Pro-Palestinian encampments have once again emerged as of 13 May 2025 within the King’s College London campus, specifically in the quad area between the King’s Building and the Dickson Poon School of Law at Somerset House.
This came as a retaliation where students expressed their disappointment with the university’s lack of response to meet their demands regarding the college’s stance on the ongoing Gaza-Israel war.
The KCL S4J encampment previously initiated a campaign at the same time last year, when many UK universities had similar demonstrations occurring at the height of the war.
Yet following the demonstrations, the encampment was dissolved three months after its establishment because of an eviction deadline given by KCL.
The second round of the encampment was displayed following a press-release style post on the KCL S4J Instagram page.
The students reiterated that KCL must continue to condemn Israel’s actions in Gaza, the West Bank, Syria and Yemen and see to it that King’s College divests from all corporations, arms and manufacturers tied to the Israeli state.
The student has claimed that KCL currently invests in 10 UN blacklisted companies as of today.
The university led magazine ROAR reported that the KCL Senior Vice President Jeremy Cook wrote in an email “the protest as it currently stands is not consistent with our policy and we are addressing this.”
The encampment has claimed to adhere to peaceful proceedings, following its resurrection, stating its goals will include teach-ins, workshops, community gathering and other forms of peaceful demonstration.
However, concerns have arisen from Jewish and Israeli students, relaying their anxieties that come with the installation of these campaigns.
An anonymous Israeli student told ROAR magazine: “It’s incredibly frustrating to see these encampments reappear. Advocacy and protests are admirable – but not when they come at the expense of other students’ safety and belonging”.
The Community Security Trust (CST), a charity which monitors antisemitism, recorded that 272 university-related antisemitic incidents occurred in the 2023/24 academic year, with ROAR magazine reporting that some of these instances were the result of the behaviour of members of encampments on UK university campuses.
Some encampments have taken measures to prevent any sort of antiemetic behaviour from occurring.
The war in Gaza has taken the lives of more than 50,000 people, with nearly a third of the dead under 18. Israel ended the ceasefire on March 18, 2025.
