@TheOxStu
Trinity Term, Week 5 | Friday 30 May 2025
OXFORD STUDENT The
The University of Oxford’s Student Newspaper, est. 1991
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Encore for Madgalen Street Cinema Isobel Wanstall
N The encampment at Magdalen. Credit: Aamna Shehzad
Oxford Against Genocide sets up encampment at Magdalen Aamna Shehzad
T
he evening of 16th May saw a few students setting up tents in the lawn outside Magdalen College, Oxford. A person shouted chants from a megaphone. Soon after, a crowd gathered at Magdalen’s main gates on High Street and started chanting “Free Free Palestine”. Protestors unfurled a banner reading “Oxford Against Genocide”, the name of the group that has claimed responsibility for the encampment at Magdalen. According to their Instagram account @oxfordagainstgen0c1de –– which was created in May and uploaded its first post around 7pm on the 16th –– the group is a “new collective in Oxford” dedicated to “Palestinian liberation”. This new group
is separate from Oxford Action For Palestine, which has so far been the primary group pushing Oxford to divest from its investments on the issue of Palestine. They launched an encampment to take action and pressure the university to meet demands such as disclosing and divesting university wide assets, ceasing banking with Barclays, and ending the gentrification of Oxford amongst others. In a recent post, Oxford Against Genocide disclosed that the set up an encampment at Magdalen because “many of the companies Magdalen rents to have ties in Israel” such as Larry Ellison and his newly founded Ellison Institute of Technology. Ellison founded Oracle, a computer technology company
that provides software applications. Oxford Against Genocide said that Oracle “supplies technology directly to the Israeli military” and that Ellison has “personally donated tens of millions” to the military. The Oxford Student reached out to Oxford Against Genocide for comment on why Oxford Against Genocide felt the urgency to set up an encampment. A representative replied that Israel has been “decimating” the Gaza strip for three months and that they are making demands of Oxford because it is “kind of the arch-colonial institution where if you, you know, turn your head, you’re going to walk into someone who is inevitably going to end up in a position of power. And they’re inheritors of a legacy of colonialism as well”. Continued on page 3
early two years after its closure in June 2023, The Oxford Cinema and Café – one of the oldest cinemas in Oxford – has reopened under new management. The Oxford Cinema and Café on Magdalen Street comprises two screening rooms and a foyer café. The Grade II listed building has been “Oxford’s home for film” since 1924, when it showed the silent film The Four Horsemen starring Rudolph Valentino. Odeon Cinemas, who owned the Oxford Cinema and Cafe
in 2023, had to close it down months before its 100th anniversary due to lack of profit post COVID-19. Alejandro Whyatt Miranda, whose family has owned and renovated cinemas across the UK since the early 1900s, took over the site in March 2025 after a successful licensing application to Oxford City Council in February. The new owner chose to honour the building’s long history in its new name, as it originally opened as “The Oxford”. The Oxford Student…
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Culture
Eurovision: The OxStu’s highlights OxStu Culture
L
umières, caméras, action: Eurovision is back. This year’s grand final is being held in Basel, Switzerland, after Nemo ’s win last year with “The Code”. Moment of silence for the Milkshake Man, and all the other songs which didn’t qualify for the grand final. According to Eurovisionworld.com, the three countries that went in with the best odds were, in order: Sweden (41%),
Austria (20%), and France (14%). In some ways Sweden is to Croatia last year what Austria is to Switzerland last year: Sweden and Croatia both went into the contest with the best odds, and an anthemic song that got the crowd on their feet. Austria and Switzerland went in as runner-ups with beautifully sung ballads. Ultimately last year it was Switzerland that beat their Croatian competition.
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Switzerland’s interval act. Credit: Eurovision Gallery