London, 21st April 2026 – The International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) condemns the revelations in a joint investigation by Al Jazeera English and Liberty Investigates that identified that 12 British universities paid a private firm run by former military intelligence officials to “spy” on student protesters and academics, including those who have expressed solidarity with Palestine.  

The investigation revealed evidence that Horus Security Consultancy Limited “trawled through student social media feeds and conducted secret counter-terror threat assessments on behalf of some of the UK’s most elite institutions.” It is an appalling yet unsurprising revelation that speaks to the increasing patterns of hostility, aggression, and crackdown on pro-Palestine protests and organisers in the UK.  

This crackdown is evident in the UK government’s recent cumulative impact amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill which is an affront to the rights to freedom of expression and assembly across Britain and will purposefully affect pro-Palestine protests. The normalisation of criminalising dissent in the UK can also be seen in the Police Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022, the Public Order Act 2023, the proscription of Palestine Action in 2025, and the Metropolitan Police’s banning of certain pro-Palestine chants. As with student encampments, universities are once again a particular flashpoint for this crackdown, with students and academics targeted. 

Horus Security Consultancy Limited describes itself as a “leading intelligence” firm and has been paid, as the investigation by Al Jazeera and Liberty Investigates uncovered, at least £440,000 by universities since 2022. The list includes the University of Oxford, Imperial College London, University College London (UCL), King’s College London (KCL), and the London School of Economics (LSE).  

That the firm was paid by some of Britain’s leading universities to monitor students and protest groups is indicative of Orwellian levels of surveillance and is a further clampdown on activism and dissent across Britain.  

Gina Romero, the UN special rapporteur for freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, has since pointed to the “profound legal concerns” regarding the use of AI to harvest and analyse student data under the guise of open-source intelligence , allowing for excessive  data on students to be collected, by companies free from public scrutiny, and used for purposes that remain unclear. 

The lack of public scrutiny faced by private companies such as Horus is deeply concerning and the attacks on pro-Palestinian student activism in the UK feeds into a wider crackdown on civil liberties we are seeing across the country. 

In line with these disturbing trends, a report by the European Legal Support Centre published in February this year found that academics and students were more likely to face repression for their pro-Palestine views than any other group in the UK.  

Órlaith Roe, ICJP’s Public Affairs and Communications Officer, said:  

“It is deeply frightening that some of the UK’s most respected universities have paid a private firm run by former military intelligence officials to surveil their own students and academics, particularly those in the pro-Palestine movement.  

The UN Special Rapporteur’s warning that this amounts to a ‘state of terror’ should sound alarm bells for anyone who values freedom of speech and assembly in this country. This is not an isolated incident, but part of a troubling pattern of targeted monitoring of dissent in the UK – and without urgent scrutiny, it will not be the last.” 

ENDS 

Notes for Editors: 

The International Centre of Justice for Palestinians is an independent organisation of lawyers, politicians and academics who support the rights of Palestinians and aim to protect their rights through the law.   

For more information, to arrange an interview with a spokesperson, please contact the ICJP news desk at [email protected]. 

Image: Kwh1050 via Wikimedia Commons