Ex-student in damages claim from university over Palestine protest

A FORMER student who was dragged off stage at her graduation from a Welsh university for making a Palestine protest is taking legal action, saying it violated her right to freedom of expression.

- ABBIE WIGHTWICK Education editor [e-mail]

Aishah AlBader has taken the first step in civil proceedings against Bangor University for what she claims was assault/battery, false imprisonment, and for violating her right to freedom of expression.

The Kuwaiti national has hired London legal firm Gold Jennings to represent her.

Aishah's lawyers, Alexander Hogg and Jessica Harrison, said the claim arises from her graduation last year when Aishah intended to peacefully protest about Bangor University's investments in companies claimed to be "complicit in human rights violations against Palestinians and the unlawful occupation of Palestine".

In a 20-page letter, sent to Bangor University, Aishah says she was forcibly removed from the stage by security guards when she tried to peacefully protest.

She refused to shake the vice-hancellor's hand, handing him a leaflet about the university's investments, and walked across the stage with a pillowcase bearing the message “Bangor University invests in Genocide”.

Aishah said: "As I walked up to graduate, I could only think of Gaza - of the students who will never get to graduate, whose lives, dreams, and hopes have been destroyed under Israel's ongoing genocide. Tens of thousands have been killed, entire families wiped out, and schools and universities reduced to rubble.

"Knowing that Bangor University continues to invest in companies complicit in this devastation, I felt I could not simply accept my degree in silence.

"I knew I had to use that platform to centre those oppressed and dehumanised in Palestine. So, I held up a pillowcase reading 'Bangor University invests in Genocide'.