It cited “significant damage” to the lawns caused by the encampments, complaints that have been lodged by fellow students and “the failure of protesters to consult with the proctors” before establishing the camps.
A physical notice posted by the university administration addressed to “persons unknown” stated that the “current use and occupation of [Radcliffe Square] is not lawful and amounts to an act of trespass”.
It comes after officials at the university fenced off an encampment on the Natural History Museum lawn on Sunday and attempted to clear it two days later.
Activist group Oxford Action For Palestine (OA4P) claimed the university used “heavy machinery” to clear a memorial flower garden that had been created by the students for the victims of the war killed in Palestine.
Oxford University said any plants in the area had been “carefully removed by hand” and were being cared for by gardeners. It said a “mechanical scoop” had been required to remove large amounts of soil and a heavy structure made of wooden pallets in the area and that it had entered the site in “the interests of public safety and to prevent damage to the infrastructure[…] beneath the lawn”.
A number of pro-Palestine student encampments are currently in place across UK universities.
The London School of Economics ordered activists to leave an encampment on the London campus following legal action, which it said it took after “exhausting all other options” earlier this month.
At Cambridge University, activists remain in the encampment outside King’s College, which has been allowed to remain after Deborah Prentice, vice-chancellor, said the institution was “fully committed to freedom of speech within the law, and the right to protest”.
OA4P has been contacted for comment.