23 June 2026 – Director of Prevent Watch, Dr Layla Aitlhadj spoke at the BRISMES panel on Academic Freedom, Governance and Student Agency Under Colonial Constraints, presenting “Student Political Agency and the Governance of Palestine in UK Education.”
Drawing on 850+ cases documented by Prevent Watch, she set out how Prevent operates on two levels – flagging individuals, and giving institutions a lawful basis to cancel events and vet speakers before anyone is ever referred.
She traced this back through decades of UK state responses to student activism – from the Special Demonstration Squad’s surveillance of anti-apartheid students in the 1970s, to today.
The point was to show that Palestine is the latest, not the first, target and that Prevent is the latest tool, the one with the most bureaucratic teeth to try and silence student activism.
My argument: education isn’t targeted because it’s weak. It’s targeted because it’s powerful. Classrooms are where political identities are formed. In this case as in many others, control is dressed up as “care,” which is exactly why Prevent is branded as safeguarding.
We are grateful to the panel and BRISMES for the space to make this case.
(BRISMES (British Society for Middle Eastern Studies) is the UK’s leading academic organization for the study of the Middle East. Founded in 1973, it serves as a network for scholars, students, and professionals.)
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