Current Final

Author: AFP

  • Spain, Ireland and Norway recognise Palestinian state

    Spain, Ireland and Norway recognise Palestinian state

    Madrid (AFP) – Spain, Ireland and Norway are formally recognising a Palestinian state on Tuesday in a decision slammed by Israel as a “reward” for Hamas more than seven months into the genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

    The three European countries believe their initiative has strong symbolic impact, which is likely to encourage others to follow suit.

    “Recognition of the State of Palestine is not only a matter of historic justice… It is also an essential requirement if we are all to achieve peace,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said before meeting his cabinet.

    The move, he said, was “not against anyone, least of all Israel”.

    “It is the only way to move towards the solution that we all recognise as the only possible way to achieve a peaceful future — that of a Palestinian state living side-by-side with the state of Israel in peace and security.”

    Sanchez also said the decision reflected Spain’s “outright rejection of Hamas, which is against the two-state solution” and whose October 7 attacks led to the Gaza war.

    The plans were unveiled last week in a coordinated announcement by the prime ministers of the three countries.

    Both the Spanish and Irish cabinets were meeting to formally approve the step on Tuesday morning, while Norway informed Palestinian prime minister Mohammed Mustafa its recognition would also take effect the same day.

    Entering the cabinet meeting, Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris said it was “an important moment”.

    He said it sent “a signal to the world is that there are practical actions you can take as a country to help keep the hope… of a two-state solution alive”.

    ‘Incitement to genocide’

    The decision has provoked a furious response from Israel and further exacerbated diplomatic tensions, notably with Spain.

    Last week, Sanchez’s far-left deputy Yolanda Diaz hailed the move saying: “We cannot stop. Palestine will be free from the river to the sea”, which Israel’s Madrid envoy denounced as a “clear call for the elimination of Israel”.

    The slogan refers to the British mandate borders of Palestine, which stretched from the River Jordan to the Mediterranean before Israel was created in 1948.

    On Tuesday, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz went even further.

    “Sanchez, as long as you don’t fire your deputy and you recognise a Palestinian state, you are participating in the incitement to commit genocide and war crimes against the Jewish people,” he wrote on X.

    On Sunday, Katz posted a video on X splicing footage of the October 7 attacks with flamenco dancing, saying: “Sanchez: Hamas thanks you for your service”.

    Spain condemned the post as “scandalous and revolting”.

    On Monday, Katz ordered the first of a series of “preliminary punitive measures”, ordering Spain’s Jerusalem consulate to stop offering consular services to Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

    Differences within the EU

    Recognising Palestinian statehood has provoked sharp disagreement within the 27-nation European Union.

    For decades, formal recognition of a Palestinian state has been seen as the endgame of a negotiated peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

    Washington and most Western European nations have said they are willing to one day recognise Palestinian statehood, but not before agreement on thorny issues like the status of Jerusalem and final borders.

    The Gaza bloodshed has revived calls for Palestinians to be given their own state.

    Ever more European countries are expressing a desire to do so, although others remain reticent.

    France, for example, believes it is not the right time to do so, while Germany only envisages recognition following negotiations between the two sides.

    Tuesday’s move will mean 145 of the United Nations’ 193 member states now recognise Palestinian statehood.

    In 2014, Sweden became the first EU member to recognise a Palestinian state.

    It followed six other European countries that took the step before joining the bloc — Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Romania.

    Israeli genocide against Palestinians in Gaza has killed more than 36,000 people, also mostly civilians, according to the health ministry.

  • Deadly Bangladesh cyclone one of longest seen

    Deadly Bangladesh cyclone one of longest seen

    Bangladeshi weather experts said Tuesday that a deadly cyclone that carved a swathe of destruction was one of the quickest-forming and longest-lasting they’d experienced, blaming climate change for the shift.

    Cyclone Remal, which made landfall in low-lying Bangladesh and neighbouring India on Sunday evening with fierce gales and crashing waves, left at least 23 people dead, destroyed thousands of homes, smashed seawalls and flooded cities across the two countries.

    “In terms of its land duration, it is one of the longest in the country’s history,” Azizur Rahman, director of the state-run Bangladesh Meteorological Department told AFP, adding it had battered the country for more than 36 hours.

    In contrast, Cyclone Aila, which hammered Bangladesh in 2009, lasted around 34 hours.

    Cyclones have killed hundreds of thousands of people in Bangladesh in recent decades, and the number of superstorms hitting its densely populated coast has increased sharply, from one a year to as many as three, due to the impact of climate change.

    Slow-moving — and therefore longer-lasting — storms bring greater destruction.

    “I’ve seen many storms in my life but nothing like this cyclone”, said Asma Khatun, an 80-year-old widow who lives with her son, a fisherman in Bangladesh’s hard-hit coastal town of Patuakhali.

    “Before, the storm came and went away… now it doesn’t seem to go away. The incessant pouring and heavy wind kept us stuck for days”.

    Rahman said the cyclone triggered massive rains, with some cities receiving at least 200 millimetres (7.9 inches).

    Storm surges breached multiple embankments, meaning seawater flooded into farmland, damaged freshwater fish farms common along the coast, or corrupted drinking water.

    Bangladesh’s state minister for disaster Mohibbur Rahman said 3.75 million people had been affected by the cyclone,  more than 35,000 homes were destroyed, and another 115,000 damaged.

    “We don’t know where to go,” said Setara Begum, 75, surveying the wreckage of her home after its tin roof was ripped off.

    Azizur Rahman said the cyclone formed more quickly than almost all the cyclones they have monitored in recent decades.

    “Of course, quick cyclone formation and the long duration of cyclones are due to the impact of climate change,” Rahman said.

    “It took three days for it to turn into a severe cyclone from low pressure in the Bay of Bengal… I’ve never seen a cyclone formed from a low pressure in such a quick time,” he said.

    “Usually, a cyclone is formed in the south and southwest of the Bay of Bengal, then takes seven to eight days to turn into a severe cyclone.”

    But while scientists say climate change is fuelling more storms, better forecasting and more effective evacuation planning have dramatically reduced death tolls.

    Around a million people in Bangladesh and neighbouring India fled inland seeking safety — but many people preferred to stay put to guard their homes.

    In Bangladesh, Cyclone Remal killed at least 17 people, according to the disaster management office and police, who reported Tuesday the additional deaths of a husband and wife, “crushed under stacks of bricks” when their house collapsed.

    Some drowned. Others were killed by debris, falling trees or electrocuted by falling power lines.

    Thousands of electricity poles were torn down, and power is out across large areas, said Biswanath Sikder, chief engineer of the Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board.

    “More than 20 million people are without electricity,” Sikder told AFP. “We are working hard to bring around 50 percent of these affected people by Tuesday evening.”

    In India, six people died, West Bengal state officials said.

    But the worst impact was stemmed by the expansive Sundarbans mangrove forest straddling Bangladesh and India — where the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers meet the sea, Bangladesh’s state weather department said.

    The crucial sea-water coastal forests help dissipate the violence of such storms.

    The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) warned this month that half of the world’s mangrove ecosystems are at risk of collapse due to climate change, deforestation and pollution.

  • For deaf children in Pakistan, school is life

    For deaf children in Pakistan, school is life

    Lahore (Pakistan) (AFP) – At a school for the deaf in Pakistan, the faces of students are animated, their smiles mischievous, as their hands twirl in tandem with their sign language teacher.

    The quiet classes exude joy, led often by teachers who are also deaf.

    “I have friends, I communicate with them, joke with them, we share our stories with each other about what we have done and not done, we support each other,” said Qurat-ul-Ain, an 18-year-old deaf woman who joined the school a year ago.

    More than 200 pupils, children and adults mostly from disadvantaged backgrounds, are among the few given a new fervour for life at this inner-city school in historic Lahore.

    Of more than a million deaf school-age children in Pakistan, less than five percent go to school.

    The figure is even lower for girls and, without a language to express themselves, many children are marginalised by society and even their families.

    “Life is a little difficult. There is a huge communication gap here where people generally don’t know sign language,” said Qurat-ul-Ain.

    At the school run by charity Deaf Reach, pupils learn sign language in English and Urdu before progressing on to the national curriculum.

    Everyone has a name in sign language, which often has to do with a physical characteristic.

    Younger children learn with visuals: a word and a sign are associated with an image.

    Their peers turn their thumbs down for a wrong answer and make the applause sign — twisting hands –- for a correct one.

    Families learning to sign

    Founded in 1998 by an American and funded with donations, Deaf Reach now has eight schools across the country, educating 2,000 students on a “pay what you can afford” basis, with 98 percent of children on scholarships.

    The vast majority of students at the school come from hearing families, who are also offered the chance to learn how to sign and break the language barrier with their son or daughter.

    Adeela Ejaz explained how she struggled to come to terms with her first born son — now 10 years old — being deaf.

    “When I couldn’t understand what he was trying to say he would bang his head against the wall and floor,” the 35-year-old told AFP.

    “It was tough for everyone because no-one knew how to communicate with him. Everyone would tell us he is deaf but I wasn’t prepared to accept that.”

    The mother and son pair are now both learning to sign.

    “I am getting better at signing and I am able to communicate with my son. He’s now become so attached to me.”

    The programme makes extensive use of technology, and offers an online dictionary and a phone app.

    It has also found employment for more than 2,000 deaf people with around 50 Pakistani companies.

    Huzaifa, 26, who became deaf after contracting a fever at a young age, was given a stitching apprenticeship at Deaf Reach to help him into the skilled workforce.

    “Teachers in the government school didn’t know any sign language. They would just write notes on the board and tell us to copy it. We used to get really disheartened, and I would be extremely worried for my future,” he told AFP.

    His family pushed for him to become educated, helping him to learn the basics of sign language before he received formal coaching.

    “My parents never threw me away. They spared no effort in ensuring I was able to continue my education,” he said.

    Without their dedication, he said: “I’d be working as a day labourer somewhere, cutting leaves or cementing walls.”

    Isolated and fearful

    Sign language varies from one country to another, with its own associated culture, and regional variations sometimes exist.

    According to World Federation of the Deaf, 80 percent of the approximately 70 million deaf people in the world have no access to education.

    “I used to sit idly at home, use the mobile or play outside. I never had a clue about what people were saying,” said Faizan, 21, who has been at Deaf Reach for 11 years and dreams of working abroad.

    “Before learning how to sign I used to feel very weak mentally and had an inferiority complex and fear. But thankfully there is none of that anymore.”

    Attitudes towards people with disabilities are slowly improving in Pakistan, which has introduced laws against discrimination.

    “We have seen over the years the mentality change tremendously. From many people hiding their deaf children, feeling embarrassed, ashamed,” noted Daniel Marc Lanthier, director of operations of the foundation behind Deaf Reach.

    Nowadays families are “coming out in the open, asking for education for their children, asking to find employment for them,” he said, though much work remains.

    “With a million deaf children who don’t have access to school, it’s a huge challenge, it’s a huge goal to be met.”

  • Fire at children’s hospital in India kills six babies, owner arrested

    Fire at children’s hospital in India kills six babies, owner arrested

    Indian police said on Monday they had arrested a doctor and the owner of an unlicensed hospital where six newborn babies died when a fire erupted in a crowded ward without fire exits.

    The blaze broke out at the New Born Baby Care hospital in New Delhi’s Vivek Vihar area late Saturday evening. In the crucial first minutes, bystanders spotted the fire and braved the blaze to rescue the newborns inside.

    “We didn’t even name her […] I never even held her in my arms,” Anjar Khan, whose 11-day-old daughter died in the blaze, was quoted as saying by the Hindustan Times.

    Vinod Sharma, who lost his day-old baby boy, blamed the hospital authorities for the tragedy.

    “He had a problem with breathing. The doctor had said that he will be fine in a few days,” Sharma was quoted as saying by The Indian Express newspaper. “We didn’t know that the hospital would kill him.”

    Mothers wait to identify the bodies of their children a day after a fire broke out at a children’s hospital in New Delhi
    Arun SANKAR

    Five babies rescued alive

    Fires are common in India due to poor building practices, overcrowding and a lack of adherence to safety regulations. The narrow two-storey hospital building was squeezed between a row of homes, without space on either side, making it hard for fire engines to reach.

    “We were trying to control the fire, but there was no way to enter the building and rescue the 12 babies who were trapped,” local fire officer Atul Garg told reporters.

    Senior police officer Surendra Chaudhary told AFP that the hospital did “not have a fire exit system”.

    Its licence expired in March and the owner filled the ward with more than twice the number of beds it previously had permission for.

    “The hospital had permission for up to five beds but they had installed more than 10 beds,” he said. “In view of all this, we have made the arrests.”

    Five babies pulled out from the fire are still recovering in another hospital.

    ‘Highly flammable’

    The blaze in the hospital on Saturday broke out just hours after a separate fire at an amusement park in India’s western state of Gujarat. The toll from that fire rose to 28 on Monday, police said.

    The blaze — which ripped through a centre with a bowling alley and other games crowded with youngsters — was triggered by welding work on the ground floor, chief fire officer Ilesh Kher told reporters.

    “The CCTV footage clearly shows that a spark from the welding work fell on a stack of corrugated cardboard sheets below, causing the fire,” Kher said. “This spread very fast as the material was highly flammable.”

    The corpses were so badly burned they have not been identified so far.

    Police have charged seven people with culpable homicide in connection to that fire. The two fires came as northern India was gripped by intense heat, with temperatures in Delhi hitting 46.8°C.

  • Over 300 million children a year face sexual abuse online: study

    Over 300 million children a year face sexual abuse online: study

    More than 300 million children a year are victims of online sexual exploitation and abuse, according to the first global estimate of the scale of the problem published on Monday.

    Researchers at the University of Edinburgh found that one in eight of the world’s children have been victims of non-consensual taking, sharing and exposure to sexual images and video in the past 12 months.

    That amounts to about 302 million young people, said the university’s Childlight Global Child Safety Institute, which carried out the study.

    There have been a similar number of cases of solicitation, such as unwanted sexting and requests for sexual acts by adults and other youths, according to the report.

    Offences range from so-called sextortion, where predators demand money from victims to keep images private, to the abuse of AI technology to create deepfake videos and pictures.

    The problem is worldwide but the research suggests the United States is a particularly high-risk area, with one in nine men there admitting to online offending against children at some point.

    “Child abuse material is so prevalent that files are on average reported to watchdog and policing organisations once every second,” said Childlight chief executive Paul Stanfield.

    “This is a global health pandemic that has remained hidden for far too long. It occurs in every country, it’s growing exponentially, and it requires a global response,” he added.

    The report comes after UK police warned last month about criminal gangs in West Africa and Southeast Asia targeting British teenagers in sextortion scams online.

    Cases — particularly against teenage boys — are soaring worldwide, according to non-governmental organisations and police.

    Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) issued an alert to hundreds of thousands of teachers telling them to be aware of the threat their pupils might face.

    The scammers often pose as another young person, making contact on social media before moving to encrypted messaging apps and encouraging the victim to share intimate images.

    They often make their blackmail demands within an hour of making contact and are motivated by extorting as much money as possible rather than sexual gratification, the NCA said.

    pdh/bp

    © Agence France-Presse

  • Israel official says ‘intention’ to renew Gaza talks ‘this week’

    Israel official says ‘intention’ to renew Gaza talks ‘this week’

    An Israeli official said Saturday the government had an “intention” to renew “this week” talks aimed at reaching a hostage release deal in Gaza, after a meeting in Paris between US and Israeli officials.

    “There is an intention to renew the talks this week and there is an agreement,” the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

    The Israeli official did not elaborate on the agreement, but Israeli media reported that Mossad chief David Barnea had agreed during meetings in Paris with mediators CIA Director Bill Burns and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani on a new framework for the stalled negotiations.

    Top US diplomat Antony Blinken also spoke with Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz about new efforts to achieve a ceasefire and reopen the Rafah border crossing, Washington said.

    Talks aimed at reaching a hostage release and truce deal in the Gaza Strip ground to a halt this month after Israel launched a military operation in the territory’s far-southern city of Rafah.

    The current war in Gaza has caused the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

    Meanwhile, Israel has carried out a massacre of 35,903 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to data from Gaza’s health ministry.

  • At Cannes, Palestinian films ‘more important than ever’

    At Cannes, Palestinian films ‘more important than ever’

    Veteran Palestinian film director Rashid Masharawi was abroad when the Gaza war broke out last year, so he decided to hand over the camera to other filmmakers still inside the besieged territory.

    “They are the story” of Masharawi’s project, which he presented at the Cannes Film Festival in France, more than seven months after the conflict erupted.

    “They were fighting to protect their lives, their families, to search for food, for wood to make a fire,” said Masharawi.The result is a collection of short films called Ground Zero recounting the Israeli bombardment of Gaza and ensuing humanitarian disaster from the perspective of civilians on the ground.

    In one, a mother displaced by the conflict plops her daughter in a large white bucket and, with a clean Turkish coffee pot, gently pours water over her to bathe her. In another, a man recounts his 24-hour ordeal under rubble after the building he was in collapsed.

    Masharawi directed the 20 teams in Gaza from abroad – a process he described as “very, very, very difficult”. “Sometimes we needed to wait one week to 10 days just to be in contact with somebody, or just to have internet to upload material,” said Masharawi, who was born in Gaza.

    At other times, teams were busy searching for a tent, finding insulin for a director’s mother, or “an ambulance to go and save some kids”. The films are part of several Palestinian tales screening at the festival, including Mehdi Fleifel’s Athens-set refugee drama To A Land Unknown.

    Israel’s military offensive has killed more than 35,000 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to health ministry figures in the region. Thousands of miles away from the conflict, Israel’s pavilion in Cannes is promoting its filmmaking.

    Palestinian cinema does not have its own tent at the event, but Algeria has made space for its filmmakers at the other end of the international market in Cannes.

    “Our narrative and storytelling is more important than ever,” Norway-based Palestinian director Mohamed Jabaly said.He finished filming his latest project, Life is Beautiful, just before the war started. A close friend who shot the last scene of the film has not survived the war. “He was killed while waiting for food aid,” said Jabaly.

    Munir Atallah, of US-based Watermelon Pictures, is hoping to bring the quirky family portrait to North American audiences, saying Palestinians have “for too long been shut out by the gatekeepers of the industry”.

    One Palestinian who has already found viewers in the United States is Cherien Dabis, who made 2009 film Amreeka and co-directed hit Hulu series Ramy. But the shooting of her latest film – a historic epic – was disrupted by the Gaza war.

    One of the crew on the ground in the occupied West Bank town of Ramallah, Ala Abu Ghoush, has responded by making a documentary about the stalled project, which they are calling Unmaking Of. “The film is really asking the question: What is the importance of doing films and art in this kind of situation, in this war?” said Abu Ghoush.

  • Modi’s struggling rival Gandhi votes as India election resumes

    Modi’s struggling rival Gandhi votes as India election resumes

    New Delhi, India – Key Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi voted Saturday as the country’s six-week election resumed, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rivals accusing his government of unjustly targeting them in criminal probes.

    Modi, 73, remains roundly popular after a decade in office and his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is widely expected to win a third term next month after a poll hit by recurrent early summer heatwaves.

    His prospects have been further bolstered by several criminal investigations into his opponents, sparking concerns from UN rights chief Volker Turk and rights groups over the poll’s fairness.

    Gandhi, the most prominent leader of India’s opposition Congress party, cast his ballot at a polling station in New Delhi, where temperatures were forecast to reach 43 degrees Celsius (109 degrees Fahrenheit).

    A son, grandson and great-grandson of former prime ministers, Gandhi paused after voting to take a selfie with his mother Sonia but did not speak to crowds of reporters.

    The scion of a dynasty that dominated Indian politics for decades, he was convicted of criminal libel last year after a complaint by a member of Modi’s party.

    His two-year prison sentence saw him disqualified from parliament until the verdict was suspended by a higher court.

    Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, 55, leader of the opposition Aam Aadmi party, who was detained in March in a long-running graft case, was due to vote later Saturday.

    The Supreme Court bailed Kejriwal earlier this month and he returned to the campaign trail, urging Indians to vote against what he called a nascent “dictatorship”.

    “Modi has started a very dangerous mission,” he said soon after his release. “Modi will send all opposition leaders to jail.”

    Congress is spearheading an opposition alliance of more than two dozen parties competing jointly against Modi, including the Aam Aadmi party.

    Kejriwal’s organisation grew out of an anti-corruption movement a decade ago — its name means Common Man’s party — and has been elected to office in the Delhi region and the state of Punjab, but has struggled to establish itself as a nationwide force.

    In February authorities froze several Congress bank accounts as part of a running dispute over income tax returns filed five years ago, a move Gandhi said had severely impacted the party’s ability to contest the election.

    “We have no money to campaign, we cannot support our candidates,” the 53-year-old told reporters in March.

    Modi’s political opponents and international rights campaigners have long sounded the alarm on India’s shrinking democratic space.

    US think-tank Freedom House said this year that the BJP had “increasingly used government institutions to target political opponents”.

    Heatwave ‘red alert’

    India is voting in seven phases over six weeks to ease the immense logistical burden of staging an election in the world’s most populous country.

    Turnout is down several percentage points from the last national poll in 2019, with analysts blaming widespread expectations of a Modi victory as well as hotter-than-average temperatures heading into the Indian summer.

    India’s weather bureau this week issued a heatwave “red alert” for Delhi and surrounding states where tens of millions of people were casting their ballots on Saturday.

    The India Meteorological Department warned of heightened health risks for infants, the elderly and those with chronic diseases.

    Extensive scientific research shows climate change is causing heatwaves to become longer, more frequent and more intense, with Asia warming faster than the global average.

    More than 968 million people are eligible to vote in the Indian election, with the final round of polling on June 1 and results expected three days later.

    abh-asv/slb/sco

    © Agence France-Presse

  • No foul play in Raisi chopper crash: Iran

    No foul play in Raisi chopper crash: Iran

    Iran’s army has so far found no evidence of suspicious activity in a helicopter crash that killed the country’s president Ebrahim Raisi and seven others, state media reported.

    President Raisi, 63, along with his entourage died on Sunday after his helicopter went down in the country’s mountainous northwest while returning from a dam inauguration on the border with Azerbaijan.

    “No bullet holes or similar impacts were observed on the helicopter wreckage,” said a preliminary report by the general staff of the armed forces published by the official IRNA news agency late on Thursday evening.

    “The helicopter caught fire after hitting an elevated area,” it said, adding that “no suspicious content was observed during the communications between the watch tower and the flight crew”.

    Raisi’s helicopter had been flying on a “pre-planned route and did not leave the designated flight path” before the crash.

    The report said the wreckage of the helicopter had been found by Iranian drones early on Monday but the “complexity of the area, fog and low temperature” hindered the work of search and rescue teams.

    The army said “more time is needed” to investigate the crash and that it would announce more details later.

    Raisi was laid to rest in his hometown of Mashhad on Thursday, concluding days of funeral ceremonies in major cities of Iran, including the capital, attended by throngs of mourners.

    Among the people killed in the incident was Foreign Min­ister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian who was also buried on Thursday, in the town of Shahre Ray, south of Tehran.

  • UK police arrest 16 protesting against Israeli genocide of Gaza at Oxford University

    UK police arrest 16 protesting against Israeli genocide of Gaza at Oxford University

    UK police have arrested 16 people at a protest organised by a pro-Palestinian student group at Oxford University, in the latest flare-up on a prestigious campus over the genocide in Gaza.

    Thames Valley Police said the individuals were arrested Thursday on suspicion of aggravated trespass, while one was also held on suspicion of common assault.

    It follows protests in recent weeks at more than a dozen UK universities, including at world-renowned Oxford and Cambridge, emulating similar actions on campuses in the United States and elsewhere.

    Demonstrators opposed to Israel’s genocide in Gaza have made various demands, including that universities sever academic and financial ties with the country.

    In Oxford, the arrests came after students entered a university administrative building on Thursday morning, claiming they had “exhausted all other avenues of communication” with administrators.

    “Instead of engaging in dialogue with her students, the vice-chancellor chose to evacuate the building, place it on lockdown, and call the police to make arrests,” a spokesperson for the Oxford Action for Palestine (OA4P) protest group said.

    “We demand the administration meet with us to negotiate immediately.”

    Videos posted on social media showed people sitting on the ground in front of a police van being dragged away by officers, as onlookers chanted “shame”.

    Oxford University said in a statement that demonstrators had “gone beyond” peaceful protest, and that had “culminated in forced entry and temporary occupation” of some university offices.

    It added that OA4P had “escalated their protest actions from mainly peaceful to direct action tactics”, creating a “deeply intimidating environment” to community members, including Jewish students and staff.

    The university’s union, which represents academics, lecturers and staff, condemned “bringing in police to violently arrest” students who were “engaged in peaceful protest”.