From East to West of the United States, students demonstrate against the war waged by the Zionist entity in Gaza, despite threats of suspension and arrest. Pro-Palestine demonstrations propagate in Europe in support of demonstrations on American university campuses.
The University of Columbia, the epicenter of the Pro-Palestinian movement, returned to its decision late Thursday evening, thus abandoning its previous request to the pro-Palestinian demonstrators to leave a camp installed on its land, while similar actions take place on various university campuses across the United States.
In recent days, police interventions have intensified on campuses across the United States, authorities using chemical agents and electrical impulse pistols to disperse the demonstrations denouncing the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
In total, nearly 550 arrests were carried out during the last week in the main American universities in connection with the demonstrations in Gaza. University authorities have said that demonstrations were often unauthorized and asked the police to disperse them.
In Paris, the police dispersed yesterday, Thursday, April 25, a pro-Palestine student rally, while demonstrations spread to American campuses. After discussions with the management of Sciences Po University, most of the students agreed to leave, but a small group refused, requiring the intervention of the police.
Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union condemned the arrest of demonstrators and urged the authorities to respect their rights to freedom of expression.
Can pro-Palestine demonstrations end the genocide?
This is not the first time that university students in the United States have been organizing campus demonstrations. However, demonstrators and observers claim that the repression of student camps was particularly intense this time.
Student release zones that are currently emerging in the United States recall 1968 uprisings at Columbia University and other cities like Paris, Prague and Mexico, where students occupied universities and created temporary autonomous areas to challenge the Vietnam War.
The first camp built in Columbia on April 17, reflected this spirit, creating a space outside traditional university structures. The current wave of arrests and militarized reactions revives discussions on the historical use of force against student movements in the United States.
The study of past movements reveals successful tactics. Did the steps work? Historical examples can offer an approaches toolbox for today’s student activists.
In the 1960s, it was largely argued that the central objective of protests on university campuses was to put an end to military conscription for Vietnam. Although large -scale student protests did not end the conscription directly, they have helped to return public opinion against war, exercising political pressure on the government so that it re -evaluates its involvement in Vietnam.
It remains to be seen whether universities will decide to disinvest or to what extent the current student movement will influence public opinion on Israel. However, in the meantime, the number disapproving of Israel’s actions in Gaza continues to increase.
