Student Intifada

Pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses escalated in April 2024, spreading in the United States and other countries, as part of wider Israel–Hamas war protests. The escalation began after mass arrests at the Columbia University campus occupation, led by anti-Zionist groups, in which protesters demanded the university's disinvestment from Israel over its alleged genocide of Palestinians. In the U.S. over 2,950 protesters have been arrested, including faculty members and professors, on over 60 campuses. On May 7, protests spread across Europe with mass arrests in the Netherlands. By May 12, twenty encampments had been established in the United Kingdom, and across universities in Australia and Canada.

The different protests' varying demands include severing financial ties with Israel, transparency over financial ties, an end to partnerships with Israeli institutions, and amnesty for protesters. Universities have suspended and expelled student protesters, in some cases evicting them from campus housing. Some universities have relied on police to forcibly disband encampments and end occupations of buildings, others made agreements with protesters for encampments to be dismantled, and a number of universities have cut ties with Israeli institutions, or companies involved with Israel and its occupied territories. The occupations have also resulted in the closure of Columbia University, Cal Poly Humboldt, and the University of Amsterdam; rolling strikes by academic workers on campuses in California; and the cancellation of a few university graduation ceremonies in the U.S., with protests occurring at various ceremonies.

Over 200 groups have expressed support for the protests, as well as U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, various members of Congress, several labor unions, hundreds of university staff in the United Kingdom, and Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei. The police response to the protests has been criticized by various Democrats and human rights organizations. An estimated 8% of college students have participated in protests, 97% of protests have remained nonviolent, and 28–40% of Americans support the protests with 42–47% opposed.Most Democrats believe Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza - poll
; The Jerusalem Post; May 9, 2024 The protests have been compared to the anti-Vietnam and 1968 protests.

Supporters of Israel and some Jewish students have raised concerns about antisemitic incidents at or around the protests, prompting condemnations of the protests from leaders including President Joe Biden, Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; as well as concern from Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Students and faculty members who have participated in the protests, some of whom are Jewish, have said the protests are not antisemitic.

Background

Protests, including rallies, demonstrations, campaigns, and vigils related to the Israel–Hamas war have occurred across the U.S. since the conflict's start on October 7, 2023, alongside other Israel–Hamas war protests around the world. Pro-Palestinian protesters criticized U.S. military and diplomatic support for Israel and Israel's invasion of the Gaza Strip and its war conduct, which some called a genocide.

Students occupying administrative buildings were arrested at the request of college administrators at Brown University in November and December 2023, and at Pomona College on April 5, 2024. In March 2024, after protesters occupied the president's office at Vanderbilt 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 to ''The New York Times''.

Overview

First encampment protest at Columbia University

Spread in the United States

Protesters' demands

Many of the protests involve student demands 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, as part of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Some protests have also demanded that the universities sever academic ties with Israel, support a ceasefire in Gaza, and disclose investments. Student demands have varied among the different occupations, including for universities to stop accepting research money from Israel that supports the military, and an end to college endowments investing with managers who profit from Israeli entities.

Student protesters called on Columbia University to financially divest from any company with business ties to the Israeli government, including Microsoft, Google, and Amazon. 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, namely Cisco, Lockheed Martin, Caterpillar and General Electric". Pro-Palestinian protesters demanded that the University of Washington cut ties with Boeing. Students at the University of Vermont demanded the cancellation of a planned commencement speech by Linda Thomas-Greenfield.

After several mass arrests, the demands have also included amnesty for students and faculty who were disciplined or fired for protesting. The protests on many campuses are created by coalitions of student groups, and are largely independent, but some have claimed that they were inspired by other campus protests. All have disavowed violence.

Impact

Closures, cancellations, and graduation protests

In April 2024, the occupations resulted in the closure of Columbia University and Cal Poly Humboldt for the remainder of the semester, and faculty members in California, Georgia, and Texas also initiated votes of no confidence. Columbia, Cal Poly Humboldt, and the University of Southern California canceled their graduation ceremonies due in May. On May 13, the University of Amsterdam closed for two days after renewed occupations on campus.

In May, protests at graduation ceremonies occurred at the University of Michigan, Northeastern University, the University of Illinois Chicago, Indiana University, Virginia Commonwealth University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the University of North Carolina, and the University of California, Berkeley. After demands from protesters, the University of Vermont canceled its graduation ceremony speaker, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield. On June 1, students staged a walkout at the University of Chicago's graduation ceremony, and walkouts at graduations occurred at Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and elsewhere.

Divestment by universities

On April 28, Portland State University (PSU) announced it was pausing its financial ties with Boeing, including gifts and grants, over its ties to Israel. PSU President Ann Cudd wrote in a campus-wide letter, "the passion with which these demands are being repeatedly expressed by some in our community motivates". On May 6, Trinity College Dublin in Ireland agreed to end its investments in Israeli companies that are listed on the United Nations Human Rights Council "blacklist" after an encampment on Fellow's Square was erected. This included three of the 13 Israeli companies the university's endowment fund had invested in.

The University of Helsinki in Finland suspended student exchanges with Israeli universities on May 21 after two weeks of campus protests. On May 28, the University of Copenhagen in Denmark announced it would cease investing in companies that operate in the occupied West Bank, divesting US$145,810 worth of holdings from Airbnb, Booking.com, and EDreams the next day. On May 31, after an investigation was conducted, 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". The university had severed ties with three Israeli institutions two weeks earlier, citing incompatibility with Israel's human rights policy. On June 11, the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, agreed to protesters' demands to factor human rights into its investment decisions.

Negotiations with protesters

Other universities have said they will consider divestment demands regarding Israel-affiliated companies. Some have agreed to disclose their investments and committed to increase awareness about Palestine. Universities that have come to agreements with protesters over certain demands, in order for encampments to be dismantled, include Northwestern University on April 29; Brown University and Evergreen State College on April 30; the University of Minnesota on May 1; Rutgers University on May 2; Goldsmiths, University of London and University of California, Riverside on May 3; Thompson Rivers University on May 4, the University of California, Berkeley on May 14; Additionally, Wesleyan University allowed encampments on campus to continue, and at the University of Barcelona, the Senate voted to break ties with Israel.

On May 15, the protest encampment at Harvard University ended after the administration agreed to discuss the protesters' demands and to rescind the suspension of 20 students. At California State University, Sonoma State campus president Mike Lee was placed on leave after he agreed to pursue divestment from Israel "without the appropriate approvals". On May 23, the University 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.

Campus strikes in California

On May 15, members of United Auto Workers Local 4811, the union representing 48,000 graduate students on 10 campuses in the University 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.

Strike action began at UC 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 at UCLA, UC Irvine, and UC San Diego. The UC system responded by seeking an injunction against the union, declaring the walkout illegal. On May 23, the California Public Employment Relations Board denied the injunction. The walkout extended to UCLA and UC Davis on May 28, with the intention of expanding to UC Santa Barbara, UC San Diego, and UC Irvine starting the week of June 3.

Participants

Organizers and ideologies

Some of the protests are organized by groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace, founded in 1996 as a progressive Jewish anti-Zionist organization; IfNotNow, founded during the 2014 Gaza War; and Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), which has over 200 North American chapters. In late 2023, SJP chapters were banned or suspended at Brandeis University, Columbia University, and Rutgers University. In Florida, chapters were ordered to disband. In response, SJP chapters at the University of Florida and University of South Florida filed federal lawsuits. Pro-Palestinian students were also doxxed by Accuracy in Media at Harvard, Columbia, and Yale University.

Participants include students, faculty, and unaffiliated people of various backgrounds, including both Jews and Muslims. Pro-Palestinian activists at Columbia have said that their movement is anti-Zionist, and several campus protests have been organized by anti-Zionist groups. According to ''The Jerusalem Post'', protesters at Harvard in a press conference called the campus occupation movement a "student intifada", a term echoed by protesters at George Washington University, Stanford University, Indiana University Bloomington, as well as Palestinians in Gaza, while calling for an escalation in protests. Protesters have identified a wide range of other ideologies motivating them, such as antiracism, intersectionality, anti-colonialism, anti-imperialism, policing, the impact of climate change, and Indigenous rights. At Columbia, Maoist revolutionary slogans were listed on blackboards among protesters who breached Hamilton Hall.

Protesters have criticized Joe Biden and his administration's support for Israel. The protests have hosted teach-ins, interfaith prayer, and musical performances. Some protests invited people to tour or speak, such as Palestinian photojournalist Motaz Azaiza, who was invited to and visited Columbia's protest. The Palestinian activist Linda 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".

Counter-protesters, outside groups, and infiltration

Far-right agitators and white nationalists have been seen at some protests seeking to sow chaos and violence, and at the UCLA campus occupation, where they were among pro-Israeli counter-protesters who attacked the encampment. A white supremacist affiliated with Proud Boys has been among the counter-protesters supported by far-right activists across the country. Experts have raised concern about far-right groups attempting to infiltrate protests to cause harm, and subsequent reactions from militant far-left activists aligned with the anti-fascist movement.

Concern has been raised over the presence of outside groups at protests. During arrests in New York on May 2, police announced that nearly half of those arrested at Columbia and CCNY were unaffiliated with either school. Mayor Eric Adams said that they had seen evidence that outside agitators and "professionals" such as Lisa Fithian and the wife of Sami Al-Arian had given students tactical knowledge and training to escalate their protests.

Many protesters have donned masks and keffiyehs, which has increased concerns from provosts and deans that outsiders have infiltrated protests. Some Jewish students fear that the anonymity gives greater license for evading consequences. Protesters have expressed fears of having reputational and professional harm from identification.

Analysis

Comparisons

''The Guardian'' called the protests "perhaps the most significant student movement since the anti-Vietnam campus protests of the late 1960s". Protests at Columbia were compared to the 1968 protests due to their scale and tactics, and as echoing the 1968 movement. According to ''The 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. Mark Rudd, who led protests against the Vietnam 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!"

Former Columbia student leaders from the era of protests against apartheid in the 1980s, including BDS co-founder Omar Barghouti and historian Barbara 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. ''The New York Times'' reported that some scholars consider the current protests starkly different from those against the Vietnam War or apartheid South Africa. According to Timothy Naftali, protests against Vietnam in the 1960s did not result in a constituency that felt attacked as an ethnicity, and the "demonstrations now are creating a feeling of insecurity in a much bigger way than the antiwar demonstrations during Vietnam did".

Political criticism

Far-right influencers and some Republicans have portrayed the protests as violent, a "Marxist takeover," and "terrorism". ''The New York Times'' opined that the protests have come during a presidential election year in which Democrats have "harnessed promises of stability and normalcy to win critical recent elections" and that the protests are a messaging opportunity for Republicans to divide Democrats. The newspaper also published an article citing NewsGuard, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, and Recorded Future on how the media of Russia, China, and Iran have covered the events. It concluded that those countries have 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.

Both Columbia Professor of Journalism Helen Benedict and Johns Hopkins political science professor Daniel Schlozman remarked that Republican fixation on criticizing universities as bastions of leftist ideology has resulted in portrayals of the protests as examples of radicalism on race and gender issues as a way to divide Democrats. A ''Jewish 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. Republicans have used antisemitic tropes when denouncing protests as antisemitic, including allusions to conspiracies around George Soros and invoking globalists.

Spread of protests

On April 28, ''The New York Times'' wrote that protests outside the U.S. were "sporadic and smaller, and none tarteda 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 an Ivy League school, its proximity to New 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. According to a ''Washington Monthly'' study, 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."

On May 3, NPR called the protests abroad "a growing global student movement", with student protests in the United Kingdom focusing on "an increasingly high-profile nationwide campaign to end British arms exports to Israel". According to NBC News, the protests abroad, inspired by protests in the U.S., did not have the intensity of U.S. protests. By May 7, protests had escalated in Europe after mass arrests at the University of Amsterdam, with occupations of campus buildings in Germany, France, and Belgium, and encampments on several European campuses. The Associated Press described protests at Sciences Po in Paris as "echoing similar encampments and solidarity demonstrations across the United States". 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.

Media coverage of the protests has been criticized as sensationalized and failing to focus on the protesters' demands and grievances. Dana Bash was criticized for likening college protests to the rise of antisemitism in the 1930s in Europe. The lack of student protesters' voices in most national media coverage has also been criticized. Student reporters, in particular, have been praised for their work covering the protests.

Controversies

Antisemitism allegations

Several protests have been criticized for alleged antisemitism. Some students have called some of the incidents reported at protests and on campus "threatening" and said they make them feel unsafe. Jewish students were targeted for their faith, for wearing Jewish symbols, or were accused of being Zionists and subsequently targeted. Some Jewish students have also said the protests created a climate of fear and hate on campus. According ''The Jewish Post'', a survey by Hillel 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.

Supporters of Israel and some students have said that the word " intifada", the phrase " from the river to the sea", and chants comparing Israel and Zionism to Nazism are antisemitic. Others, including Jewish students, have argued against conflating antisemitism with anti-Zionism, saying the charge is used to chill debate. Pro-Palestinian and Jewish student protesters have asserted that the protests are not antisemitic. ''The Guardian'' noted that incidents of antisemitism appear to be "relatively isolated" and likelier to occur when non-students were in a parallel protest, and pro-Palestinian student groups at the protests have been quick to condemn inflammatory remarks.

Some pro-Palestinian Jewish students have said they have faced antisemitism from pro-Israel activists. Some commentators and politicians, including Mayor Eric Adams, U.S. Representative Virginia Foxx, and NYPD deputy commissioner of operations Kaz Daughtry, promoted a conspiracy theory that George Soros or some other anonymous figure was funding 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.

Allegations of anti-Palestinianism and Islamophobia

Pro-Palestinian protesters and their allies have criticized the disposition of many university administrations as perpetuating a "Palestine exception" to academic freedom. Pro-Palestinian students and their allies have raised concerns about anti-Palestinianism and Islamophobia. Investigations by the U.S. Department of Education have been 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.

Violence

A study by the Armed 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.

According to officials at Vanderbilt 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.

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. Police and city workers destroyed students' tents, flags and other encampment supplies while disbanding the encampment at the University of Pennsylvania. At George Washington University, protesters defaced a statue of its namesake, President George Washington. The statue was wrapped with Palestinian scarves and flags, with the words "Genocidal Warmonger University" spray-painted on its base.

Students replaced U.S. flags with Palestinian flags on flagpoles at several universities. In Harvard Yard, student demonstrators affixed three Palestinian flags atop the John Harvard statue on April 27. The replacement of U.S. flags sparked outrage from some officials, such as New York Mayor Eric Adams. In response, university administrations and law enforcement agencies have intervened to take down the Palestinian flags and reinstate U.S. flags to their original positions.

Administrative response

Many universities have initiated disciplinary proceedings against protesters, accusing them of breaking student codes of conduct.

Students at NYU were required to write "coerced confessions of wrongdoing" in order to have disciplinary charges against them dropped. Graduate student Dan Zeno was among more than 20 students MIT suspended for participating in pro-Palestinian protests. He was evicted from campus housing along with his wife and daughter. Some students who faced suspensions were banned from campus and therefore unable to take their final exams.

In Greece, nine protesters from European countries who were arrested at the Athens University Law School are facing deportation as of May 27.

Police response

A number of influential business leaders, including Daniel Lubetzky, Daniel Loeb, Len Blavatnik, Joseph Sitt, Howard Schultz, Michael Dell, Bill Ackman, Joshua Kushner, Ted Deutch and Yakir Gabay coordinated an effort in a WhatsApp group chat to urge Mayor Adams to crack down on the encampment at Columbia. They offered to pay for private investigators to assist police, and made donations to Adams's 2025 campaign.

Police departments employed a range of tactics, including dispersing crowds using horses and police in riot gear, deploying pepper balls, using tasers, mass arrests, tear gas, clearing unauthorized encampments, and beating both students and professors. According to student newspaper ''The Lantern'', state troopers with "long-range firearms" were deployed at Ohio State University. Police "assaulted, arrested and barred access" for some journalists while they were covering the protests. Police used force when arresting faculty who were taking part in or observing the protests, including the former chair of Dartmouth College's Jewish studies department, who was slammed to the ground while "in a line of women faculty in their 60s to 80s trying to protect our students", and two members of the faculty at Emory University, one of whom was charged with battery after being "violently arrested" on video.

A report by Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project found that police interventions at U.S. student protests linked to conflict issues surged fourfold in April. Authorities notably increased arrests and forcible dispersals, especially at protests where there were counter-demonstrators. Nonetheless, at events where student protesters were unchallenged, the police were more likely to act against pro-Palestine rallies, doing so over four times more often than against pro-Israel ones. Police repression of protesters, particularly in the U.S., has been characterized as unusually harsh.

Violence and incitement against protesters

Students and student journalists also faced violence at the hands of counter-protesters. One protester at Columbia was arrested and hospitalized after a counter-protester rammed his car into a group of picketers. 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.

Mike Johnson, Tom Cotton and Josh Hawley called for a deployment of the National Guard to college campuses, which some have characterized as alluding to past instances of violence against students like the Kent State and Jackson State killings.

Pro-Israeli attack at UCLA

Opinion polls

According to a YouGov poll released on May 3, 2024, 47% of Americans oppose the campus protests and 28% support them. American Muslims support the protests by 75% to 14% while Jewish Americans oppose them by 72% to 18%. Adults under 45 are 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.

According to an Axios poll released on May 7, 2024, 8% of college students have participated in the protests. 34% blame Hamas, 19% blame Netanyahu, 12% blame the Israeli people, and 12% blame Biden for the destruction 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% supporting 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.

In a Data for Progress poll in collaboration with Zeteo released on May 8, 2024, 55% of Democrats, 36% of Republicans, and 46% of all likely voters said they disapprove 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.

In Canada, 19% of respondents supported the protesters and 48% of respondents opposed the protests.

Responses

Australia

The Group of Eight, of which the universities of Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Queensland, Monash and ANU are part, has sought legal advice on using terms such as " intifada" and " from the river to the sea", and has said it would ban those phrases if given definitive legal advice that they are unlawful. It said such phrases are "deeply offensive to many in the Jewish community". It sent a letter to Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus asking for legal advice on whether these phrases violate Commonwealth law. Dreyfus wrote back that he does not give legal advice, noting the universities were taking external legal advice. He added that Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 "makes it a civil offence to do a public act that is reasonably likely to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate people because of their race, colour or national or ethnic origins. A person aggrieved by an alleged act of racial discrimination can make a complaint to the Australian Human Rights Commission". Sydney and Monash urged students not to use the phrases, but stopped short of banning them.

Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton has raised concerns that protests could become violent, like they have in the US. He said he is meeting with university security. He said the police do not want the "existing tension" and that universities must consider "how much more risk they're accepting by allowing these encampments to continue". Deputy Commissioner Neil Paterson wrote to the vice chancellors of the University of Melbourne, Monash, RMIT, Deakin and La Trobe, asking them to "carefully consider the risks" of allowing the encampments to continue. Organizers downplayed the risk of violence or escalation, saying the campuses are safe and that the encampments are a peaceful protest for the Palestinian people. Universities have resisted the calls for the police to end to the protests, with the Group of Eight saying the encampments are held on public land and that police are free to enter at any time, with the universities having acted appropriately to breaches of the law, saying they are "in the business of de-escalation" and not wanting to see violence erupt, as it has in the US. Police are being called "daily" to protests, with incidents of harassment and violence being investigated at Monash and Deakin.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has taken a neutral stance on the protests, saying he is worried about social cohesion. Albanese has criticized usage of the phrase "from the river to the sea", calling it "provocative" and agreeing when asked whether it is a "very violent statement". Education Minister Jason Clare has expressed concern about students feeling unsafe, saying, "I want more people to go to university, not less". He said that whilst there will always be protests in a democracy, there is no place for bigotry, including antisemitism and Islamophobia.

The Greens have expressed support for the protests. On May 2, The Greens NSW issued a statement expressing solidarity with the encampment at the University of Sydney calling for the government to increase pressure on Israel to achieve a permanent ceasefire and calling for universities to cut ties with Israeli universities and weapons manufacturers supplying Israel. After the first attack on the Monash camp, the Victorian Greens issued a statement that universities and police must better protect protesters. Greens MPs have attended pro-Palestine protests since the start of the war.

Liberal/National Coalition leader Peter Dutton has been sharply critical of the protests, calling universities that are allowing them to continue "weak". He said Prime Minister Albanese "needs to stand up and show some backbone here and call for an end to these nonsense protests". Other Coalition members have been similarly critical, with education spokesperson Sarah Henderson and senior frontbencher Michael Sukkar saying the protests should be forcibly broken up. Henderson said universities should be fined if they do not do so. She has called for a Senate enquiry into antisemitism at universities. On May 9, Dutton compared the protesters chants of "from the river to the sea" to "what Hitler chanted in the '30s", in response to Education Minister Jason Clare saying the chants of "from the river to the sea" and "intifada" mean "different things to different people". A Jewish group formed after the start of the war, the Jewish Council of Australia, set up in opposition to other peak Jewish bodies in Australia such as the Executive Council of Australian Jewry with regards to support of Israel and the weaponization of antisemitism, said Dutton's interpretations were "a very bad-faith reading" of the chants.

Netherlands

United Kingdom

With encampments taking place at institutions and concern over what the president of the Union of Jewish Students described as rising antisemitism on campuses, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak held a meeting with vice chancellors of higher education institutions. In response, academics accused Sunak of "scaremongering". According to ''The Guardian'', "Vice-chancellors insist they have no desire to quell challenge or stop difficult discussions on their campuses, arguing that this is part of the core purpose of a university". Vice-chancellor of the University of the West of England Steve West said there "was no evidence" that UK protests were "getting out of hand" and called on the government to avoid inflaming the situation. The president of advocacy group Universities UK, Dame Sally Mapstone, said universities "may need to take action" but that there "should be no presumption universities would clear protest encampments". ''The New York Times'' reported that authorities took a more "permissive approach" to protests on campuses, with an emphasis on facilitating free speech, and that British polling indicates that a majority supports a ceasefire.

Many academics have supported students' demands and expressed solidarity with the protests. Hundreds of university employees, including 300 at Cambridge University and staff at Oxford and Edinburgh universities, signed open letters in support of the encampments and accusing their institutions of complicity in the Israeli attacks. At Durham University, over 200 university staff signed an open letter in support of the protest there and called on the university to negotiate with the protestors. At Leeds University, members of the Universities and Colleges Union that represents academic and professional staff called for "teach outs" to be held at the encampment. Twelve Jewish staff members at Oxford wrote an open letter disputing the university's claim that the encampment was intimidating to Jewish staff and students and saying that the university had ignored Jewish people who supported the encampment.

Durham University was accused of failing to support free speech after a debate at the Durham Union on the topic "This house believes that the Palestinian leadership is the biggest barrier to peace" was postponed on police advice of a threat to public safety, with pro-Palestinian protesters blocking the entrance to the building. One of the scheduled speakers in favor of the motion said the university had refused to give police permission to take action against the protesters, while another said the university had "cav din to a fascist mob". The Durham student paper ''Palatinate'' noted that "even this protest remained remarkably peaceful".

After protesters set up an encampment at Birmingham University, the university ordered them to leave the premises on May 14, describing the occupation as trespassing. According to ''The Telegraph'', the was the first time one of the 20 student encampments in the UK had been ordered to disperse. Protesters said they were "threatened with police action". Birmingham University began legal action to remove the encampment on June 11. The encampment within the Marshall Building at the London School of Economics was evicted on June 17 following a court order on June 14, making it the first UK encampment to be removed following legal action. Queen Mary University of London also began court action against its encampment. Elsewhere, encampments disbanded voluntarily at Swansea in early June, citing "significant wins" including divestment from Barclays Bank, at Imperial College on June 20, and at Durham on June 21. On June 23, Oxford University erected a fence around the encampment outside the Pitt Rivers Museum (one of two camps at the university), leading the protesters to abandon the camp on June 25, with some saying they had been denied access to toilets and bathrooms. The university dismantled the camp shortly afterwards.

On July 7, ''The Guardian'' reported that "Of the 36 encampments in England, Wales and Scotland at the end of May, around a dozen are still active", with the others having dispersed due to hostility from their institutions and waning enthusiasm following the end of the academic year. Those remaining included encampments at Birmingham, Bristol, QMUL and SOAS in London, Nottingham, Newcastle, Oxford, and Reading, with many of these facing legal action or the threat of legal action. On July 8, Oxford Action for Palestine announced that the second encampment, outside the Radcliffe Camera, had been disbanded following threats of legal action from the university. On July 10, the universities of Birmingham and Nottingham won separate legal cases resulting in summary possession orders against the encampments established on their campuses.

United States

Faculty and staff

Rebecca Karl, a professor at NYU, stated that historically, "there have been a number of confrontations that have been dealt with by universities in ways that stress that we are not a violent institution... I'm personally very concerned". Wadie Said, a professor at the University of Colorado, stated, "The First Amendment is the hallmark of freedom.. You see that being curtailed based on viewpoint discrimination, which is something not supposed to be allowed under the First Amendment". Jeremi Suri, a UT Austin professor, stated, "I witnessed the police – the state police, the campus police, the city police – an army of police... stormed into the student crowd and started arresting students".

Jody Armour, a professor at USC, stated, "We need to stop allowing people to weaponise anti-Semitism against real, valid protests." In reference to protesters, John McWhorter, a Columbia professor, said, "I find it very hard to imagine that they are antisemitic", adding that there is "a fine line between questioning Israel's right to exist and questioning Jewish people's right to exist" but that "some of the rhetoric amid the protests crosses it." Randall Kuhn, a UCLA professor, stated, "I find it repugnant to sit by while Palestinian professors are being killed, while academic buildings are being bombed relentlessly."

Organizations

The Council on American-Islamic Relations executive director Afaf Nasher criticized the use of police force to break up the protests, stating it undermined academic freedom. Civil rights advocates such as the American Civil Liberties Union have raised free speech concerns over the mass arrests that were seen during the protests. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, described some of the responses from law enforcement as "disproportionate in their impacts" and was "troubled" by how they were being dealt with. The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stated that while "hate speech is unacceptable," it is "essential in all circumstances to guarantee the freedom of expression and the freedom of peaceful demonstration." Farida Shaheed, the U.N. special rapporteur on the right to education, said the increase in attacks on student protests represented "a concerning erosion of intellectual freedom and democratic principles within educational settings". Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now, called the "violent dismantling of pro-Palestine encampments and arrests of student protesters a dangerous assault on our democracy".

Several labor unions that previously supported a ceasefire in the Israel–Hamas war have expressed support for the protests, including the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). The SEIU said it "proudly stands in solidarity with the students, faculty and staff exercising their right to speak up". In contrast, Jonathan Greenblatt of the ADL said that protesters concealing their identities were dressed like "bank robbers" and had the effect of "intimidating their opponents, of menacing the other side." He also accused pro-Palestinian groups, including Jewish Voice for Peace and Students for Justice in Palestine, of being "Iranian proxies".

A coalition of over 200 organizations published an open letter expressing support for the protests. Signatories include:

Political

On April 22, President Joe Biden criticized and condemned the protests, calling them antisemitic and criticizing those who "don't understand what's going on with the Palestinians". Former President Donald Trump said that the 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, was "peanuts" compared to the ongoing protests. Speaking at Columbia on April 24, House Speaker Mike Johnson said, "Congress will not be silent as Jewish students are expected to run for their lives and stay home from their classes hiding in fear." Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer condemned "lawlessness" during the protests at Columbia, calling it "unacceptable when Jewish students are targeted for being Jewish, when protests exhibit verbal abuse, systematic intimidation or glorification of the murderous and hateful Hamas or the violence of Oct. 7."

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis described the situation at Columbia and other campuses as "inmates runingthe asylum." Texas Governor Greg Abbott said that the protesters "belonged in jail" and continued to claim that the protests were "hate-filled, antisemitic protests" and that anyone engaging in them should be expelled. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro criticized colleges and universities that did not do enough to protect its students, which could lead to antisemitic incidents. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell called the protests "a dangerous situation" and said, "there's also antisemitism, which is completely unacceptable". He accused the "student radicals" of supporting Hamas. Multiple conservative politicians and commentators, including Mike Johnson, Ted Cruz, Ira Stoll, Isabel Vincent, and Kari Lake spread the antisemitic conspiracy theory that George Soros funded the protest movement.

After the mass arrests at UT on April 24, many voiced their disapproval over Abbott's handling of the decision and the police tactics. Texas Democrats claimed that Abbott's Department of Public Safety had "more courage to arrest peaceful student protesters than when an active shooter entered an elementary school in Uvalde." U.S. representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also criticized the deployment of police against the Columbia University protest, calling it an "escalatory, reckless, and dangerous act". Irvine, California Mayor Farrah Khan said: “I am asking our law enforcement to stand down. I will not tolerate any violations to our students' rights to peacefully assemble and protest."

The Fairfax County branch of the Democratic Party issued a statement denouncing the arrests of students at Virginia schools. Virginia representatives Rozia Henson, Joshua Cole, Adele McClure, Nadarius Clark, and Saddam Salim released a joint statement condemning the arrests of student protesters in Virginia. After visiting the encampment at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner said: “The First Amendment comes from here. This is Philadelphia. We don't have to do stupid like they did at Columbia.” California representative Sara Jacobs wrote on X: "I'm deeply concerned that the response to peaceful protests at UCSD is to call in riot police. A militarized response further escalates the situation and doesn't help keep students safe."

Addressing students at the City University of New York on April 26, imprisoned Black political activist Mumia Abu-Jamal praised the protests, saying, "It is a wonderful thing that you have decided not to be silent and decided to speak out against the repression that you see with your own eyes", calling protesters "on the right side of history". College Democrats of America, the student wing of the Democratic Party, endorsed the protests and criticized Biden's response to them. Massachusetts State Representative Mike Connolly said: "I'm here really in solidarity with these protesters, and I'm hoping that the MIT administration will honor free speech and will honor the tradition of dissents in this country, in particular dissents to war, which is what really calls us here today."

On May 12, Trump said, "idenis surrendering our college campuses to anarchists, jihadist freaks and anti-American extremists who are trying to tear down our American flag. ... If you come here from another country and try to bring jihadism or anti-Americanism or antisemitism to our campuses, we will immediately deport you. You'll be out of that school." On May 14, Trump told a room full of donors he would deport foreign student demonstrators. According to anonymous Trump donors, Trump said that protests were part of a "revolutionary movement" and that "if you get me reelected, we're going to set that movement back 25 or 30 years."

Legislation

On April 23, the California State Senate Judiciary Committee passed 2024 SB-1287 on a 10–0 vote, advancing it to the Senate Appropriations Committee. The bill would require the California State University system and California Community Colleges system to enact policies that would prohibit violence, harassment, intimidation, and discrimination if they are "intended to and reasonably understood by the victims or hearers" to either "interfere with the free exercise of rights under the First Amendment or Section 2 of Article I of the California Constitution" or to "call for or support genocide". The bill would also restrict the right to assemble on campuses with "reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions, including advance authorization provisions, for public protests and demonstrations at institutions." The bill has received support exclusively from Jewish and Zionist organizations. It is opposed by the ACLU and the University of California, Davis School of Law, which called the bill unconstitutional.

The "Antisemitism Awareness Act", spearheaded by the Republicans but also backed by many Democrats, passed the United States House of Representatives in a 320–91 vote on May 1, 2024, and proceeded to the Senate. The bill is intended to address the recent perceived rise in antisemitism on campuses and uses the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's approved working definition of antisemitism to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits "exclusion from participation in, denial of benefits of, and discrimination under federally assisted programs on ground of race, color, or national origin." Democratic Representative Sara Jacobs, who is Jewish, said she opposed the bill because "it fails to effectively address the very real rise of antisemitism, all while defunding colleges and universities across the country and punishing many, if not all, of the nonviolent protesters speaking out against the Israeli military's conduct."

The proposed legislation would broaden the legal definition of antisemitism to include anti-Zionism, criticism of the policies of the state of Israel, and concerns about Palestinian human rights, by categorizing all of that as hate speech, and it has been criticized for conflating "Judaism with Zionism in assuming that all Jews are Zionists" and automatic citizens of Israel rather than the U.S., thereby severely undermining genuine safety for Jewish citizens. It faces strong opposition from several Democratic lawmakers, Jewish organizations, and free speech advocates, including more than 800 Jewish U.S. academics, who signed a letter calling on Biden not to sign the bill.

Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of the centrist pro-Israel group J Street, said that his organization opposes the bill because it is an "unserious" effort led by Republicans "to continually force votes that divide the Democratic caucus on an issue that shouldn't be turned into a political football."

The ACLU sees the bill as an attack on First Amendment rights and argues that its "overbroad" definition of antisemitism "could result in colleges and universities suppressing a wide variety of speech critical of Israel or in support of Palestinian rights in an effort to avoid investigations by the Department f Educationand the potential loss of funding."

Organizations like the Anti-Defamation League and Conference of Presidents have praised the bill, and it is based on definitions by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance that have been criticized by 100 Israeli and international civil society organizations that wrote to the United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres in 2023 urging the UN not to adopt the definitions.

Three Republican members of the U.S. House introduced a bill that would require anyone convicted of unlawful activity on a college campus to perform community service in Gaza for six months. The bill was widely derided as a political stunt and is exceedingly unlikely to pass.

Legislators in the Virginia House of Delegates and Virginia Senate formed select committees to investigate how state colleges responded to the protests after over 125 people were arrested in the state.

Lawsuits

On May 15, United Auto Workers (UAW)'s Harvard Graduate Student Union sued Harvard University, accusing it of surveillance and retaliation against workplace-related collective action, denying employees union representation in disciplinary hearings, and unfairly changing policies regarding access to campus to discourage protesters.

Other countries

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the protests were "horrific" and antisemitic and must be quelled. Jewish U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders responded vehemently, accusing Netanyahu of distracting the American people from the Israel–Hamas war and expressing support for the protests. Many Israeli academics and civilians, alongside columnists in Israeli media such as ''The Jerusalem Post'' and ''Haaretz'', expressed disdain for the protests, with one describing the general reaction as "seeing them as an attack on the country and not just its government".

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Ontario Premier Doug Ford, and Quebec Premier François Legault criticized the protests.

After being invited to visit the Columbia protest, Palestinian photojournalist Motaz Azaiza said his experience was great, that he appreciated students wanting to know more and educate themselves, and that it was an honor to raise awareness about the Gaza Strip. Bisan Owda said the protests made the Gazan populace feel "heard". Displaced people in Gaza expressed gratitude to the student protesters, holding signs such as "Thank you, American universities".

In response to the protests at Columbia, the spokesperson for India's Ministry of External Affairs said, "In every democracy, there has to be the right balance between freedom of expression, sense of responsibility and public safety and order... After all, we are all judged by what we do at home and not what we say abroad." Chinese state media expressed support for the protests: the ''People's Daily'' wrote that American students are protesting because they "can no longer stand the double standards of the United States" and former editor-in-chief of the ''Global Times'' Hu Xijin said that the protests show that "Jewish political and business alliance's control over American public opinion has declined." In Iran, former foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif criticized Saudi Arabia's and Jordan's reported consideration of normalizing relations with Israel, saying, "American student protesters being brutalised by US security forces have a much greater claim to protecting Palestinians than the Custodians of Holy Mosques". In Tunisia, the General Union of Students released a statement expressing "gratitude and admiration for the student movements at American universities, drawing inspiration from their remarkable history of war rejection, as witnessed during the Vietnam War".

After the three-day occupation at Sciences Po in Paris, Prime Minister of France Gabriel Attal said he would "not tolerate the actions of a dangerously acting minority", calling the protests "an ideology coming from North America". The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa criticized the protesters' actions, saying, "universities are places where cultural engagement, even heated, even harsh, must be open 360 degrees, where engagement with strong ideas that are completely different, must be expressed not with violence, not with boycotts, but knowing how to engage". After arrests at the Athens Law School, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said that "authorities would not allow universities to become sites for protest over Israel's war on Gaza as has been seen in countries around the world". In support of students' right to protest, European University Institute president Patrizia Nanz accused universities of demanding a " safe space" in order to "justify the repression of students' Gaza protests" and restrict their freedom of speech.

Sana'a University in Yemen offered education to students suspended due to protests. Mohammad Moazzeni, the head of Shiraz University in Iran, has offered scholarships to U.S. students expelled for participating in pro-Palestinian protests. This offer, reported by Press TV, extends to students and professors affected by the protests. Moazzeni suggested that other universities in Shiraz and Fars Province may also be prepared to support these students. At the same time, the Israeli Ministry of Diaspora Affairs launched a program aimed at helping Jewish students who feel unsafe at U.S. universities continue their education at Israeli universities.

Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khameini has praised the protests on Twitter, praising American students and suggesting they were "on the right side of history". He further described the protesting students as part of the " resistance front" against Israel and encouraged them to "become familiar with the Quran."

See also

* Accusations of United States complicity in Israeli war crimes in the Israel–Hamas war
* International reactions to the Israel–Hamas war
* Kent State shootings - Vietnam war protest; National Guard killed 4 students in 1970 at university in Ohio
* Occupy Wall Street, in 2011
* Student strike of 1970

Notes

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses, 2024

April 2024 events in the United States
May 2024 events in the United States
Israel–Hamas war protests in the United States
Anti-war protests in the United States
Student protests in the United States
Anti-Zionism in the United States
Anti-Israeli sentiment