KB-2025-000497 - [2025] EWHC 2330 (KB)

Since the order made by Soole J, there have been a number of developments of relevance. These are described, in particular, in the witness statement of Michael Glover of 2 July 2025. As Mr Glover makes clear, since the order of Soole J, there have been no incidents of Direct Action comparable to those before that order, as summarised above, either at the Senate House/Senate House Yard/Old Schools, or at Greenwich House. There have, however, been protests at locations in Cambridge at or in close proximity to the Senate House/Senate House Yard/Old Schools.

Thus, on 3 May 2025, in the course of collecting their degree at the Senate House a graduand made a speech about the University’s ‘complicity’ in ‘genocide in Gaza’ before sitting down and refusing to leave. The Senate House had to be evacuated until the individual was persuaded to leave. On 23 May 2025 a protester locked themselves to the railings of Senate House Yard for approximately 2 hours, during which time they covered themselves with red paint and shouted into a megaphone.

From 30 May to 2 June 2025 an encampment was set up on Trinity College lawn. The number of protesters fluctuated between 6 and about 100 people, some of whom were masked. Some tents were also erected. An interim injunction was obtained by Trinity College on 1 June 2025 to remove the encampment. The injunction was served at 08.00 on 2 June 2025, and immediately obeyed. The return date had been fixed for 5 June 2025, and judgment was delivered on 23 June 2025. I will return to this shortly, below.

On 2 June 2025, following service of the Trinity College injunction, the protesters moved from Trinity College to the lawn outside St John’s College chapel. A Cambridge for Palestine social media post from about this time referred to the moving of the encampment, saying: ‘Cambridge, we will not stop.’ On 3 June 2025, St John’s College obtained an interim injunction, and the protesters left the lawn after the injunction was served on the evening of 3 June 2025. Marcus Smith J, who had granted the St John’s injunction, ordered that the return date should be 5 June 2025, so that it could be dealt with together with the Trinity College injunction.