The Abercromby Encampment- A Reflection

A year-long camp situated in Abercromby Square was on wide display for the whole student community at the University of Liverpool, with banners presenting clear demands for the University, ranging from demanding they cut ties with businesses such as Barclays for funding the Israeli army, demanding scholarships be offered to Palestinian students, and generally calling for the University to cease being ‘complicit in Genocide’.

With pavement drawings on the south campus, regular protests outside of the foundation building, the students of Abercromby- or Alareer square as they renamed it- did not limit themselves in terms of their activities.

 A student at the University of Liverpool who wishes to remain anonymous claimed the strategy of the encampment was picked because it was “part of a long history of student protest” and was chosen specifically as it gave nods to the strategies used during the south Africa apartheid, the American civil rights movement, and Columbia university in America who were the first student led organisation to set up an encampment to protest the Israel/Gaza conflict while also  “putting pressure and causing disruption to the uni”

Their cause garnered much support. The Instagram documenting their activities has garnered over 4500 followers. They held regular cookouts and teaching activities, which, looking at pictures from their Instagram, were sometimes widely attended, especially on occasions that marked anniversaries in the Palestine/Israel conflict. Indeed, the student claimed that while the encampment didn’t achieve its main aim of divestment, the camp provided an area of support to those directly affected by the conflict and educated people on colonialism more broadly. It provided a “sense of community and solidarity”.

While obviously many students did not agree with their actions based on political opinions, many anonymous statements offered up to the -Liverpool_unis_confessions account on Instagram told a clear tale of dislike for the encampment, not because of its political motives but for its unintended consequences on students. One sarcastically queried “if I do badly in my exams can I put the Palestinian protestors outside the library as an extenuating circumstance” on the 20^th of May, when backlash appeared from another anonymous confessor about how people had expressed distaste for how the protestors were disrupting their studies “people complaining about the encampment need to get a grip” arguments erupted in the comments, some claiming that disruption to people’s studies are a “small sacrifice” to pay for protesting for Palestine while others pointed out that its “inconsiderate the students aren’t the ones in the wrong the uni is your just making everyone hate you” and encouraged the protestors to hold their actions outside of the “uni admi building not the library where students are studying”.

Commenting on the negative response from the student community, the UOL student felt that, as what they are protesting against is so serious, it justifies more drastic methods of protesting. Despite this, while manifestations of negativity occurred in such posts, looks, and infamously the student who played Rule Britannia outside the encampment at 3 am in 2024. There were a lot of students who he had heard positive appraisal from about the encampment, but he did admit that due to many of his circle of friends agreeing with them politically and moral, they couldn’t give an accurate idea of the full response. Indeed, they also expressed that many students might have wanted to join but couldn’t due to financial, logistical or accessibility reasons and that “I hope” there were many of those students.

They felt the encampment had clearly put financial pressure on the university and disruption, as they expressed clear interest in emptying Abercromby/Alareer square of the students through cease-and-desist letters.

However, he did feel that in the future, the retrospective response to the encampment would be fully positive. Citing the suffragettes whose civil disobedience was admittedly far greater he talked about how now they are perceived “more positively” than they were at the time; he felt the same phenomenon would occur with the Palestine encampments. “once there is no monetary interest in denying what is happening (referencing the conflict) then it will come out people always thought there was a genocide happening”.

When people recognise “in hindsight” the encampment was needed, and the monetary interest vanishes, the actions of these students will be perceived overwhelmingly positively.