent Union rejecting their risk assessment.

This didn’t stop some, however. When the day rolled round, a group of around 15 protestors (all socially distanced and wearing face masks) gathered outside the Mandela Building, where Kent Union is based. When InQuire asked one of the group leaders, he stated that they were from a group made up of 'various different parts of the Kent community'.

The group, filled with Palestinian born students, circled around a speaker with a megaphone. The speaker, who informed the crowd that she grew up in Jordan but is originally Palestinian, asked the onlookers why it was okay that over 700,000 of her people had been expelled from their homes in 1948.

She deemed the expulsion of 6,000 Palestinian families from their residence in Israel as 'ethnic cleansing' and said that this this was an important cause for any revolutionary.

The megaphone was passed onto a second speaker, who briefly told the gathered community of how her grandfather had come to be a refugee of the 1948 Palestinian war. She stated that she was not speaking to perpetuate any anti-Semitic narrative - rather she aimed to tell the story of a government oppressing a specific ethnicity of people.

'We are done trying to justify our reality to you', she declared, which invoked a cheer from the crowd. She then initiated a call and response chant, which the crowd did not hold back on indulging.

At this point, the Kent Union President, Aisha Dosanjh, came through the doors of the Mandela building and asked the collective if there was anything that she could help with. A discussion ensued, wherein Aisha outlined how the Union wanted to check whether their charitable exemption applies.

Aisha informed the crowd that preventing the protest was not their intent, and went onto explain that the senior leadership team, who are responsible for financial and legal liability for the Union, had put on the breaks due to a notification from the university.

UKC had told the Union leadership team that their protest exemption did not apply to affiliates. Since the protest was originally organised by a selection of societies, and not directly by the Union, the president stated that they were currently seeking a second opinion from NUS.

President Aisha affirmed to the group that she wanted the protest to go ahead and sought to have one arranged once they had confirmed their interpretation of the charitable exemption.

It was pointed out by some of the more vocal actors of the group that the Union and the university had greenlit a BLM protest at the height of the pandemic and demanded an explanation for why the university and the Union were imposing jurisdiction over a protest that was not even intended for campus. Aisha assured the crowd that they were seeking these answers.

InQuire spoke to two of the activists once the group had dispersed. One of them stated that there appeared to be 'no valid reason' for the delay. Other protests were given the go ahead in the 'height of the pandemic', and therefore they could only assume, 'there is some sort of ulterior motive', from the university.

'The Union should be supporting its students, we shouldn’t have to shout to be heard. Maybe [the president] stands with us, but that is not enough. We need the whole Union to stand with us', one activist stated.

When the protestors were asked their thoughts on how this had turned out, they deemed Aisha's response 'good' but affirmed that they would not be satisfied until they were allowed to create real action.

InQuire has heard of no updates pertaining to when another Palestine protest is arranged for.

The Union released an official statement, which readers can find here.