April 26, 2024
Updated 2 hours ago
Image source, Getty Images
Dozens of college campuses across the United States have been occupied by students protesting the war in Gaza.
More than a thousand demonstrators were arrested Tuesday night, including dozens at Columbia University in New York City.
Many universities are struggling to deal with encampments on their campuses in the days before graduation ceremonies.
Why are students protesting over the Gaza war?
Since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas and Israel’s retaliatory attack, students have held rallies, sit-ins, hunger strikes, and recently set up encampments to protest the war.
They are demanding that schools, many of which have large endowments, financially withdraw from Israel.
Divestment means selling shares in or severing financial ties with an Israeli company.
Student activists say that companies doing business in Israel or affiliated with Israeli organizations, as well as the universities that invest in those companies, are complicit in the ongoing war in Gaza. claims.
University endowments fund everything from research labs to scholarships, and most use the proceeds from investments of millions or even billions of dollars.
What happened at Columbia University?
Police raids were carried out on Tuesday night, clearing out posts and removing protesters from occupied university buildings.
Officers in riot gear climbed a ladder into the second floor of Hamilton Hall, then took the occupants away in a police bus.
Police subsequently removed all protesters from the scene and announced that the immediate confrontation was over.
It started earlier this month. Hundreds of students pitched tents on the upper Manhattan campus after Columbia University President Minoush Shafik testified before Congress about anti-Semitism on campus.
Mass arrests the next day did not deter the protests from continuing, sparking actions at more universities across the country. In-person classes at Columbia University have been canceled.
Negotiations to resolve the conflict broke down and police were called in again as the occupation spread to university buildings.
The university announced that the hall had been vandalized and sealed off, and that police would be present until mid-May to prevent further encampments.
Video Caption, Watch: See how the Gaza campus protests spread across the US
Where else are students protesting?
The escalation of the crisis in Colombia has affected similar encampments across the country, including:
Northeast Region: George Washington. Brown; Yale University; Harvard University; Emerson; New York University; Georgetown. American. University of Maryland; Johns Hopkins University. Tufts. Cornell University; University of Pennsylvania; Princeton. Temple; Northeast; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; New School; University of Rochester; University of Pittsburgh West Coast: California State Polytechnic Institute, Humboldt. University of Southern California; University of California, Los Angeles. University of California, Berkeley. University of Washington Midwest Region: Northwest. Washington University in St. Louis. Indiana University; University of Michigan; Ohio State; University of Minnesota; University of Miami; Ohio University; Columbia University Chicago; University of Chicago Southern: Emory; Vanderbilt; University of North Carolina at Charlotte. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Kennesaw State; Florida State; Virginia Tech; University of Georgia Athens Southwest: University of Texas at Austin.US; Arizona
Over the past week, pro-Palestinian demonstrators have also gathered on university campuses in Australia, Canada, France, Italy and the United Kingdom.
How did the university deal with the protests?
Some are negotiating with student activists, while others are issuing ultimatums that have led to the police being called in.
Monday’s latest arrests were made in Texas, Utah and Virginia.
However, an agreement was reached between Northwestern University and the protesters to limit the size of the camp.
The country’s politicians have highlighted reports of anti-Semitism at some of these protests and are calling on universities to do more.
Jewish students on several campuses told the BBC about incidents in which they felt uncomfortable or frightened.
These ranged from chants and signs supporting the banned terrorist group Hamas to physical altercations and perceived threats.
Were the protests effective?
Pro-Palestinian campus groups have long called on universities to support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement as a means of pushing back against Israel.
Although some universities have cut off certain financial relationships in the past, no U.S. university has ever committed to a BDS framework.
While divestment will have little, if any, impact on the war in Gaza, protesters say it will help shine a light on those profiting from the war and raise awareness of their problems. claims.
Why are students remembering the protests against the Vietnam War?
Activists at Columbia University and elsewhere have highlighted protests in the late 1960s against U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.
Thousands of people were arrested and violent clashes with police broke out.
In 1970, the National Guard opened fire in Ohio, killing four students.
Their deaths sparked a nationwide student strike and hundreds of universities were closed.
