University of Cambridge’s Senate House splattered with red paint

Pro-Palestine groups have claimed responsibility for splattering the University of Cambridge Senate House with red paint on Saturday morning.

The protest comes ahead of next week’s graduation ceremonies at the neo-classical building.

Palestine Action and Youth Front For Palestine said Cambridge students helped with the attack in protest at what they called the university’s failure to act against Israel’s “genocide” of Palestinians in Gaza.

The University of Cambridge said: “We strongly condemn this act of vandalism.”

The Senate House, built between 1722 and 1730, is used for meetings of the Senate and graduation ceremonies. It is unclear whether it can be cleaned in time for the ceremonies.

Palestine Action and Youth Front For Palestine accused the university of investing in partnerships that are enabling “Palestinian genocide”.

They posted: “The Senate House is now drenched in red, symbolising the ongoing complicity in Palestinian bloodshed.”

The post links to the song Hind’s Hall by Macklemore, which was released in May defending the right to call for divestment.

A student set to graduate was outside Senate House. They described the sight as “quite striking” and said that while they assume they’ll clean it all up before the ceremonies it was making them “a bit worried about what might actually happen at graduation”.

Another student asked whether the action was taken in relation to the conflict in Gaza, adding they hoped the protest was the work of “students who actually have skin in the game”.

Cambridge for Palestine have been tagged in the Instagram post, but have not claimed a role in the action.

The activist group set up an encampment on King’s Parade outside Senate House last month, ahead of honorary Masters graduation ceremonies.

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