Gaza Campus Protests
"How does a 'news' organization like MSNBC do a 2 minute segment on campus protests, mention 'outside agitators' & not even bother to investigate the organizations running these protests who PUT THEIR NAMES ALL OVER THE PROTEST SIGNS?" Arthur Treacherous [self described "Actor, restaurateur, entrepreneur, punk rocker. Russophobic & MAGAphobic."] asked 01 May 2024. "Legit media has always shied away from giving coverage to the extreme fringes because it only spotlights those groups. For example the LaRouchies. But these groups have now cracked into the mainstream of US political discourse on this issue & there’s no ignoring them."
Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines reported 09 July 2024 "Iran is becoming increasingly aggressive in their foreign influence efforts, seeking to stoke discord and undermine confidence in our democratic institutions, as we have seen them do in the past, including in prior election cycles. They continue to adapt their cyber and influence activities, using social media platforms and issuing threats. It is likely they will continue to rely on their intelligence services in these efforts, as well as Iran-based online influencers, to promote their narratives. In recent weeks, Iranian government actors have sought to opportunistically take advantage of ongoing protests regarding the war in Gaza, using a playbook we’ve seen other actors use over the years. We have observed actors tied to Iran’s government posing as activists online, seeking to encourage protests, and even providing financial support to protesters. I want to be clear that I know Americans who participate in protests are, in good faith, expressing their views on the conflict in Gaza – this intelligence does not indicate otherwise.... Americans who are being targeted by this Iranian campaign may not be aware that they are interacting with or receiving support from a foreign government. We urge all Americans to remain vigilant as they engage online with accounts and actors they do not personally know."
Lara Trump, Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law and the co-chair of the Republican National Committee, alleged that Jewish billionaire George Soros, often the target of antisemitic tropes, was instigating pro-Palestinian protests. “We know that George Soros has funded a lot of this, stirring all this up,” Lara Trump said last week on her podcast, The Right View. “We know he loves to put his money into upsetting people and causing situations like this.” Casting a Jewish individual as a puppet master who manipulates national events for malign purposes is a common antisemitic trope, according to the Anti-Defamation League. “I think the FBI needs to be all over this,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said in an interview with Newsmax TV. “They need to look at the root causes and find out if some of this was funded by — I don’t know — George Soros or overseas entities.”
Open Society Foundations have worked in the region since 1999, with a focus on the rights of minorities in Israel, the rights of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza, and efforts toward reaching a peaceful solution. This has included funding Israeli and Palestinian organizations that research and document violations of human rights and international humanitarian law; that contribute to international policy analysis and discourse; and that advocate for equality and justice for all. "All the groups we support are committed to nonviolence and adhere to the principle that human rights and safety should be enjoyed by Israelis and Palestinians alike, both currently and in whatever political solution eventually emerges in the region... There is strict U.S. anti-terrorist legislation that determines which organizations a foundation like Open Society can fund. We devote a lot of effort to ensuring full compliance."
"These false claims are part of a well-established pattern whereby numerous Israeli politicians have equated support for any Palestinian rights as support of terrorism—as an apparent strategy for intimidating and denigrating critical voices of Palestinian, Israeli, and pro-Palestinian civil society. This toxicity is one of the reasons why Open Society is one of the few private foundations in the United States that is prepared to support even the most mainstream Palestinian human rights groups."
Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow, both left-wing groups that oppose Israeli policies towards Palestinians and have mobilized activists and students to protest the war in Gaza, received some funding from the Tides Foundation, which has, in the past, received funding from Soros. The Tides Foundation was previously supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It in turn supports numerous small nonprofits that work for social change. According to a POLITICO analysis, Rockefeller Brothers Fund in 2022 gave $300,000 to the Tides Foundation. Tides has given nearly $500,000 over the past five years to Jewish Voice for Peace, which explicitly describes itself as anti-Zionist.
This reporting by POLITICO notes that Tides Foundation serves as a grantmaking organization, holding over 400 donor advised funds, as well as Collective Action and Single Entity Funds. The vast majority of Tides Foundation grants are made based on partner recommendations. Tides Center primarily offers fiscal sponsorship and nonprofit acceleration services. Tides does not provide funding or fundraising assistance to fiscally sponsored projects. New projects must have a minimum of $100,000 of committed funding for US-based activity or $50,000 for funds supporting a single domestic project or organization. Fiscal sponsor organizations like Tides provide a nonprofit legal framework for their fiscally sponsored partners, support tax-deductible donations to projects, and enable organizations to focus on their mission. Fiscal sponsorship can offer a valuable alternative to starting a nonprofit.
Founded in 2012, Palestine Legal is the only legal organization in the United States exclusively dedicated to supporting the movement for Palestinian rights. Adalah Justice Project (AJP) seeks to shift American attitudes and policy concerning Israel/Palestine towards a human rights approach. Arab Resource & Organizing Center (AROC) provides a centralized space for analysis, strategy, and formulation of concrete campaigns to organize for change.
In 2022, Tides Foundation contributed nearly $750 million in funding to 4,000 grantees in 95 countries worldwide. Janiece Evans-Page, Chief Executive Officer of Tides, wrote January 22, 2024 "Tides’ donor community granted $5 million to organizations providing emergency relief to communities impacted by the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict. We also joined with other institutional funders, individual donors, and philanthropic institutions to call for an immediate ceasefire, the unimpeded passage of humanitarian aid to affected communities, and adherence to international humanitarian and human rights laws."
On 27 March 2024, Vanderbilt University police arrested four students and a local journalist after protesters took over the chancellor’s office, demanding the administration restore an Israeli divestment-related amendment removed from the student government ballot. Three students who sat in the Chancellor's office were arrested for assault and bodily injury to another, according to The Hustler, Vanderbilt's student news organization, Three students were subsequently expelled and others received suspensions or disciplinary probation. The incident brought large pushback from the Nashville community, including from The Future of Free Speech project, a nonpartisan think tank located at Vanderbilt University.
In the early 1960s, Nashville became one of the first southern cities to desegregate its public facilities. And the Nashville movement also provided SNCC [Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee] with some of its earliest leaders. Nashville was home to four Historically Black Colleges: American Baptist Theological Seminary, Fisk University, Meharry Medical College, and Tennessee Agricultural & Industrial. Similar to other campus SNCC affiliates, students at these HBCUs were leaders in challenging segregation and building the foundation to the southern freedom struggle, and in later years the anti-apartheid struggle. The anti-apartheid campus organising of the 1970s and 1980s was a significant piece of what shifted American popular opinion and political opinion against the South African regime.
"The Ghost of the 1968 Antiwar Movement Has Returned ... Young people, in particular, are following the Israel-Hamas war on social media, and many are horrified by what they see. They’ve also grown up with protest movements — Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, the Parkland, Fla., students’ gun control campaign — as the backdrop of their lives." wrote Charles M. Blow, Opinion Columnist at The New York Times, on 24 April 2024. The actions of the students and the college administrators resemble campuses during the Civil Rights Movement, Vietnam War and the apartheid era in South Africa.
Center of Gravity identification is the centerpiece of military planning. Center of Gravity was defined in Joint Publication (JP) 1-02 as “those characteristics, capabilities, or sources of power from which a military force derives its freedom of action, physical strength, or will to fight.” The final draft of JP 3-0 refined the definition to “the source of power that provides moral or physical strength, freedom of action, or will to act.” Clausewitz never used the actual term “center of gravity”, but the concept he used was the “hub of all power and movement”, the Schwerpunkt, really means “weight (or focus) of effort.” In countries subject to domestic strife, he claimed, the Schwerpunkt is generally the capital. The purpose of a political cause is to draw the greatest number of supporters while decreasing the appeal of its opponents. Without a cause, there is nothing for the people to support actively, passively, willingly, or unwillingly.
In Vietnam, the United States never lost big battles, but lost the war on America college campuses. The Vietnam War sparked a mass antiwar movement employing the civil disobedience tactics and grassroots mobilizations of the civil rights struggles. Led by student organizations like Students for a Democratic Society, the antiwar movement developed rapidly. The U.S. war in Vietnam triggered the most tenacious anti-war movement in American history, Anti-war activities, particularly large-scale resistance to military conscription, forced an end U.S. combat operations in Vietnam.
Two leading pro-Palestinian groups in the United States - American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) and National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP) - are a propaganda front working to recruit “uninformed, misguided, and impressionable college students to serve as foot soldiers for Hamas” according to federal lawsuit filed 01 May 2024. Nine survivors of the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks on southern Israel brought a federal lawsuit by major U.S. and global law firm Greenberg Traurig. “They are not innocent advocacy groups, but rather the propaganda arm of a terrorist organization operating in plain sight,” according to the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, VA. The lawsuit alleged that AMP and NSJP are in continuous active dialogue with Hamas to amplify propaganda on social media or help craft it from America. The lawsuit alleges that NSJP’s messaging and communications tailored to student groups constitute material support for a foreign terrorist organization.
The suit also notes that AMP and NSJP are merely the current version of several prior entities that were already determined by the U.S. government to be supporters of Hamas. The litigation alleges AMP "serves as Hamas’s propaganda division in the United States" and "was founded from the ashes of disbanded organizations created by senior Hamas officials after those organizations and related individuals were found criminally and civilly liable for providing material support to Hamas and other affiliated terrorist groups."
"This case is not about independent political advocacy. It is about organizations whose very creation was intended to provide continuous, systematic, and substantial assistance to a Foreign Terrorist Organization and its allies," the complaint states. “AMP’s message to college campuses through NSJP is unambiguous: violent attacks are a justified response to Zionism as an idea, to Israel as an entity, and to Zionists as people,” the lawsuit says. “The purpose of this messaging is not only to justify the terrorism of Hamas and its affiliates in Gaza within Western academia and society at large but also to establish an environment where violence against Jews and anyone else associated with Israel could be construed as acceptable, justified, or even heroic.”
Richard A. Edlin, Vice Chair of Greenberg Traurig, notes: “It is deeply ironic that the same people carrying signs saying ‘Death to America’ and ‘Death to Jews’ claim they are protected by free speech. They are not. Free speech has never included the active support of terrorism, and it has never protected the destruction of private property or the brutalization of innocent men, women, and children of many faiths, not just Jews. In the defendants, we confront an American problem, as well as a Jewish problem. We cannot—and through this lawsuit, we are saying we will not—allow the infiltration of Hamas-directed hatred, violence, and intimidation anywhere we can prevent it.""
The suit alleges AMP and NSJP responded on Oct. 8, 2023, the day after the horrific atrocities perpetrated by Hamas, by participating in the terrorist’s propaganda to justify its appalling brutalities. AMP and NSJP answered Hamas’s “call for mass mobilization” by disseminating a manifesto and plan of attack. This manifesto confirms that “AMP and NSJP are not merely organizing to assist Hamas’s ongoing terror campaign abroad—they are intentionally extending their aid to fomenting chaos, violence, and terror in the United States.” In this manner, the groups acted to support and further the goals and directives of Hamas. Further, the lawsuit states that "AMP and NSJP knowingly provide continuous, systematic, and substantial assistance to Hamas and its affiliates’ acts of international terrorism. AMP and NSJP are thus liable to Plaintiffs for the damages they incurred because AMP and NSJP aid and abet Hamas’s terrorism."
According to Mark Goldfeder, the CEO and director of the National Jewish Advocacy Center, “This case is very simple: When someone tells you they are aiding and abetting terrorists—believe them.” Jason Torchinsky, a partner at Holtzman Vogel who also represents the victims, emphasized that “[t]he chaos we are seeing at American colleges and universities has been well planned and organized..." The complaint alleges that at the time it was filed, "AMP and NSJP are – among other things – coordinating the occupation of dozens of college campuses across the country to ‘force’ the American government and academia to bend to Hamas’s will."
The complaint states that the day after Hamas slaughtered 1,200 people and took 240 others hostage, NSJP and AMP were “prepared and responded to Hamas’s ‘call for mass mobilization’ by disseminating a manifesto and plan of attack (‘NSJP Toolkit’) which includes materials that appear to have been created before the attack.” Jihad Watch suggested "This may mean that NSJP and AMP very likely knew in advance about the attack that was carried out by Hamas on October 7, and had prepared materials, including a plan of attack to win over American public opinion in favor of Hamas, that were then disseminated widely to its members throughout the U.S., beginning on the very day of the attack." Or, it may mean that the groups had been working on the Palestine issue for many years, and put old wine in a new bottle, slapping a new cover page on a pre-exiting text.
AMP’s chairman, Hatem Bazian, rejected the lawsuit as an assault on students’ rights to free speech and protest. “We will defend ourselves,” Bazian said. “The lawsuit is an Islamophobic text reeking in anti-Palestinian racism and resorts to defamation to deflect from the live-streamed genocide in Gaza.” Hatem Bazian is a Palestinian-American academic, activist, and lecturer. He's known for his work on Middle Eastern studies, particularly on issues related to Palestine and Islamophobia. Bazian is a co-founder of Zaytuna College, the first accredited Muslim liberal arts college in the United States. He has been involved in various initiatives promoting social justice and Palestinian rights, and he's often a prominent voice in discussions surrounding these topics.
The first “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” at Columbia University was formed on 17 April 2024.
Eric Adams was asked live on MSNBC 01 May 2024 about how many non-students were arrested at Columbia. Adams got flustered then said it was two individuals. He refused to name them, but then referenced a person that the NYPD already confirmed wasn't arrested and wasn't even there. "I believe that when we started seeing footage and we were able to identify what was always my belief based on some of the organization's individuals, but once we were able to actually confirm that with our intelligence division and one of the individuals' husband was arrested for and convicted for terrorism on a federal level. Once we were able to identify some of the other people, I knew that there was no way I was going to allow those children to be exploited the way they were being exploited and many people thought that this was just a natural evolution of a protest. It was not. These were professionals that were here and I just want to send a clear message out that there are people who are harmful and trying to radicalize our children and we cannot ignore these outside influences. I don't know if they're international. I think we need to look into that as well, but there's an attempt to radicalize young people in this country.
"It has been indicated by Columbia when they reached out that the substantial number were outside influences. When you look at the wearing all black, covering your faces completely, those methodologies, our intelligence divisions study this type of behavior across the globe. We just had a team that just returned from overseas looking at some of the methods that are being used with these actions. There's no coincidence that you're seeing these young people across the globe being trained with the same type of individuals and that is our concern. It's more than just Columbia, there's more than what we saw at City College. This needs to be a clarion call for our country. These are our children and we can't allow them to be radicalized like children are being radicalized across the globe.""
New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New York City Police Department (NYPD) Commissioner Edward A. Caban on 02 May 2024 released additional details surrounding the arrests of 282 individuals two days ago who participated in violent protests and unlawful conduct at Columbia University and The City College of New York (CCNY). On April 30, 112 individuals were arrested at a protest at Columbia ; approximately 29 percent of these individuals were not affiliated with Columbia. Also, on April 30, 170 individuals were arrested at a protest at CCNY; 60 percent of these individuals were not affiliated with CCNY.
NYPD Commissioner Caban said "What we have seen, and what has been made clear by the evidence emerging after this week's arrests, is that professional, external actors are involved in these protests and demonstrations. These individuals are not university students, they are not affiliated with either the institutions or campuses in question, and they are working to escalate the situation."
"I have been saying for days, if not weeks now, that what should have been a peaceful protest, it has basically been co-opted by professionals outside agitators. We were extremely cautious about releasing our intel information because our goal was to ensure the safety of our students, the faculty, and without any destruction of property." New York City mayor Eric Adams blamed these “outside agitators” for escalating anti-Israel protests at Columbia University as he defended his police department’s conduct in clearing protesters. The mayor spoke hours after officers equipped in riot gear stormed the campus in a dramatic raid to oust protesters from Hamilton Hall, a building they had seized on Monday night, as well as two encampments that ignited similar protests at universities across the US. Adams vowed to fight for the American “way of life” amid pro-terror protests rocking the city’s colleges.
Mayor Eric Adams, without providing evidence or details, blamed the on-campus chaos on insurgents who have a “history of escalating situations and trying to create chaos” instead of protesting peacefully. “There were individuals on the campus who should not have been there. They were people who are professionals and we saw evidence of training,” Adams said. “I know that there are those who attempting to say, ‘Well, the majority of people may have been students.’ You don’t have to be the majority to influence and co-op an operation. That is what this about."
“It is our belief they are now actively co-opting what should be a peaceful gathering,” Adams said. “This is to serve their own agenda. They are not here to promote peace or unity or allow a peaceful displaying of one voice but they are here to create discord and divisiveness.” He then warned parents and guardians to “please call your child and urge them to leave the area before the situation escalates. This is for their own safety and the safety of others.” He added: “We have sounded the alarm several times before about external actors who attempted to hijack this private protest.”
Rebecca Weiner, deputy commissioner for intelligence and counterterrorism, showed a two-minute video of what they deemed evidence that outside forces were driving the most extreme parts of the protests. The video clips showed students bringing barriers into Hamilton Hall and climbing through windows. Outside forces, she said, assisted students in gaining access to the building, held training sessions and helped disable cameras. At least half of the demonstrators at Columbia are not affiliated to the university, a law enforcement official told CNN.
The video showed students dutifully obeying orders from a 63-year-old grey-haired woman. Lisa Fithian, a New Yorker living in Texas, was once described by Mother Jones as “the nation’s best-known protest consultant”, Ms Fithian has supported a plethora of movements over the decades including opposing the Iraq war, fighting for Louisiana communities following Hurricane Katrina, Extinction Rebellion and Occupy Wall Street.
"Outside agitator" is a term historically used to describe someone who comes from outside a community or organization to participate in protests, demonstrations, or other forms of activism. The term has been particularly prominent in discussions of civil rights struggles in the United States, where activists from outside communities often joined local movements to fight against segregation and discrimination. Often, it's used pejoratively to suggest that the individual doesn't have a legitimate stake in the issues being protested and may be inciting unrest or causing trouble where otherwise there would be none. However, it's also been used by activists to describe themselves when they travel to other places to support movements or lend their expertise.
President Joe Biden remarked about student protests over Gaza In a brief news conference from the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, 02 May 2024. Biden addressed the nation, underscoring that the right to free speech and the rule of law must both be upheld. “Order must prevail,” he said from the White House, even as he stressed that dissent is “essential for democracy.”
“Vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campuses, forcing the cancellation of classes and graduation — none of this is a peaceful protest. Threatening people, intimidating people, instilling fear in people is not a peaceful protest,” he said. “Dissent is essential to democracy, but dissent must never lead to disorder or to denying the rights of others so students can finish the semester and their college education,” Biden continued. “There’s a right to protest but not the right to cause chaos.”
“We are not an authoritarian nation where we silence people or squash dissent,” he said. “The American people are heard. In fact, peaceful protest is in the best tradition of how Americans respond to consequential issues.” Biden said he does not support calls by some Republican lawmakers including House Speaker Mike Johnson to send in the National Guard to quell protests. He said the campus demonstrations have not caused him to reconsider his approach to Gaza. His administration has criticized some of Israel’s war conduct but continues to support their efforts to eliminate Hamas, despite pushback from progressive Democrats and American Muslim groups.
“There’s a [sense of] disappointment, but there’s no surprise,” Kali, a student protester at George Washington University in Washington, DC, said of Biden’s remarks. “For the Biden administration to demonise us in this way is honestly incredibly disappointing,” Kali told Al Jazeera. “It paints a target on the backs of Arab, Muslim, Palestinian, anti-Zionist youth.” Biden’s approval rating stands at 28 percent among voters under age 30, according to a Pew Research Center survey. A recent CNN poll also showed that a staggering 81 percent of voters younger than 35 disapprove of Biden’s handling of Israel’s war on Gaza. The Democratic president’s support for Israel, condemnation of the student protests, and silence on the mass arrests and violence against demonstrators may fuel young people’s apathy — if not antipathy — towards him.
Hasan Pyarali — the Muslim Caucus chairperson for College Democrats of America, the university arm of the Democratic Party — told Al Jazeera he was disappointed by Biden’s comments. “In our point of view, it’s not just good policy to oppose the genocide; it’s good politics. He has done neither, and we’re really disappointed to see that,” said Pyarali, a senior at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. “It’s not on us to make sure that Trump doesn’t come back; it’s on Biden and his campaign,” he said. “It’s now on him to go forward. If he wants to continue down the path that is unpopular, unjust and genocidal, he certainly can — he’s the president of the United States. But it’s at the peril of essentially losing an entire generation of voters and also risking the 2024 election.”
In previous days, demonstrations spread nationwide, unfoldeding tented encampments on school grounds. This was sparked by protests at New York’s prestigious Columbia University which demanded authorities divest from Israel due to its occupation and military assault on Gaza. University authorities from the west to east coast have taken different approaches, ranging from Columbia’s initial response to authorise police to clear protests by force to continuing negotiations and allowing the encampments to remain.
“I condemn the antisemitic protests,” U.S. President Joe Biden told reporters 22 April 2024. “I also condemn those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians.” Jewish students at Columbia and elsewhere complained many of the pro-Palestinian protests have turned antisemitic, with threats of violence against Jewish students. US officials weighed in on the nationwide protests. On 24 April 2024, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson appeared on the Columbia University campus and called for President Shafik to resign. He said the cherished traditions of the school “are being overtaken right now by radical and extreme ideologies.”
Netanyahu, who is facing protests demanding his resignation at home, said the American demonstrations are "reminiscent of what happened in German universities in the 1930s," drawing parallels to scenes that preceded the Holocaust under Nazi Germany. Ties are already tense as the Biden administration and Democrats in Congress demand that Israel improve its conduct of the war. In March, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, described the Israeli prime minister as an impediment to peace in the Middle East and called for a new election to replace him. Schumer is the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in the U.S.
The demonstrations were also becoming a political headache for President Joe Biden. Student protesters and progressive Democrats who support their cause are important constituencies for Biden ahead of the November presidential election. His reelection bid depends in part to his ability to pacify progressives' anger about his administration's support of Israel, a close U.S. ally. An added complication for Biden is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's efforts to portray the antiwar sentiment in the U.S. as antisemitic. On Wednesday, Netanyahu called the protests "horrific" and said they must be stopped. "Antisemitic mobs have taken over leading universities," he said. "They call for the annihilation of Israel. They attack Jewish students. They attack Jewish faculty."
Netanyahu's criticisms of the protests are echoed by Republican lawmakers who accuse the students of condoning terrorism and supporting Hamas. Republican-led committees in Congress have summoned university administrators to testify, accusing them of allowing campuses to become hotbeds of antisemitism. House Speaker Mike Johnson and several other Republican lawmakers visited Columbia University, calling for the resignation of university President Minouche Shafik and decrying the student protests as violent and uncontrollable. "This is dangerous. This is not the First Amendment, this is not free expression," Johnson said, amid raucous booing and shouts from protesters. The speaker demanded that Biden call out the country's military reserve force to quell the protests. "There is an appropriate time for the National Guard," he said. "We have to bring order to these campuses." The White House declined to weigh in, saying decisions to call in National Guard units to break up protests are up to state governors.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was asked about the protests during a news conference in Beijing Friday. Blinken called the demonstrations “a hallmark of our democracy,” and said they show the strength of the country. But he noted that protesters have largely failed to mention Hamas’ role in the Gaza crisis. "It is also notable that there is silence about Hamas. It's as if it wasn't even part of the story," Blinken said to reporters Friday during a visit to Beijing. "But as I've also said repeatedly, the way Israel goes about ensuring that October 7th never happens again matters profoundly."
Today’s traditional undergraduate students generally are less resilient and able to handle conflict, more neurodiverse, and present with more mental health challenges, such as anxiety, depression, and suicide ideation, than in any other generation. They were born after 9/11 and understand war and terrorism as theoretical. They get their information from social media and each other. When external issues or actors stir up tension, it exacerbates these existing foundational issues.
Both Jewish and Muslim students are hurting and need help. They find that Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) offices, which were founded to address racism and racial inequities, are often unequipped and unable to help them feel a sense of safety and belonging on the campus. Students who aren’t on “either side” of the conflict also are affected by the environment, which can feel toxic and not conducive to learning.
Adding to the complexity is the plight of international students. Beyond the international students and scholars directly impacted by the conflict in the Middle East, other international students are dealing with heightened concerns in addition to coping with and trying to learn in a tension-filled campus climate. International students have faced politically charged threats of deportation and uncertainty about their rights to free speech and the consequences of certain types of behaviors and activities.
In many universities, Jewish students participated in expressing their anger about U.S. support for Israel in its war against Hamas in Gaza and their schools' financial and academic ties to Israel and to weapons manufacturers. "We have a university that's actively investing money into companies that are helping fuel [the war], kill these innocent people," a Jewish student from George Washington University told VOA, declining to share her name because of security concerns. "And it's just not something that I morally can – I have never been able to stand by – but especially not now anymore."
Yet some Jewish students have complained of rising antisemitism and have felt unsafe on their own campuses, including Columbia, because of the protests. Overall, the protests are peaceful, even as some are met with counterprotests from pro-Israel and pro-Zionist students. Demonstrations are broadly protected as free speech under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. But the protests are potentially explosive for university administrators, particularly as some students have been called out for using antisemitic language. Interpreted differently by its supporters, a chant like, "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free," is seen by many Jews and Israelis as a call to dismantle the Jewish state and replace it with a Palestinian state that extends from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.
Vanderbilt University students began protesting on 26 March 2024 after an amendment to the Vanderbilt Student Government Constitution, which would prevent student government funds from going to certain businesses that support Israel, was removed by administration officials from a student ballot. The student amendment, which garnered over 600 signatures — well above the required amount to be put on the student ballot — followed guidelines from the national Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement to prohibit the spending of funds on businesses deemed “complicit” in Israel’s post-1967 occupation of part of Palestine. It was proposed by Vanderbilt’s Divest Coalition, a conglomeration of around 20 student organizations and over 1,000 students. The sit-in ended 26 March 2024, with numerous students removed from an administration building and at least three arrested and later released. Nearly 30 students crammed into the halls of Vanderbilt Chancellor Daniel Diermeier’s office to hold a sit-in, along with over 30 more students on the steps outside, despite repeated threats of suspension and possible removal from the building.
Protests had grown in campuses across the country since Columbia University in New York started cracking down on pro-Palestinian protesters occupying a lawn on its campus on April 18. Police interventions have led to hundreds of arrests but have failed to contain the spread of antiwar demonstrations. Nearly 900 people had been arrested on US campuses between 18 April and 29 april, 2024, when New York police forcefully removed a pro-Palestinian protest camp at Columbia University. Since then, students at dozens of universities have set up encampments, calling for an end to the war and for their universities to cut ties with companies selling weapons to Israel.
Demonstrations have been held on campuses from Vanderbilt and Emory in the south to Boston and Atlanta in the east and to Texas and Los Angeles in the west, with violent clashes between campus and local law enforcement and protesters growing increasingly common. At Emory University Thursday, Atlanta media report 28 people were arrested after protesters refused to disperse and there were reports of bottles being thrown. There were also reports of police using tasers and tear gas to disperse the demonstrators. Protesters were reported back on campus the next day. At Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, reports say at least 12 people were arrested as police broke up a protest that lasted several hours on the college campus.
Police clashed 25 April 2024 with pro-Palestinian protesters at Ohio State University and Emery University in Atlanta as college demonstrations continue across the country against U.S. support for Israel in its war against Hamas in Gaza. Many of the college demonstrators are demanding their schools cut ties with Israeli academic institutions and disinvest school funds from Israel-linked entities. On several campuses, tent encampments have been constructed where protesters have camped out for days and weeks in some cases.
Police responded as student protesters at Princeton University in New Jersey began setting up an encampment, according to media reports. In a video posted on X, an officer said, "You all are in violation of university policy. These tents must come down now." Protesters were also shown chanting, "Free, free Palestine."
A couple states away in Massachusetts, police forcibly removed an encampment set up by students at Emerson College in Boston and arrested more than 100 people, according to media and police reports. The tents were removed shortly after 1 a.m. on Thursday, police said. Emerson canceled classes Thursday. Students at Harvard University, Tufts University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology set up similar encampments.
At New York’s Columbia University — what has been called one epicenter of the protest movement — city police arrested more than 100 pro-Palestinian protesters. University officials decided to switch to hybrid learning for the remainder of the semester, which will conclude by the end of next week. The university has again extended the deadline, this time until early Friday morning, for students to dismantle tents. The school’s President Minouche Shafik backed off a midnight Thursday deadline for students to abandon an encampment they have established on campus. She said in a statement, negotiations with the students were continuing. Shafik faced a Columbia faculty senate vote Friday on a resolution expressing displeasure with a series of her decisions, including her summoning of the New York Police Department last week to arrest students on campus. In her statement, she denied she had done this.
Palestine Legal, a U.S. pro-Palestinian group, filed a federal civil rights complaint against Columbia in the wake of last week's mass arrest of anti-war protesters after the school called police to clear demonstrator encampments.
In Washington, hundreds of demonstrators gathered at George Washington University to call for universities to divest from companies linked to Israel and to drop disciplinary charges against pro-Palestinian student protesters. The protest was organized by students from George Washington, Georgetown University and others in the region.
In New Haven, Connecticut, police arrested 48 protesters, four of whom were not students, at Yale University after they refused to leave an encampment on a plaza at the center of campus. Two days later at the University of Texas at Austin, hundreds of protesters were met with university officers as Texas state troopers responded in riot gear. Dozens of students who did not leave the area were arrested. “Arrests being made right now & will continue until the crowd disperses,” Texas Governor Greg Abbott posted on X. “These protesters belong in jail. Antisemitism will not be tolerated in Texas. Period. Students joining in hate-filled, antisemitic protests at any public college or university in Texas should be expelled.” A photojournalist covering the protest for Fox 7 Austin was arrested after being caught in the tumult between students and law enforcement, the station said. Footage on social media shows the journalist being knocked down by officers.
Hours later, in contrast to the police response in Texas, police peacefully arrested student protesters at the University of Southern California. That evening, a few dozen demonstrators standing in a circle with locked arms were detained one by one without incident. More than 90 protesters were arrested on campus.
A day later, USC announced it would cancel its main graduation ceremony, scheduled for May 10. The university had already canceled a commencement speech by the school's pro-Palestinian valedictorian, citing safety concerns. Officials at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles said they were canceling the school’s main commencement ceremony next month, citing "new safety measures," after nearly 100 people were arrested on the campus. That move follows its decision a week earlier to cancel the valedictorian speech from a Muslim student who said she was being silenced by anti-Palestinian hatred for her views on human rights.
Hamline University in MN may be the first University to grant amnesty to the student encampment for Gaza and even granted the students a meeting with the president of the University and the chair of the board of trustees to hear their demands for the school's divestment.
On 27 April 2024 alone, about 275 people were arrested from protests at Northeastern University in Boston, Arizona State University in Phoenix, Indiana University Bloomington, and Washington University in St Louis. Those arrested included the Green Party’s presidential candidate Jill Stein. She was briefly detained at a student-led protest at Washington University in Missouri. Thhe next day, students pitched a new encampment on Yale University’s campus in the northeastern state of Connecticut, a week after Yale police broke up a protest camp at the university and arrested 44 students for trespassing. An encampment calling for an end to Israel’s war on Gaza was also established over the weekend at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), where there have been days of protests.
Columbia’s protesters ignored an ultimatum from the university to leave the camp or risk suspension on Monday. Early on Tuesday morning, students took over historic Hamilton Hall on campus, barricading themselves inside. The building was one of those occupied in civil rights and Viet Nam war protests by students in 1968. The university president announced earlier on Monday that dialogue with protesters had failed, and the institution would not bow to demands to divest from Israel.
UN rights chief Volker Türk said that freedom of expression and the right to peaceful assembly were “fundamental to society”, particularly when there is sharp disagreement on major issues as there is in relation to the conflict in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel. He noted that in recent weeks, thousands of university students in the US have been protesting the war, and many demonstrations have taken place without incident. But, there have also been hundreds of arrests following interventions on some campuses by security forces. Many have subsequently been released while others still face charges or academic sanctions.
Action taken by authorities and law enforcement officials to restrict such expression needs to be carefully scrutinised to ensure they do not go beyond what is demonstrably necessary to protect the rights and freedoms of others or for another legitimate aim, such as the maintenance of public health or order, Mr. Türk said. “I am concerned that some of law enforcement actions across a series of universities appear disproportionate in their impacts,” he stressed.
Statement from Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates "President Biden hos stood against repugnont, Antisemitic smears and violent rhetoric his entire life. He condemns the use of the term "intifada," as he has the other tragic and dongerous hate speech disployed in recent days. President Biden respects the right to free expression, but protests must be peaceful and lawful. Forcibly taking over buildings is not peaceful - it is wrong. And hate speech and hate symbols have no place in America!'
On 01 May 2024 U.S. Representatives Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), Madeleine Dean (PA-04) and 55 additional Members are calling on the Administration to use all tools possible to dissuade the Israeli government from moving forward with an offensive invasion into Rafah. “We write with urgency to say: an offensive invasion into Rafah by Israel in the upcoming days is wholly unacceptable,” wrote the Members. “Despite […] dire circumstances, the Israeli government is reportedly on the verge of a full-scale offensive on Rafah. An Israeli offensive in Rafah risks the start of yet another escalatory spiral, immediately putting the region back on the brink of a broader war that neither Israel nor the United States can afford.”
On 03 May 2024 Congressman Jason Crow (CO-06), Army combat veteran and Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Accountability, and Congressman Chris Deluzio (PA-17), Navy and Iraq War veteran and member of the House Armed Services Committee, led a letter with 86 colleagues urging President Biden to enforce National Security Memorandum 20, including the underlying law, Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act amid evidence and reports that Israel has restricted the flow of US aid to Gaza. “Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act prohibits the United States from providing security assistance or arms sales to any country when the President is made aware that the government “prohibits or otherwise restricts, directly or indirectly, the transport or delivery of United States humanitarian assistance,” the Members said in the letter.
"The Do-It-Yourself Occupation Guide” contains detailed diagrams on how to break into buildings using tools like crowbars, clamps, metal cables, chains, bolt cutters, and a miniature saw known as an angle grinder. The original version of this zine comes out of the 2009/2010 university occupations in the United States. It was updated in 2012 to include lessons learned from Occupy Oakland. The zine provides an overview of techniques and tactics that can be used to occupy a building. Includes a look at various roles (media, legal support), reconnaissance, barricading, defending occupied spaces, and much more. At least nine manuals were shared among organizers of the Gaza Solidarity Encampments across the country that encourage “militancy” and instruct protesters to break laws, seize buildings, vandalize them, and then use tactics to evade police detection and arrest.
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