Pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses escalated in April 2024, spreadingin the United States andother countries, as part of widerGaza war protests. The escalation, nicknamed by activists the "studentintifada", began on April 18 after mass arrests at theColumbia University campus occupation, led byanti-Zionist groups, in which protesters demanded the university'sdisinvestment from Israel over theGaza genocide. Over 3,100 protesters were arrested in the U.S., including faculty members and professors, on over 60 campuses. Protests spread across Europe in May with mass arrestsin the Netherlands, 20 encampments established in the United Kingdom, and across universities in Australia and Canada.
The different protests' varying demands included severing financial ties with Israel, transparency about financial ties, ending partnerships with Israeli institutions, andamnesty for protesters. Universitiessuspended and expelled student protesters, in some cases evicting them from campus housing. Many universities relied on police toforcibly disband encampments and end occupations of buildings, several made agreements with protesters for encampments to be dismantled,[a] and others cut ties with Israeli institutions or companies involved with Israel and itsoccupied territories.[b] The campus occupations also resulted in the closure ofColumbia University,Cal Poly Humboldt, and theUniversity of Amsterdam;rolling strikes by academic workerson campuses in California, and the cancellation of some U.S. university graduation ceremonies.
Hundreds of groupsexpressed support for the protests, and the police response in the U.S. was criticised. Supporters of Israel and some Jewish students raised concerns aboutantisemitic incidents at or around the protests, prompting condemnations of the protests by international leaders. Students and faculty members who participated in the protests, many of whom are Jewish, said the protests were not antisemitic. In May 2024, it was estimated that 8% of U.S. college students had participated in the protests, with 45% supporting them and 24% opposed. 97% of the protests remainednonviolent and 28–40% of Americans supported the protests with 42–47% opposed.[c] The protests were compared to theanti-Vietnam and1968 protests, politically criticized by a wide range of mainstreamU.S. Republican andDemocratic politicians, and frequently counter-protested byZionist andright-wing organizations.
Students occupying administrative buildings were arrested at the request of college administrators atBrown University in November[38] and December 2023,[39] and atPomona College on April 5, 2024.[40] In March 2024,[41] after protesters occupied the president's office atVanderbilt University, the university suspended students and expelled three. These were "believed to be the first student expulsions over protests related to the Israel-Hamas conflict", according toThe New York Times.[42]
The first encampment was dismantled when university presidentMinouche Shafik authorized theNew York City Police Department (NYPD) to enter the campus on April 18 and conduct mass arrests.[54][55] A new encampment was built the next day. The administration then entered into negotiations with protesters, which failed on April 29 and resulted in the suspension of student protesters.[56] The next day, protesters broke into and occupiedHamilton Hall,[57] leading to a second NYPD raid, the arrest of more than 100 protesters, and the full dismantling of the camp.[58] The arrests marked the first time Columbia had allowed police to suppress campus protests since the1968 demonstrations against the Vietnam War.[59] On May 31, a third campus encampment was briefly established in response to an alumni reunion.[60]
Universities in the United States withGaza War protests since April 2024. Columbia University is marked in red. Other colleges that had encampments are marked in green, and non-encampment protests are marked in blue.
Many of the protests involved students demanding that their schools sever financial ties to Israel and companies involved in the conflict, as well as an end to U.S. military support for Israel,[79][80] as part of theBoycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.[81] Some protests also demanded that universities sever academic ties with Israel, support a ceasefire in Gaza, and disclose investments.[82] Student demands varied among the different occupations, including that universities stop accepting research money from Israel that supports the military, and that college endowments stop investing with managers who profit from Israeli entities.[81]
Student protesters called on Columbia University to financially divest from any company with business ties to the Israeli government, includingMicrosoft,Google, andAmazon.[83] NYU Alumni for Palestine called on New York University to "terminate all vendor contracts with companies playing active roles in the military occupation in Palestine and ongoing genocide in Gaza, namelyCisco,Lockheed Martin,Caterpillar andGeneral Electric".[84] Pro-Palestinian protesters demanded that the University of Washington cut ties withBoeing.[85] Students at the University of Vermont demanded the cancellation of a planned commencement speech byLinda Thomas-Greenfield.[86]
After several mass arrests, the demands also included amnesty for students and faculty who were disciplined or fired for protesting. The protests on many campuses were created by coalitions of student groups, and largely independent, although Reuters Press reported that they were inspired by demonstrations atColumbia University. All disavowed violence.[87][88] Protesters at Vanderbilt University smashed a window and injured a security guard.[89]
On April 28,Portland State University (PSU) announced it was pausing its financial ties withBoeing, including gifts and grants, over its ties to Israel. PSU PresidentAnn Cudd wrote in a campus-wide letter, "the passion with which these demands are being repeatedly expressed by some in our community motivates".[23] On May 6,Trinity College Dublin in Ireland agreed to end its investments in Israeli companies that are listed on theUnited Nations Human Rights Council "blacklist" after an encampment on Fellows' Square was erected.[100] This included three of the 13 Israeli companies the university's endowment fund had invested in.[24][101]
TheUniversity of Helsinki in Finland suspendedstudent exchanges with Israeli universities on May 21 after two weeks of campus protests.[25] On May 28, theUniversity of Copenhagen in Denmark announced it would cease investing in companies that operate in theoccupied West Bank, divesting US$145,810 worth of holdings fromAirbnb,Booking.com, andEDreams the next day.[26] Three days later,Ghent University in Belgium cut ties with Israeli universities and research institutions, referencing "concerns regarding connections between Israeli academic institutions and the Israeli government, military, or security services".[27] The university had severed ties with three Israeli institutions two weeks earlier, citing incompatibility with Israel'shuman rights policy.[102] On June 11, theUniversity of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, agreed to protesters' demands to factor human rights into its investment decisions.[28]
In late August 2024,San Francisco State University began the divestment process from four weapons manufacturers involved with the war.[29] The next month, the MIT Coalition for Palestine announced that MIT would discontinue its MIT-Lockheed Martin Seed Fund, a program that financed collaboration between MIT and Israeli universities. The Coalition said this was "the first known American-Israeli weapons manufacturer partnership to end at an American university since the war on Gaza began".[30] Three months later, theInstitut d'études politiques de Strasbourg said it would break ties withReichman University in Israel due to its "warmongering" stance on Gaza.[31]
On May 15, the protest encampment atHarvard University ended after the administration agreed to discuss the protesters' demands and to rescind the suspension of 20 students.[21] AtCalifornia State University, Sonoma State campus president Mike Lee was placed on leave after he agreed to pursue divestment from Israel "without the appropriate approvals".[106] On May 23, theUniversity of Sydney became the first Australian university to accept certain demands. The university agreed to further disclose research grants, subject to confidentiality requirements, in order to increase transparency.[22]
Students atThe New School attempted a unique strategy that combined escalations at their encampment and negotiations with administrators. Rather than accepting that negotiations could continue only if escalation ceased, organizers escalated their protests and then offered to cease that escalation in exchange for other concessions during negotiations, improving their bargaining position. Though police ultimately swept their encampment, the sweep led to backlash and condemnation by faculty and deans and required a day-long shutdown of the campus. Students at The New School secured the formation of an advisory investment committee and a subsequent trustee vote on investment in the fall.[107]
On May 15, members ofUnited Auto Workers Local 4811, the union representing 48,000 graduate students on 10 campuses in theUniversity of California system, voted to authorize a strike because the university unfairly changed policies and discriminated against students who were exercising their right to free speech and created an unsafe work environment by allowing attacks on protesters. The authorization did not guarantee a strike, but allowed the executive board to call one at any time.[108]
Strike action began atUC Santa Cruz on May 20. Union members and leaders said they were not teaching or grading, were withholding data, and would continue to do so until they reached a deal with university officials. The strike was in part a protest against arrests of pro-Palestinian protesters atUCLA,UC Irvine, andUC San Diego.[109][110] The UC system responded by seeking an injunction against the union, declaring the walkout illegal. On May 23, theCalifornia Public Employment Relations Board denied the injunction. The walkout extended to UCLA andUC Davis on May 28,[111] with the intention of expanding toUC Santa Barbara, UC San Diego, and UC Irvine starting the week of June 3.[112][113]
As part of the occupations, protesters hostedteach-ins,interfaith prayer, and musical performances.[88] Some protests invited people to tour or speak, such as Palestinian photojournalistMotaz Azaiza, who was invited to and visited Columbia's protest.[125][126] The Palestinian activistLinda Sarsour said, "These young people are reaffirming and demonstrating that the tide is shifting on Palestine, that the Palestinian people have solidarity not just across the United States of America, but across the world".[127]
At Columbia, protesters who breached Hamilton Hall wrote revolutionary slogans (e.g., "Political power comes from the barrel of a gun") on blackboards.[128] One group involved in the protest movement,Columbia University Apartheid Divest, grew more supportive of armed resistance led byHamas and the October 7 attacks over the course of 2024.[129]Within Our Lifetime leader Nerdeen Kiswani, who arrived at the Columbia encampment in April, called for Palestine liberation "'by any means necessary', including armed resistance".[130] Her group formed fromCUNYSJP, which targeted the Brooklyn Museum in May 2024.[130]
"Outside agitators"
Pro-Palestinian protesters march past pro-Israel counter-protesters atSan Diego State University, April 30.
Many anti-Zionist protesters donned masks andkeffiyehs, which increased concerns from provosts and deans that outsiders had infiltrated protests. Protesters expressed fears of receiving reputational and professional harm from identification.[131]
Concern was raised about the presence of outside groups at protests.[114] During arrests in New York on May 2, police announced that nearly half of those arrested at Columbia andCCNY were unaffiliated with either school. MayorEric Adams said that they had seen evidence that outside agitators and "professionals" such asLisa Fithian and the wife ofSami Al-Arian had given students tactical knowledge and training to escalate their protests.[132] A University of Texas at Austin official said half of the rule breakers detained at a protest on April 24, 2024, were unaffiliated with the school.[133] In 2025, Swarthmore College said there was a "growing presence of individuals unaffiliated with the College" and campus property had been vandalized.[134]
Infiltration
Experts raised concern about far-right groups attempting to infiltrate protests to cause harm, and subsequent reactions from militantfar-left activists aligned with theanti-fascist movement.[135]
American intelligence assessments concluded thatIran had covertly supported the protests using social media by posing as students with operatives providing financial assistance to some protest groups in an attempt to stoke division,[136][137] butDirector of National IntelligenceAvril Haines said that U.S. citizens were protesting "in good faith" and that this intelligence "did not indicate otherwise".[138] Qatar reportedly contributed $4.7 billion to U.S. academic institutions between 2001 and 2021;Kenneth Marcus of theBrandeis Center suggested this may have affected university administrators' willingness to impose discipline.[139]
Counter-protesters
Far-right agitators andwhite nationalists were identified at some protests seeking to sow chaos and violence,[140] and at theUCLA campus occupation, they were among pro-Israeli counter-protesters who attacked the encampment. Awhite supremacist affiliated with theProud Boys was among the counter-protesters supported by far-right activists nationwide.[141]
Several protests were criticized for allegedantisemitism.[142] Some students called some of the incidents reported at protests and on campus "threatening" and said they made them feel unsafe. Jewish students were targeted for their faith, for wearingJewish symbols, or were accused of being Zionists and subsequently targeted.[143] Some Jewish students also said the protests created a climate of fear and hate on campus.[144] According toThe Jewish Post, a survey byHillel of Jewish students at universities with encampments found that most of them felt unsafe due to encampments. 72% of respondents wanted them dismantled and 61% considered language used at the protests antisemitic.[145] TheU.S. Department of Education concluded thatUniversity of Michigan andCUNY failed to assess whether the protests made the environment hostile.[146]
Supporters of Israel and some students said that the word "intifada", the phrase "from the river to the sea", and chants comparing Israel and Zionism to Nazism were antisemitic.[147] Others, including Jewish students, argued against conflating antisemitism with anti-Zionism, and said the charge was used to chill debate.[144] Pro-Palestinian and Jewish student protesters said that the protests were not antisemitic.[148][115]The Guardian noted that incidents of antisemitism appeared to be "relatively isolated" and likelier to occur when non-students were in a parallel protest.[147] Pro-Palestinian student groups at the protests were quick to condemn inflammatory remarks.[144]
Some pro-Palestinian Jewish students said they faced antisemitism from pro-Israel activists.[147][144] Some commentators and politicians, including MayorEric Adams, U.S. RepresentativeVirginia Foxx, and NYPD deputy commissioner of operationsKaz Daughtry, promoted aconspiracy theory thatGeorge Soros or some other anonymous figure funded the protest encampments by buying the same brand of tents for many protesters. In fact, the similar appearance of many encampment tents was due to online retailers' discounts and promotions of particular products.[149]
In fall 2024, chants such as "Divest!" and "Ceasefire now!" reportedly evolved towards more explicitly endorsing Hamas,Hezbollah, andHouthis. Some protesters used slogans such as "Glory to the resistance!", called the October 7 attacks "Al-Aqsa flood", celebratedYahya Sinwar, and used the Hamas inverted red triangle. Aidan Herzlinger, vice president ofBaruch College'sHillel chapter, said students who attended a Hillel banquet at the college were called "baby killers" and "terrorists".[150]
In November 2024, hundreds of posters depicting faculty members as "wanted" were spread across theUniversity of Rochester campus. Some of the posters accused a Jewish faculty member of ethnic cleansing and contributing to the displacement of Palestinians; others accused a faculty member of racism, hate speech, and intimidation. University President Sarah Mangelsdorf called the incident an act of antisemitism.[151]
Allegations of anti-Palestinianism and Islamophobia
Pro-Palestinian protesters and their allies criticized the disposition of many university administrations as perpetuating a "Palestine exception" to academic freedom.[152][153] Pro-Palestinian students and their allies raised concerns aboutanti-Palestinianism andIslamophobia. Investigations by theU.S. Department of Education were opened at Columbia, Emory University, the University of North Carolina, and at Umass Amherst over their administrations' response to student protests and advocacy since the start of the war.[154][155][156][157]
Allegations of anti-Americanism and support for terror
In May 2024, theNew York City Police Department shared images of items it said it had confiscated from a protest at NYU, including "gas masks, ear plugs, helmets, goggles, tape, hammers, knives, ropes, and a book on TERRORISM" that were taken from a student's backpack. One pamphlet read, "Death to America!"[158] According to theAnti-Defamation League, on the first anniversary of theOctober 7 attacks, many of the over 100 protests included chants and other messages "filled with support for terrorist organizations" and symbols such as paragliders.[159] Demonstrators at Columbia published a statement calling on students "to propagate the successes of the heroic Palestinian armed resistance in weakening Israel and U.S. imperialism and inspiring anti-imperialist struggles around the world".[160]
Violence at protests
A study by theArmed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED) found that 97% of protests were nonviolent and nearly half of those that became violent involved protesters fighting with law enforcement during police interventions.[161][162]
According to officials atVanderbilt University, a security guard was injured when protesters broke into an administrative building, resulting in the expulsion of the three students leading the charge; video footage showed students forcibly entering the building and pushing past a guard into a door frame, injuring them. The guard was out of work for two weeks as a result of injuries. The students denied using violence, calling their protest peaceful.[163][164][165][166]
Students and student journalists also faced violence at the hands of counter-protesters.[167][168] One protester at Columbia was arrested and hospitalized after a counter-protester rammed his car into a group of picketers.[169][170] Counter-protesters at the University of Pennsylvania approached the encampment with knives, and in a separate incident sprayed a chemical mixture on protesters' tents, food, and belongings.[171]
TheUCLA campus occupation on April 30, the day it was attacked by pro-Israeli counter-protesters
On May 1, 2024, around 10:50 PM, a pro-Israeli group attacked theUniversity of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)pro-Palestinian protesters' camp for nearly four hours, attempting to breach the barricades surrounding it.[178][71][179] The attackers, reported to have come from outside campus,[180] carried Israeli flags and assaulted students with sticks, stones, poles, metal fencing, and pepper spray.[181][182] They played loud audio of a child crying, threw wood and a metal barrier into the camp, and threw at least six fireworks into the encampment, including one directly at a group of protesters carrying injured people.[179][183][184]
A video investigation suggested pro-Palestinian protesters did not initiate any confrontation but acted in defense.[179] The counter-protesters called for a "SecondNakba", referring to theethnic cleansing of Palestinians in 1948, and played the Israeli national anthem andHarbu Darbu on loudspeakers during the attack.[185][179] According toThe Guardian, counter-protesters included severalfar-right activists involved inanti-LGBTQ+ andanti-vaccine campaigning.[186] TheBoston Review reported that Zionist counter-protesters joined forces withwhite supremacists andNeo-Nazis, and that "One neo-Nazi was heard shouting, 'we’re here to finish what Hitler started,' without any apparent protest from the self-identified Zionists."[187]
Vandalism and property damage
At Portland State, protesters damaged computers and furniture during their occupation of the campus library. At Columbia, protesters shattered windows during their occupation of Hamilton Hall.[161] Police and city workers destroyed students' tents, flags and other encampment supplies while disbanding theencampment at the University of Pennsylvania.[188] AtGeorge Washington University, protesters defaced a statue of its namesake, PresidentGeorge Washington. The statue was wrapped with Palestinian scarves and flags, with the words "Genocidal Warmonger University" spray-painted on its base.[189][190]
Students replaced U.S. flags with Palestinian flags on flagpoles at several universities.[191] InHarvard Yard, student demonstrators affixed three Palestinian flags atop theJohn Harvard statue on April 27.[192][193] The replacement of U.S. flags sparked outrage from some officials, such as New York Mayor Eric Adams.[191] In response, university administrations and law enforcement agencies intervened to take down the Palestinian flags and reinstate U.S. flags to their original positions.[191]
Most universities that faced encampment protests in the spring attempted to negotiate a disbandment of the encampments, often threatening police sweeps to force an agreement.[107] Many universities initiated disciplinary proceedings against protesters, accusing them of breaking student codes of conduct.[197] In July 2025, Columbia University disciplined at least 70 students who took part in campus protests with probation, suspensions, degree revocations, and expulsions.[198] Police departments employed a range of tactics, including dispersing crowds using horses and police inriot gear, deployingpepper balls,[195] using tasers,[199][200] mass arrests,[201] and tear gas,[200] clearing unauthorized encampments,[199] and beating both students and professors.[202] Police also assaulted, arrested and restricted access for some journalists while they were covering the protests.[203] SomeDemocrats[204][205][206] and human rights organizations criticized the police response.[207][208] By fall 2024, many universities had strengthened their restrictions on protests,[209] including more than 100 colleges and universities,[107] and several schools had banned camping on their grounds.[210]
A May 2024 divestment referendum atDePaul University returned a 91% vote in favor of divestment.[222] In April 2024,Columbia College voted on three divestment questions. The first asked whether Columbia should divest from Israel, the second asked whether it should cancel the Tel Aviv Global Center program, and the third asked whether Columbia should end its dual degree program with Tel Aviv University. The motions passed by 76%, 68%, and 65%, respectively, with 40% voter participation.[223] Students at the University of Pennsylvania voted 73% in favor of disclosing all investments in the school's endowment and 63% in favor of ending the university's relationship with Ghost Robotics, with 22% voter participation.[224]
According to aYouGov poll released on May 3, 2024, 47% of Americans opposed the campus protests and 28% supported them. American Muslims supported the protests by 75% to 14% while Jewish Americans opposed them by 72% to 18%. Adults under 45 were more likely to support them than older adults. 33% believed the response to the protests was not harsh enough, 16% believed it was too harsh, and 20% believed the response was about right. 48% of Americans over 45 believed the response was not harsh enough, compared to only 16% under 45.[32]
According to anAxios poll released on May 7, 2024, 8% of college students participated in the protests. 34% blame Hamas, 19% blame Netanyahu, 12% blame the Israeli people, and 12% blame Biden for thedestruction in Gaza. 81% of students supported holding protesters accountable for destroyed property and illegally occupied buildings, 67% considered occupying campus buildings unacceptable, 58% considered refusal to disperse unacceptable, and 90% opposed blocking pro-Israel students. Students were more likely to support the pro-Palestinian encampments, with 45% who supported them strongly or moderately, 30% neutral, and 24% strongly or mildly opposed. Among those who participated in anti-Israeli protests, 58% said they would not be friends with someone who had marched for Israel, while 64% of students who marched in favor of Israel said they would still be friends with anti-Israeli protesters.[225]
In aData for Progress poll in collaboration withZeteo released on May 8, 2024, 55% of Democrats, 36% of Republicans, and 46% of all likely voters said they disapproved of colleges limiting students' rights and ability to protest Israel's military operations, whereas 32% of Democrats, 49% of Republicans, and 40% of all likely voters approved of doing so.[226] Overall, 40% approved and 42% disapproved of the protests.[33]
In Canada, 19% of respondents supported the protesters and 48% of respondents opposed the protests.[227]
Analysis
Demonstrations against theVietnam War in Amsterdam, 1968
Comparisons
The Guardian called the protests "perhaps the most significantstudent movement since theanti-Vietnam campus protests of the late 1960s".[228] Protests at Columbia were compared to the1968 protests due to their scale and tactics,[229] and as echoing the 1968 movement.[230][231] According toThe Independent, protesters studied the 1968 movement. A Columbia undergraduate said that student organizers learned from the experiences of older generations, calling the movement "completely built" on the legacy of the 1968 protests.[232]Mark Rudd, who led protests against theVietnam War at Columbia in the 1960s, said, "For me, it's the most normal thing in the world to look at the murder of 34,000 people and the displacement of close to 2 million in Gaza and say, 'Hey, stop!"[233] Laurel Krause, the sister ofKent State shooting victimAllison Krause said she not only supported the protests and asked university leaders to listen to their demands, but condemned the militarized response by campus authorities to disperse protests, saying that it endangered students' lives and rights to free expression.[234][235]
Former Columbia student leaders from the era ofprotests against apartheid in the 1980s, including BDS co-founderOmar Barghouti and historianBarbara Ransby, said the "intersecting issues of war, racism and colonialism" were focal points in the movements of 1968, the 1980s, and 2024—and that the similarities are clear among the periods.[236]The New York Times reported that some scholars considered the protests starkly different from those against the Vietnam War orapartheid South Africa. According toTimothy Naftali, protests against Vietnam in the 1960s did not result in a constituency that felt attacked as an ethnicity, and that the pro-Palestinian demonstrations created "a feeling of insecurity in a much bigger way than the antiwar demonstrations during Vietnam did".[123]New England Patriots ownerRobert Kraft said current college protests contain "further echoes of the forces that helped give rise to the Nazis", while Columbia University'sChabad chapter said that phrases like "Go back to Poland" and "stop killing children" had been yelled at Jewish students.[237] In May 2024, some Jewish students on campus said they believed that support for Israel was a "litmus test" leading to their exclusion from campus social life.[238] In September 2024, after many harassment complaints, theUniversity of Illinois Urbana-Champaign banned the ostracism of Jewish students from school clubs for identifying as Zionist.[239]
Political criticism
Far-rightinfluencers and some Republicans portrayed the protests as violent, a "Marxist takeover," and "terrorism".[135]The New York Times opined that the protests came during a presidential election year in which Democrats had "harnessed promises of stability and normalcy to win critical recent elections" and that the protests were a messaging opportunity for Republicans to divide Democrats.[240] The newspaper also published an article citingNewsGuard, theInstitute for Strategic Dialogue, theFoundation for Defense of Democracies, theAustralian Strategic Policy Institute, andRecorded Future on how the media of Russia, China, andIran had covered the events. It concluded that those countries had made overt and covert efforts to capitalize on the protests to denigrate democracy, inflame partisan tensions, criticize Biden ahead of the 2024 presidential election, support Trump, and express support for Hamas and Palestinians generally.[241]
Both Columbia Professor of JournalismHelen Benedict andJohns Hopkins political science professor Daniel Schlozman remarked that Republican fixation on criticizing universities as bastions of leftist ideology had resulted in portrayals of the protests as examples of radicalism on race and gender issues as a way to divide Democrats.[242][243] AJewish Currents editor described the movement as providing "cover for the right to expand its attack on protest" in reference to the "draconian" crackdown on protests, saying the "attacks on academic freedom and free speech on campus" were led by right-wingers.[244] Republicans used antisemitic tropes when denouncing protests as antisemitic, including allusions toconspiracies around George Soros and invokingglobalists.[245] In May 2025,The New York Times found that thesecond Trump administration had called for or implemented over half the proposals of The Heritage Foundation'sProject Esther, a conservative program to suppress pro-Palestinian protests and what it classifies as antisemitism.[246]
Spread of protests
Initially,The New York Times wrote that protests outside the U.S. were "sporadic and smaller, and none [started] a wider student movement". The "partisan political context" was given as a reason for the intensity of protests in the U.S. Columbia's status as anIvy League school, its proximity toNew York City and national news media, and its large population of Jewish students were described as fueling increased media attention and political scrutiny that helped spread the protests.[242] According to aWashington Monthly study in May, pro-Palestinian demonstrations and encampments were more prevalent at elite U.S. universities. The magazine wrote, "in the vast majority of cases, campuses that educate students mostly from working-class backgrounds have not had any protest activity."[247]
Protest camp at theUniversity of Exeter, United kingdom. By May 7, student encampments had spread to twenty universities in the UK.[248]
On May 3,NPR described the protests abroad as "a growing global student movement", with student protests in theUnited Kingdom focused on "an increasingly high-profile nationwide campaign to endBritish arms exports to Israel".[249] According toNBC News, the protests abroad inspired by protests in the U.S. did not have the intensity of U.S. protests.[250] By May 7, protests had escalated in Europe after mass arrests at theUniversity of Amsterdam, with occupations of campus buildings in Germany, France, and Belgium, and encampments on several European campuses.[251] TheAssociated Press described protests atSciences Po in Paris as "echoing similar encampments and solidarity demonstrations across the United States".[252] By May 9, protests were widespread at universities in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, while smaller ones were held at Japanese and South Korean universities.[253]
Media coverage of the protests was criticized as sensationalized and failing to focus on the protesters' demands and grievances.[254]Dana Bash was criticized for likening college protests to therise of antisemitism in the 1930s in Europe.[147] The lack of student protesters' voices in most national media coverage was also criticized.[254] Student reporters, in particular, were praised for their work covering the protests.[255][256]
^Range is based on the following two polls:YouGov, 47% of Americans opposed the campus protests and 28% supported them;[32]Data for Progress poll in collaboration withZeteo, 40% approved, while 42% disapproved of the protests.[33]
^As defined byCNN map of "Campus protests where arrests have been made since April 18", highlighting schools with 45 or more total arrests.[74]
^"Gaza: UN experts call on international community to prevent genocide against the Palestinian people".OHCHR. November 16, 2023. Archived fromthe original on December 24, 2023. RetrievedDecember 22, 2023.Grave violations committed by Israel against Palestinians in the aftermath of 7 October, particularly in Gaza, point to a genocide in the making, UN experts said today. They illustrated evidence of increasing genocidal incitement, overt intent to "destroy the Palestinian people under occupation", loud calls for a 'second Nakba' in Gaza and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory, and the use of powerful weaponry with inherently indiscriminate impacts, resulting in a colossal death toll and destruction of life-sustaining infrastructure.
^Amnesty International (2024).'You Feel Like You Are Subhuman': Israel's Genocide Against Palestinians In Gaza(PDF) (Report).Archived(PDF) from the original on December 5, 2024.This report focuses on the Israeli authorities' policies and actions in Gaza as part of the military offensive they launched in the wake of the Hamas-led attacks on 7 October 2023 while situating them within the broader context of Israel's unlawful occupation, and system of apartheid against Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Israel. It assesses allegations of violations and crimes under international law by Israel in Gaza within the framework of genocide under international law, concluding that there is sufficient evidence to believe that Israel's conduct in Gaza following 7 October 2023 amounts to genocide.
^ab"US college protests: Who are the student groups and others involved". Reuters. April 30, 2024.Archived from the original on May 10, 2024. RetrievedApril 30, 2024.Among the lead student groups in the coalition are the Columbia chapters of Jewish Voice for Peace and Students for Justice in Palestine. The two decades-old anti-Zionism advocacy groups that protest Israel's military occupation have chapters across the country that have been key to protests on other campuses.
Makoii, Akhtar (May 8, 2024)."Pro-Palestinian protesters project 'student intifada' slogan onto university".The Daily Telegraph.Archived from the original on May 9, 2024. RetrievedMay 9, 2024.Police cleared a pro-Palestinian tent encampment at George Washington University on Wednesday after protesters projected a US flag in flames and slogans including "Long live the student intifada" onto a building overnight.
Alvarez, Maximillian (May 3, 2024)."Inside the 'Student Intifada': A roundtable with campus organizers".The Real News Network.Archived from the original on May 9, 2024. RetrievedMay 9, 2024.It is being called the Student Intifada, a grassroots protest movement spreading to different college and university campuses around the country involving students at over a hundred campuses, setting up encampments, occupations and protests (...)
Starr, Michael (May 7, 2024)."'Student intifada here to stay': Harvard activists defy suspension threat".The Jerusalem Post.Archived from the original on May 10, 2024. RetrievedMay 9, 2024.Anti-Israel activists groups defied Harvard University warnings that their protest encampment must dissolve under threat of suspension, proclaiming the campus occupation movement a "student intifada" in a press conference on Monday.
^abCarless, Will (April 26, 2024)."Far-right influencers claim student protests are violent. Experts have different worries".USA Today.Archived from the original on April 29, 2024. RetrievedApril 29, 2024.Those counter-protesters might, in turn, be met with violence from militant far-left activists aligned with the anti-fascist movement, said Colin P. Clarke, director of research at the Soufan Group, a global intelligence and security consultancy. The far-left has become increasingly organized over the last few years, in response to growing violence from the far-right, Clarke said, and he's worried about possible violence that could spill out from the protests.
^Myers, Steven Lee; Hsu, Tiffany; Fassihi, Farnaz (September 4, 2024)."Iran Emerges as a Top Disinformation Threat in U.S. Presidential Race".The New York Times.ISSN0362-4331.Archived from the original on September 4, 2024.Across the United States this spring, Iran also used social media to stoke student-organized protests against Israel's war in Gaza, with operatives providing financial assistance and posing as students, according to American intelligence assessments.
^Bikowski, Brooke (April 29, 2024)."Protests, Counterprotests Over Israel's Actions in Gaza Roil Los Angeles Universities".Times of San Diego.Archived from the original on April 29, 2024. RetrievedApril 29, 2024.It was unclear whether all of the participants were UCLA students, although known members of far right and white nationalist groups have been appearing at various campuses nationally in order to sow chaos and violence.
Multiple sources: Ferré-Sadurní, Luis; Edmonds, Colbi; Cruz, Liset (April 21, 2024)."Some Jewish Students Are Targeted as Protests Continue at Columbia".The New York Times.ISSN0362-4331.Archived from the original on April 22, 2024. RetrievedApril 29, 2024.Those demonstrations took a dark turn on Saturday evening, as protesters targeted some Jewish students with antisemitic vitriol that was captured in video and pictures, both inside and outside the campus.
Perry, Nick; Collins, Dave; Price, Michelle L. (April 23, 2024)."Pro-Palestinian protests sweep US college campuses following mass arrests at Columbia". Associated Press.Archived from the original on April 27, 2024. RetrievedApril 29, 2024.Some Jewish students, meanwhile, say much of the criticism of Israel has veered into antisemitism and made them feel unsafe, and they point out that Hamas is still holding hostages taken during the group's Oct. 7 invasion ... He said some of the protesters shouting antisemitic slurs were not students.
"Efforts to tackle student protests in America have backfired badly".The Economist. April 23, 2024.Archived from the original on April 29, 2024. RetrievedApril 29, 2024.He kept being told: "You're interpreting it wrong", but this week there was no misinterpreting, he says, the undercurrent of antisemitism on campus. "We're coming for you," other Jewish students say they were told: "Get off our campus."
Rosman, Katherine (April 26, 2024)."Columbia Bars Student Protester Who Said 'Zionists Don't Deserve to Live'".The New York Times.ISSN0362-4331.Archived from the original on April 27, 2024. RetrievedApril 30, 2024.Video of the incendiary comments resurfaced online Thursday evening, forcing the school to again confront an issue at the core of the conflict rippling across campuses nationwide: the tension between pro-Palestinian activism and antisemitism.Diver, Tony (April 27, 2024)."Dispatch: Jewish students confront extreme anti-Semitism at Columbia protest camp".The Telegraph.ISSN0307-1235.Archived from the original on April 30, 2024. RetrievedApril 30, 2024.At Boston's Northeastern University, Police in riot gear cleared an encampment after crowds were heard chanting antisemitic slurs including "kill the Jews".
^Palestine-CBT, Faculty and Staff Supporting Justice in."The Palestine Exception".Columbia Daily Spectator.Archived from the original on May 21, 2024. RetrievedMay 21, 2024.
^Barghouti, Omar; Jones, Tanaquil; Ransby, Barbara (May 3, 2024)."Let us remember the last time students occupied Columbia University".The Guardian.ISSN0261-3077.Archived from the original on May 3, 2024. RetrievedMay 3, 2024.From 1968 to the 1980s to 2024, the often intersecting issues of war, racism and colonialism, took center stage in Columbia justice movements, reflecting larger campus and international struggles raging at the time. Each of these periods was unique, but parallels are clear.
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