A High Court judge in the UK banned pro-Palestinian activists from disrupting a University of Cambridge graduation ceremony after a hearing on Thursday.
Justice Michael Fordham imposed an injunction covering a ceremony that took place on Saturday.
The lawyers representing the university who submitted the application intended for the judge to impose a wider injunction due to more general concerns about potential disruptions of future ceremonies, citing several ceremonies that had been disrupted in London.
They called for the injunction to cover four university premises in Cambridge, which will last until 2030, including the Senate House and its yard.
Ultimately, Justice Fordham decided to implement the injunction only for Saturday’s ceremony, which took place at the Senate House. However, he said that he wishes to reconsider the case in the near future.
One union called the university legal action a "shameful attack on democratic rights," according to the BBC.
The application was primarily aimed at preventing any disruptions by the group "Cambridge for Palestine," which previously carried out "direct action" at both Greenwich House and in Senate House Yard last year.
Encampment at the campus lasted 10 days
Last May, anti-Israel activists set up an encampment in Senate House Yard that lasted for 10 days, forcing the university to move its graduation ceremonies to a different location.
After the events at Greenwich House in November, the group posted on its social media, stating, "We will be back" and "We will not stop."
The university decided to take this action based on a "real and imminent risk" of protestors disrupting ceremonies.
Articles 10 and 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) protect the rights to freedom of expression and assembly. However, this does not include cases in which individuals are trying to compel others to act in a certain way, like the pro-Palestinian activists.
The university wanted "injunctive relief" to "restrain threatened acts of trespass and nuisance," according to Barrister Yaaser Vanderman, who led the university’s legal team.