Michael Palin’s honorary Oxford degree ceremony disrupted by pro-Palestine protesters
Pro-Palestine protesters have targeted an awards ceremony at the University of Oxford honouring notable figures including Sir Michael Palin.
Oxford Action for Palestine (OA4P), a grassroots protest group, launched a demonstration outside the Radcliffe Camera library on Wednesday against figures being commended in this year’s Encaenia ceremony.
The annual event, considered one of the most illustrious occasions in the Oxford calendar, awards honorary degrees to distinguished alumni and other notable figures.
Campaigners said they were targeting Warren East and Sir Demis Hassabis as they claimed they were “complicit in Gaza genocide” because of their connections to companies said to have had dealings with Israel.
Mr East is the former chief executive of Rolls-Royce and British software company Arm Holdings. Sir Demis is a British computer scientist and co-founder of AI firm DeepMind. The company was bought by Google for ￡400 million in 2014 and has become the cornerstone of the search giant’s AI operations.
OA4P members waved posters stating “Google Cloud rains blood” and “Rolls-Royce kills kids”.
An OA4P spokesman said both Rolls-Royce and Google were listed on the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) list of companies accused of being “complicit in Israeli genocide, occupation, and apartheid”.
BDS, a pressure group launched in 2005, produces a list of Israeli companies and those aligned with the state for pro-Palestine supporters to boycott.
The group’s website links to reports alleging that Rolls-Royce has designed parts of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II, a stealth combat jet used by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).
The BDS movement has also called for action against Google, claiming it provides “cloud technology to the Israeli government and military”.
Mr West and Sir Demis, who was knighted in the latest King’s honours for services to AI, were among six figures awarded honorary Oxford degrees at the ceremony.
The other four were not accused of being complicit in the conflict in the Middle East.
They included Sir Michael, the Monty Python star and travel show host; Anoushka Shankar, a musician and daughter of sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar; Prof Salim Yusuf, a renowned Canadian cardiologist and epidemiologist; and Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a Nigerian economist and the seventh director general of the World Trade Organization.
A spokesman for Oxford University said there was no disruption inside the Sheldonian Theatre, where the ceremony went ahead as planned. However, they said the ceremonial procession was forced to take an alternative route to avoid protesters.
Meaning “festival” or “renewal” in Latin, the Oxford Encaenia is the surviving part of a more extensive ceremony called “The Act” which used to include musical works and satirical speeches.
Since 1760 it has seen academics, heads of colleges and university dignitaries parade through central Oxford in full academic dress.
Recent honorees include Hillary Clinton, the former US secretary of state, Martin Scorcese, an American film director and Sir Simon Schama, a British historian.
Mounting student political activism
The latest protest in Oxford comes amid mounting political activism across British campuses, partially in response to the Israel-Gaza war.
Oxford was forced to cancel exams last week after pro-Palestinian protesters stormed a building on campus.
The university called off end-of-year exams for 153 second-year chemistry students, as six demonstrators stormed the Exams Schools complex. Thames Valley Police attended the scene but no arrests were made.
More than a dozen encampments are currently in place across UK campuses, including at the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Manchester, Bristol and University College London.
The London School of Economics became the first university to evict a pro-Palestine sit-in earlier this week after obtaining a court order. Demonstrators were ordered to dismantle their tents and leave the Marshall Building on Monday after a month of occupation.
A Rolls-Royce spokesman said: “Rolls-Royce supports the UK Government and its allies in providing power solutions for defence purposes. In doing so, we abide by all applicable export control and sanctions laws. In the UK, those regulations demand that exports are considered against a range of criteria, including relevant international law.”
Google was approached for comment.
