The London School of Economics has been 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.
Several students set up the camp in the atrium of the ground floor of the Marshall Building in central London on 14 May, vowing to remain there until LSE met its demands.
LSE began legal action in June. A judge granted it an interim possession order on 14 June, meaning the encampment had to be disbanded within 24 hours. The students removed the encampment on 17 June, minutes before the deadline.
At a short hearing at Central London county court on Friday, District Judge Morayo Fagborun-Bennett granted a possession order, meaning no encampments can be set up at the same location indefinitely.
Olivia Davies, for LSE, said there had been “no breaches of the interim order” by the defendants since the interim possession order was granted.
Daniel Grütters, representing three students, said: “Those instructing me had only opposed the making of the interim possession order. Since that was made, we indicated that we would not defend the possession order. We are agreed that the possession order can be made.”
At the end of the hearing, the judge asked whether any students had faced disciplinary action over the encampment. Ms Davies responded: “Not in relation to the encampment, no.”
The judge replied: “That’s good to know.”
The group set up the encampment after the release of the Assets in Apartheid report by the LSE students’ union Palestine society.
The report claims that LSE has invested £89m in 137 companies involved in the conflict in Gaza, fossil fuels, the arms industry or nuclear weapons production.
Dozens of students slept in the Marshall Building for more than a month and said they would remain there until LSE took several steps, including divestment and democratisation of the financial decision-making process.
Source: theguardian.com
