Ever since the Israel-Hamas war started on Oct. 7,2023. Many people in the US, especially students have launched rallies, sit-ins, marches, hunger strikes, and more that have recently started encampments on college campuses for Palestine.
Before students all over the country decided to have encampments on their school’s campuses. The idea of students setting encampments for Palestine was first started by the students of Columbia University.
On April 17, a small group of students pitched their tents on the university’s Manhattan quad. The students started the encampments demanding that their school financially divest from Israel. Student-activists say that “Israeli companies or companies who support Israel, that the school has financial ties with are complicit in the ongoing war.” Apart from tents, the students have also set up huge posters outside the encampment, writing messages about Palestine.
Minouche Shafik, the University’s president, started “sending messages” to students after hearing about the encampment on the university’s campus saying that “violations of our policies will have consequences.”
The next day the encampments were still going on at the Manhattan quad. After protesters refused to leave and created a “harassing and intimidating environment”, President Shafik sent the NYPD and they arrested more than 100 students.
Students who attended the protest took to social media and then the protest at Columbia University started to go viral and soon other students from different schools, miles away from Columbia University, started protesting with encampments.
More than 130 colleges are experiencing protests from their students on their campuses. Students from Yale, UCLA, Harvard, UMD, USC, and other universities started protesting at their campus with the same intention in asking their school to divest from Israel.
As protests are happening all around the country on college campuses. The scenery is all too familiar with police in riot gear ready to break apart protests. Students being arrested and placed on massive buses to be escorted off the site.
While some protests were peaceful, others turned violent.
Despite being arrested earlier, protestors returned to Columbia, before and after hearing that the university released a statement saying that they will not divest from Israel. Protestors said they will not leave until the university divests from Israeli companies.On April 30, protests took over Columbia’s Hamilton Hall. They occupied the hall for hours and within those hours, they vandalized the building and blockaded it. Protestors hung banners with messages about the school and Palestine. Protestors renamed the building “Hind’s Hall” in honor of Hind Rajab, a six year old Palestinian girl who was killed by the Israeli military in Gaza on Jan. 29.
The NYPD came to arrest protestors again for the second time after President Shafik asked for help again. Police arrested over a dozen protesters in the building.
On Tuesday, April 30, chaos broke out on UCLA’s campuses after Israeli protesters charged towards the encampment that was on the Royal quad. Pro-Israeli protesters threw fireworks into the encampment while trying to move the metal bars set up by the pro-Palestine protesters. They were also armed with metal rods, and sticks. Many fights broke out between the protesters and Israeli protesters, slurs were said to pro-Palestine protesters.The security guards hired by UCLA retreated into Kaplan hall during the attacks and it took over 2 hours before LAPD came at 3 am to handle the violent attacks. The next day, the LAPD came back to the campus to disembark the encampment. They did so by using flash bang grenades, shooting rubber bullets, and tear gas.
As protests still continue at other universities in the U.S, Palestinian students and children in Shaboura, a refugee camp in Rafah, Gaza, say thank you to the students of the U.S for standing with them in a video posted to social media. Although they live in tents they wrote thank you messages on the outside of their tents.
