Here's What Pro-Palestine Student Protests Look Like Right Now
Reports of students protesting some American universities' ties with Israel have been generating copious headlines in the past few days.
Many of the student groups' aims are broadly similar: encourage the universities to cut financial ties with Israel or companies that support the war in Gaza. Campus protests began after the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre in Israel, and have picked up as the death toll in Palestine has risen to at least 30,000 people from subsequent Israeli attacks.
Student protest has a long history in the United States, such as the anti-Vietnam war activism of the '60s and '70s — especially at Columbia University, where protestors were arrested in 1968.
About 100 US colleges have reported gifts or contracts from Israel totaling $375 million over the past two decades, according to the Education Department database.
So here's what the protests look like right now at universities across the US:
1.Columbia is making headlines after police initially tried to clear out student encampments on the university's campus on April 18, with over a hundred students being arrested.
2.The majority were charged with trespassing. According to University President Nemat Shafik, the protests are in violation of "a long list of rules and policies."
3.On April 22, hundreds of Columbia faculty held a mass walkout in response to police involvement.
The last photo shows the names of Palestinians reportedly killed by Israeli airstrikes.
4.Classes will be hybrid until the end of the semester on April 29. Protestors have said that they will not move until their demands are met.
5.Other universities have also set up "solidarity encampments," such as NYU's Palestine Solidarity Coalition. Their Instagram bio states, "We organize to break the university's ties with the apartheid settler-colonial state."
6.On NYU's campus, over 120 people were arrested Monday following what university officials called "intimidating chants and several antisemitic incidents."
7.According to Teen Vogue, the NYPD reportedly pepper-sprayed students and arrested several faculty members.
8.This sparked further protests of police involvement in a peaceful protest the following day.
9.In Massachusetts, Harvard reportedly restricted access to Harvard Yard and hung warning signs against tents, leading some students to join the protest at MIT.
10.The Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee reportedly said it aims to “support MIT as part of the nationwide campaign to escalate for divestment."
Despite Harvard's rules, students began an encampment on their own campus earlier today.
11.At Yale, over 40 students were arrested on Monday. Student group Occupy Yale wrote on Instagram, “Yale, you have intimidated us, criminalized us, militarized our campus and failed to accept our demands. We will not stop, we will not rest until we have disclosure and divestment.”
The protesters depicted in the photo above were blurred to protect their privacy.
12.University of California, Berkeley students began their protests on Monday in solidarity with Columbia.
13.And finally, the UC Berkeley Divest group has called for an end to the university's investment in groups that “arm and sustain the genocide in Gaza.”
