The University of Birmingham is bringing a High Court challenge against a Pro-Palestinian protest encampment in a bid to end the occupation of a campus green space.
Lawyers for the educational body are asking a judge to issue a possession order over the “Green Heart” outdoor area on its Edgbaston campus that has been the site of the demonstration since early May.
The university claims protesters are trespassing on private land and have created “a substantial risk of public disturbance and serious harm to persons and property” as well as “significant financial loss and disruption to the University’s activities”, the court was told.
A Muslim British-Pakistani undergraduate student defending against the bid to oust the encampment says students have taken action over the university’s alleged “complicity” in “a genocide” in conflict-hit Gaza through its links to arms firms.
Mariyah Ali, 20, from Walsall, claims she faces discrimination over the “manifestation” of her religious and philosophical beliefs, a judge was told.
Lawyers representing Ms Ali argue the protest is peaceful, has legitimate aims, with potential disruption being “modest” as tuition has ended for the summer.
At a hearing on Thursday, a judge heard the university secured a possession order last month over a campus area called “Chancellor’s Court” with an encampment there since dismantled.
University bosses now want a similar order against Ms Ali and “persons unknown” over the Green Heart occupation, as well as orders covering its Exchange Building in central Birmingham and its Selly Oak campus where there are currently no such protests.
It comes after The London School of Economics was granted a court order indefinitely barring encampments in one of its buildings after students slept in its atrium for more than a month in support of Palestine.
She said it sought to end the protests “in a diplomatic and peaceful way” and that the decision to take legal action was “not taken lightly”.
“It was not in any way motivated by the fact that the encampment was connected with Pro-Palestinian beliefs,” she added.
Dr Blanco said the protesters at Chancellor’s Court had re-located to the Green Heart encampment, with there being some 83 tents or gazebos on the green space on June 20.
The direct costs to the university of the occupation were just under £22,000, the court was told, with the relocation costs of affected graduation celebrations being £195,000.
Dr Blanco said “exclusionary behaviour and property damage” had led to the re-possession of Chancellor’s Court, adding of Green Heart: “The university remains concerned that the situation will continue to deteriorate if the encampment is not now brought to an end.”
