University probes claims staff told students to remove Palestine flag from bake sale or be ‘removed by force’

An Edinburgh university has launched an investigation into allegations that staff told students they would be “removed by force” if they did not take down a Palestinian flag and leaflets on display at their charity bake sale.

The Society of Progressive Students (SPS) at Heriot-Watt University (HWU) lodged a formal complaint on Wednesday (16 July) claiming staff made them remove the flag and leaflets referencing “genocide” from their fundraiser for a Palestinian charity on 31 January this year.

Katie Wood, president of the society and organiser of the bake sale, said staff approached their stall and told them the items breached a ban on “political messaging” and had prompted “numerous complaints,” including one suggesting “there will be trouble” if the students were not removed.

Emails obtained by The Herald and Liberty Investigates reveal how the university apparently also tried to ban the flag at another bake sale fundraiser for a Palestinian charity, due to be held by the University and College Union (UCU) 10 days later, in an “attempt to avoid a similar issue.”

HWU eventually allowed the flag to be flown after a UCU member questioned whether prohibiting the Palestinian flag was discriminatory.

A HWU spokesperson said it would be carrying out an investigation into the 31 January bake sale event to “establish a full set of circumstances” and that it would be “inappropriate to comment” while this is ongoing.

Wood told The Herald she and her fellow students were left feeling “targeted and uncomfortable” after staff threatened to use force to remove them if they did not comply with requests to remove their Palestinian flag and leaflets.

She provided documents showing she had provided the university nine days’ notice in submitting a request to book a stall for a “bake sale to raise donations for a Palestinian charity,” which was approved.

Yet on the day of the event, Ms Wood said two members of the university’s safeguarding team told them to remove the flag, allegedly saying it was “university policy that no political messaging was allowed.”

Wood told the Herald: “The Palestinian flag is not inherently political, any more than any other flag at any event would be. Attempting to remove the flag is discriminatory towards Palestinian students, as it implies their existence is inherently political and they are not welcome or safe on campus.”

Safeguarding staff also allegedly told the students “numerous complaints” had been submitted about the stall, including one asking for them to be removed “or there will be trouble”.

Wood added: “This was extremely concerning that we would receive a threat such as this, and that the safeguarding member took this to us instead of dealing with the student threatening our safety. This seems to show a great flaw in their approach to solving conflicts and harassment.”

Wood said the students eventually decided to comply with demands to remove the items in question in order to continue with their fundraiser.

She said: “After continued attempts to reason, the safeguarding members threatened that if we did not comply, we would be ‘removed by force.’

“We have been part of and have ran this same event before several times and have never faced this reaction. This is disappointing, and has made us feel targeted and uncomfortable within our university.”

They put away the flag, and handed out leaflets only to students who asked.

Wood added that she and her fellow students asked for the names of the safeguarding staff in order to file a complaint, but they allegedly refused to identify themselves.

A HWU spokesperson said: “On Wednesday 16 July, we received a formal complaint relating to a bake sale event that took place at our Edinburgh campus on 31 January 2025. An investigation will now be carried out in line with our Complaints Handling Procedure (CHP) to establish the full set of circumstances. While the investigation is ongoing, it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time.”

Emails disclosed under freedom of information laws reveal that university staff discussed the SPS bake sale “incident” as they debated how to handle a similar event being held by the local branch of the UCU.

A staff member wrote, on 5 February 2025, that “in an attempt to avoid a similar issue” they had contacted the UCU organisers to request that they “didn’t provide a flag and that any literature provided reflects university policies.”

According to the email, this “inadvertently caused an issue.”

The email quotes a response from someone connected to the UCU fundraiser, who questions the justification for banning the flag.

They wrote: “I have never seen any literature stating that national flags are not permitted … If you could point me in the direction of any relevant literature, I would be grateful.

“I will also check with UCU as it is important not to have discriminatory situation where the Palestinian flag is the ONLY [sic] one that is not allowed on campus.”

People close to the event told The Herald the Palestinian flag was allowed at the UCU fundraiser.

The revelations come days after it was revealed that HWU agreed to a request from arms company Raytheon UK to monitor students for signs of potential protest activity targeting a career fair held last February. The company, which supplies the Israeli military, was concerned about receiving “unwanted attention”.

Raytheon UK’s requests – which HWU staff agreed to in an email – included monitoring university chat groups before the event, actively monitoring CCTV and carrying out “enhanced patrols” during the fair in order to spot signs of students gathering and “act as a deterrent” to help safeguard the Raytheon UK employees.

The university denied it was involved in improper monitoring.

A spokesperson said: “Heriot-Watt University categorically denies any suggestion of improper monitoring of our community. These allegations, completely misrepresent the way the university operates.

“For absolute clarity, our safeguarding team does not have access to student chat rooms or online discussion forums, nor would they ever be expected or requested by the University to monitor them.”

A version of this report was published by The Herald