This is the moment Oxford students shriek with horror and complain that a security guard is being violent when he nudged past them as they blocked a door during graduation ceremonies in a Gaza ‘die-in’.
Furious members of the group Oxford Action for Palestine posted the video on social media on Saturday, accusing the member of staff of ‘slamming the door on the heads of students protesting the university’s complicity in genocide’.
However, instead of acting violently towards the students, the video shows the member of staff gently prodding them with his foot as he tries to access a door that they are obstructing.
Around 30 students staged the ‘die-in’ protest outside the Sheldonian Theatre and Bodleian Library in the city centre yesterday morning while graduations took place.
Seperate pictures show graduands and their families having to step over the protesters as they attempted to leave the hall – with the group also alleging that members of the public trampled on their hands.
This is the moment a security guard ‘kicks’ Oxford students and ‘shuts the door on their heads’ as they lie on the floor covered in fake blood for a ‘die-in’ protest against Israel’s actions in Gaza
People step over protesters staging a ‘die-in’ protest as graduations take place in Oxford yesterday
Around 30 students staged the ‘die-in’ protest outside the Sheldonian Theatre and Bodleian Library yesterday morning while graduations took place
In the video posted on X by Oxford Action for Palestine, protesters confront the member of staff saying he had ‘kicked a student’.
But in response, he defends his actions: ‘Yes, yes, so did somebody else trying to get through.’
‘They are in the way. You see he is laying in the way when I’m trying to walk,’ he added.
The protest outside the Sheldonian Theatre and Bodleian Library on Saturday comes after Oxford University released a statement that the group described as ‘long and so incredibly empty.’
A protester told Cherwell, the university’s student newspaper, that the demonstration was due to a ‘lack of engagement’ with their demands.
A statement released by Oxford Action for Palestine today read: ‘Yesterday our die-in outside the graduation ceremonies sent a clear message to the vice-chancellor Tracey and administration.
‘When nearly fifty students in blood-soaked academic dress blocked entry to the Sheldonian Threate with guests and graduands having to climb over protesters to gain entry into the building, this university’s continued inaction and silence materialised in a public display of their avoidance.’
Furious members of the group Oxford Action for Palestine posted the video on social media on Saturday, claiming the member of staff ‘slammed the door on the heads of students’
The protest outside the Sheldonian Theatre and Bodleian Library on Saturday comes after Oxford University released a statement that the group described as ‘long and so incredibly empty’
A protester told Cherwell, the university’s student newspaper that the demonstration was due to a ‘lack of engagement’ with their demands
The protests in Oxford come after students at Cambridge University tried to disrupt graduation ceremonies there
Seperate footage shows graduands and their families having to step over the protesters as they attempted to leave the hall – with the group also alleging that members of the public trampled on their hands
The protests in Oxford come after students at Cambridge University tried to disrupt graduation ceremonies there.
The university was forced to move the ceremonies to ‘secret locations’ on Friday after an encampment was set up on the grounds of Senate House where students have graduated since the 18th century.
On Thursday it was announced that the university had taken the ‘very difficult decision’ to hold the events at an undisclosed ‘alternative location’.
Nevertheless photos from the day show students gathering together in full academic dress as they walked to Downing College where it is believed the ceremonies were held.
The pro-Palestine encampment was moved off the lawns at Senate House in the early hours of Friday morning with staff left to clean up the mess left behind.
Pictures show university employees with rubbish bags removing Palestinian flags and writing from the walls of buildings.
Palestine flags were draped from the Grade II-listed urn in the centre of the lawn, and a white sheet was fixed below it with ‘welcome to liberated zone’ written on it.
A banner was also taped to the doors of Senate House which read ‘Refaat’s House’, named after Palestinian activist and writer who was killed by an Israeli airstrike in December 2023.
The actions at Oxford and Cambridge come after a wave of similar student protests in the US including encampments at Colombia University in New York, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of California, Los Angeles