Moment Jewish Cambridge student unfurls Israeli flag at encampment rally before ... trends now

A lone Jewish student was pushed and shoved as he unfurled an Israeli flag at a pro Gaza encampment outside Cambridge University's Kings College, after attending to 'take a stand' as his friends 'feel scared' on campus.

Around 60 tents have been erected outside the prestigious college with students demanding an end 'to the genocide' and that Cambridge University divest in any companies linked to Israel.

As around 200 protestors held a rally chanting anti-Israel slogans, student Ari Vladimir, 19, unfurled an Israel flag and shouted support for the country.

One protestor grabbed the flag from him and threw it to the ground as he was jostled.

Mr Vladimir told MailOnline: 'I had to come here to express my support for Israel. If these people have a right to protest then so do I.

'As you saw, I didn't feel particularly welcome. I was pushed and shoved and felt quite scared. 

'But I wanted these people to know that the Jewish people will never be defeated and we stand with Israel.'

Mr Vladimir is a first year history student at Christ's College who comes from New York.

He said that he was alone because many of his fellow Jewish students feel 'intimidated,' and were too scared to join him.

He added: 'A lot of Jewish students on campus feel quite scared. They are just keeping their heads down. But I had to take a stand.

'This encampment is going to make Jewish students even more concerned. How would you feel walking past people who are supporting Hamas?'

During the rally, protestors shouted: 'Israel is a terror state,' and 'From the river to the sea.'

Ari said: 'I think protest is fine, but I just want to say my own peace as well. Their needs to be better organisation because I was pushed, I was grabbed, and I might have just got lucky. '

No police were present at the encampment or rally, something Ari thinks would have 'made him feel safer' and given more protection to counter protestors.

Ari added: ' I have to walk through here all the time. I'm still recognisably Jewish and I would not feel safe'.

Around 20 people are pitching at the encampment, with teaching staff and PHD students among the cohort of protestors from the University.

The string of tents sit on a patch of grass on King's Parade, a central route through the city and a tourist hotspot near King's College.

Students are being delivered food and have an 'emergency toilet' despite being able to freely walk in and out to their nearby student accommodation.

Mahmood, an undergraduate student at the University of Cambridge and an organiser of the Cambridge encampment said: 'It's predominately students but we are supported massively by the community. We've just had a couple from Norwich give us £500 worth of vouchers to buy food later on.'

He said: 'We actually have a surplus of people reaching out to us to be involved'.

While it is exam season at the university another protestor, who did not give his name, said that students are 'realising there's a bigger thing going on' and want to take 'action now, not when exams are finished'.

Security presence was concentrated on the other side of King's Parade near Senate House, a ceremonial building where students graduate.

The building, which has been targeted by Just Stop Oil and has been occupied by other activist groups in recent years, was patrolled by University security guards and three unmarked Metropolitain police cars were stationed outside for a short time- though it is unclear why.  

At around 8am on Bank Holiday Monday, students pitched tents outside the Pitts Rivers museum in Oxford as they demanded an end to violence in Gaza and the release of hostages. By lunchtime around 70 students have pitched up at the camp.

At the same time, Cambridge students armed with tents, gazebos and sleeping bags set up on the front lawn of King's College in protest against 'Israel's genocide of Palestinians in Gaza'.

The sit-in protests, which echo protests seen in the US, have sprung up at other British universities including Manchester, Leeds, Bristol, Sheffield and Newcastle over the last week.

At Oxford's camp, named the 'liberated zone', students pinned up a board of six demands including calls to boycott Israeli genocide, stop banking with Barclays and help rebuild Gaza's education system.

Cambridge for Palestine said it will 'not move' from the encampment until the university agrees to four demands including disclosing financial ties with complicit organisations and protecting students at risk.

The protests seek to emulate those seen at American universities in recent weeks, where more than 130 college campuses have been targeted by pro-Palestine supporters.

These have resulted in growing disorder and unrest, with more than 2,000 arrests.

As Gaza protests continue to grow in the UK, the government has expressed 'serious' concerns they could escalate to violence, as witnessed in the US.

Today's encampments have been organised by groups Oxford Action for Palestine and Cambridge for Palestine, as well as several other smaller groups. 

The protests had been organised in coalition with each other.

Oxford University's Museum of Natural History remained open and apparently untroubled by the 25-strong encampment of tents on its front lawn.

Footage from the protest, posted on X, showed students chanting: 'We are the people. We will not be silenced. Stop the bombing now, now, now.'

Unlike in scenes across the Atlantic, where there were fierce clashes with ranks of guardsmen, students inside Oxford's 'liberated zone' worked on their dissertations on laptops while others gathered around to listen to the first in a series of lectures on the 'history of the Occupation', beginning with the Ottoman period. 

In a printed manifesto, the protestors hit out at the 'infamous' museum beside their protest, in an attempt to stoke wider concerns about imperialism. 

'We have established a Liberated Zone on the lawn of the infamous University of Oxford Pitt Rivers Museum. The museum, which 'acquired' items from across the globe through imperial expansionism, mirrors the ongoing struggle of the Palestinian people and connect us to colonised peoples everywhere', it read.

'We invite you to struggle with us. Join us in our library, in our study space, in our peaceful protest, in our call for Oxford to sever its institutional relationships that facilitate the genocide and occupation of the Palestinian people.'

The rain quickly reduced the well-kempt lawn into a quagmire, while to gain admittance, visitors had to hand over their details, which will be kept 'in accordance with our data security protocols'.

The paranoid atmosphere was increased by the insistence that all visitors wear a Covid-era mask - whether this was to protect the protestors' health or anonymity was not made clear.

The obligatory sign-up procedure told visitors: 'The University of Oxford is complicit in the genocide of Palestinians. With strong ties to companies supporting the Zionist entity (like Rolls Royce and Raytheon) and academic ties to Israel, Oxford continues to uphold israel's apartheid regime. The Univeristy's lack of transparency protects its financial interests in the genocide of the Palestinian people. We have had enough.'

More than 100 dons have backed the encampment. In an open letter, 108 lecturers, faculty members

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