Academics and students ‘face censorship’ for Palestinian support

Academics and students are more likely to face “repression” for their pro-Palestinian views than any other group, according to a new report that lists more than 300 examples of “censorship” in the last six years.

The European Legal Support Center (ELSC) has published a new database that draws upon legal casework, monitoring, and research to collate incidents which have sought to “repress Palestine solidarity across the country”.

A total of 964 cases were verified between January 2019 until August 2025, with those based at universities among the worst affected. 

Students, academics, writers, and teachers were listed as the most targeted group with 336 incidents, higher than activists and solidarity organisations (256 incidents), and public institution workers (85 incidents). 

For students and academics, the report says that the predominant mechanism for suppression was censorship, disinformation and smearing, totalling a third (102) of the incidents identified. 

It says academics often face a “two-pronged attack” from anti-Palestine actors. “First, a campaign of smearing and censorship, often led by their own institutions in concert with media outlets; and second, direct institutional sanctions, such as suspensions and investigations.”

Universities are “ostensibly dedicated to critical inquiry and ethical obligation”, the report says, but sanctions “directly target” people’s ability to “operate within professional and pedagogical fields”.

The report adds that these incidents are “the tip of the iceberg” that reveal “a far wider and deeper structural mechanism of repression…[which] aims to depoliticise the Palestine solidarity movement by systematically dismantling its organisational capacity”.

Among the incidents highlighted include students’ unions facing funding cuts for passing motions that called for their universities to boycott or divest from Israel.

Others focus on individuals who have faced repercussions for joining pro-Palestine demonstrations or speaking out about the situation in Gaza.

In one incident at the University of Warwick, a student was arrested after carrying a placard during a demonstration which drew parallels between Israel and Nazi Germany. But following intervention from the ELSC and its legal partners, the police agreed to revoke the student’s caution and delete all associated records, and Warwick said there would be no further disciplinary action.

Another incident found to be unlawful involved a student at the University of Manchester, Dana Abu Qamar, who had her visa revoked after an interview she did with Sky News was “taken out of context”. 

Abu Qamar was told by the government that her presence in the UK was “not conducive to the public good” after alleging that she had made statements “which support and/or justify and/or glorify an act of terrorism”. But the decision was later overturned.