Waves of Campus Protests Against the U.S.-Backed Israeli War of Genocide Continue… and Spread

 

Several hundred students and pro-Palestinian supporters rally at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, April 22, 2024.  

Since we reported at the start of this week on the wave of protests at campuses across the country against the U.S.-backed Israeli war in Gaza, sparked by the student encampment at Columbia University in New York City, encampments, walkouts, rallies and other actions have not only continued but spread. This is a very good and important development, inspiring and challenging millions more throughout society. Here are some of these continuing and spreading campus protests—in the face of police and threats from campus administrators—in the past three days.

At Columbia University, president Minouche Shafik had called in the NYPD riot pigs last week against the protest encampment, and more than 100 protesters were arrested. When the protests continued after this vicious assault, Shafik set a deadline for Tuesday night for the encampment to disband, and then extended the deadline for another 48 hours. On Wednesday, MAGA Republi-fascist House Speaker Johnson landed on the campus to publicly call for Shafik’s resignation for not shutting down the protests immediately—and raised the possibility that the National Guard should be called in if the student encampment continues. Students met Johnson with boos and shouts of “stop the genocide” and “free Palestine.”

At other campuses in New York City, hundreds of protesters at New York University (NYU) defied threats from campus officials and set up tents at Gould Plaza. Monday night, the NYPD moved in to take down tents, push students out, and arrest dozens. At New School, students set up protest tents inside a school lobby and others formed picket lines. Asked how long they would continue, a first-year student said, “We’re demanding something. So if it doesn’t happen, we’re going to have to keep going.”

 

New York: Students at NYU have been protesting genocide in Palestine.  April 22, 2024, the NYPD moved in to take down tents, push students out, and arrest dozens.    Photo: AP

At Yale University, an Ivy League school in New Haven, CT, police moved in against campus protesters Monday, on the third night of their encampment demanding the university divest from weapons manufacturers. They arrested 47. Defying the pigs, students had locked arms and circled around the flagpole at Beinecke Plaza. Protests have continued on the campus.

At another Ivy League school, Brown University in Providence, RI, students began an encampment Wednesday morning with “more than two dozen tents pitched on the main green and roughly 75 students participating.”

American University, Washington, DC: Hundreds of students marched to the university president’s office on Tuesday to demand that the school divest from Israel.

University of Texas, Austin: On Wednesday, according to a Guardian report, “Hundreds of students walked out of class to protest against the conflict in Gaza and demand the university divest from companies that manufacture machinery used in Israel’s war efforts, carrying signs and chanting. Dozens of local and state police—including some on horseback and holding batons—formed a line to stop protesters from marching through campus. Officers pushed them off the campus lawn and at one point sent people tumbling into the street.” At least 20 were arrested, including a photojournalist.

Ohio State University, Columbus, OH: Campus administrators called on the police to forcibly kick out dozens of protesters who had occupied a campus building to call out the school’s “complicity in Israeli settler-colonialism and apartheid and the climate crisis.” They arrested two protesters, from Students for Justice in Palestine and Ohio Youth for Climate Justice.

University of Pittsburgh: There was a sit-in in support of the Palestinian people, and students and faculty members set up tents on the campus. 

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor: According to the Michigan Daily, “About 40 pro-Palestine University of Michigan student protesters set up an encampment on the Diag Monday morning…”

University of Southern California (USC), Los Angeles: Students began an “occupation” of Alumni Park on the campus in support of people of Palestine and demanded ending university investments in Israel. Protesters faced off against campus cops who moved in to try to dismantle tents and remove signs. As we post this Wednesday night, the LAPD with batons and helmets have begun to arrest protesters who are refusing to leave the park. According to a New York Times report, “A few dozen protesters are standing in a circle, linking arms in the middle of the park. About 200 other protesters have moved to the edges of the park, chanting, ‘Divulge, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest.’”

California Polytechnic University, Humboldt, Northern California: Hundreds of protesters occupied Siemens Hall Tuesday night. 

 

Hundreds of pro-Palestinian students and protesters rally in front of Sproul Hall, UC Berkeley, April 22, 2024.    Photo: AP

University of California, Berkeley: On Monday night, protesters “camped out overnight in Sproul Plaza following a demonstration to demand an end to the war in Gaza and the university's divestment from companies with ties to Israel. Students occupied the steps in front of Sproul Hall and pitched tents in front of the building, calling the action a ‘solidarity encampment.’ The encampment began as a rally in solidarity with the ongoing pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University...”

Among other campuses around the country where students are protesting: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA; Boston University and Emerson College, Boston, MA; Tufts University, Medford, MA; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Rice, University of Houston, Texas A&M, UT-Dallas, all in Texas; University of New Mexico, Albuquerque; University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.