0h 6min, jul 9, 2026 y - Crackdown on pro-Palestine Students

Description:

Khadija* was just seven weeks into her degree when she received an early-morning phone call from her university, King’s College London, that left her scared and confused.

The then-18-year-old was told she had made “inappropriate and offensive remarks” about one of her lecturers, who had served in the Israeli army. Over the next five months she would go through a disciplinary process that would see her banned from attending the lecturer’s classes and ordered to write a 2,000-word “reflective” essay. She would also be considered for referral to the UK government’s “counterterrorism” programme, Prevent, which rights groups have criticised for disproportionately targeting Muslims and lacking transparency.

This all took place last year after the teenager posted in a pro-Gaza student WhatsApp group, saying she had come across her lecturer’s public LinkedIn profile and felt “sick” to discover they had spent four years in the Israeli army and had reposted and liked content defending Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians.

Added to timeline:

Date: