Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war last year, students at scores of colleges and universities across the United States have come out to protest in support of Palestinians.
As the war in Gaza has escalated, universities have been caught in an often vitriolic debate over how to handle the protests, which many Jewish students and alumni say have often veered into antisemitism and instilled fear on campus. University leaders have also faced pressure from Republican lawmakers demanding they do more to quash speech that they say encourages violence against Jews.
Demonstrators and their faculty supporters say that these demands are intended to suppress their political speech and support for the Palestinian cause.
Several institutions have cracked down on pro-Palestinian protests and encampments. On April 18, Columbia University’s president called the police to clear out the encampment on its New York City campus, just a day after she vowed to members of Congress that the university would discipline some protesters. Over 100 protesters were arrested that night.
That move backfired. Students across the country protested and started their own encampments in solidarity with the arrested students. And at Columbia, student protesters simply re-established the encampment, with dozens of tents lined up on the campus lawn.
At nearly 20 universities, the police moved in and detained protesters, leading to more than 800 arrests so far. Scores of students have been suspended or threatened with disciplinary action. And yet, many protests have continued.
Here’s what to know about the protests sprawling across American college campuses.
Why are students protesting?
Most immediately, protesters are demanding an end to Israel’s war in Gaza, which has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians.
Students are also calling on their colleges and universities to divest from, or cut financial ties with, Israel or companies profiting from its invasion of Gaza. The means and scope differ, however. Some students at Yale and Cornell are demanding their schools to stop investing in weapons manufacturers.
Students at Columbia want their school to sell holdings in Google, which has a large contract with the Israeli government, and Airbnb, which allows listings in Israeli settlements on the occupied West Bank.
Students have drawn parallels between the current movement and activism in the 1980s, when protesters targeted companies that did business with South Africa while it was under apartheid rule. Columbia made headlines then, too, when it sold $39 million of stock it held in companies including Coca-Cola, Ford Motor and Mobil Oil following weeks of sit-in protests from students on its campus.
Where are the protests happening?
The new wave of protests has taken hold coast to coast, including at Yale, the University of Southern California, Emory University, the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Minnesota.
On many campuses — including Brown, the University of Pennsylvania, Rice University, Virginia Tech and Emerson College — students set up encampments similar to the one at Columbia, and called them “Gaza solidarity encampment” or “Liberated zone.”
How have schools reacted to the protests?
Many protests have been peaceful, and most university leaders have allowed the protests to play out.
But pro-Israel students have said the encampments are fueling antisemitism, and that their universities are not doing enough to protect their safety on campus.
Since Columbia’s crackdown, there have been arrests at schools including Washington University in St. Louis, Northeastern University in Boston and Arizona State University in Tempe. (See a list of campuses where the police have made arrests.)
Most arrests have occurred without much resistance. But some clashes between the police and protesters have grown more intense, and there were some reports of injuries. At Emory University, for instance, the police used a “chemical irritant” to disperse the demonstrators and ultimately arrested 28 people.
Schools like Harvard and Cornell have tried other approaches to clear out protests. At Harvard, access to Harvard Yard was restricted to those with a university ID. Harvard also suspended a pro-Palestinian group, saying that it had held an unauthorized demonstration. Nonetheless, some protesters have set up encampments, which are still standing after several days, despite warnings from officials.
Cornell said it had suspended some students connected with the pro-Palestinian encampment on campus but declined to provide a number.
And last week, the University of Southern California canceled its main stage graduation ceremony, citing security risks. The school had arrested more than 93 protesters and canceled its plans for a graduation speech by this year’s valedictorian, Asna Tabassum, who is Muslim.
How have the students responded?
Many student activists have remained defiant, even as colleges try to restrict their demonstrations.
In several cases, students have brought back encampments that were cleared out earlier in the week — or even earlier this year, in Stanford’s case. An encampment there was taken down in February, but recent protests inspired students to resurrect it in late April.
College newspapers’ editorial boards have also objected to the response by university officials and defended the rights of students to speak out. They have been particularly vocal about the threats of harassment and doxxing, which they say are stifling free speech.
At Columbia, some Jewish students said they felt targeted and unsafe after encountering separate protests outside of the campus gates by loud, aggressive demonstrators who seemed to be unaffiliated with the university. Antisemitic chanting has been captured in video and pictures, both inside and outside the campus, and the students called on the administration to do more to curb such acts.
Last week, Columbia barred from campus Khymani James, a leader of the pro-Palestinian encampment, after a January video of his saying “Zionists don’t deserve to live” resurfaced. The university did not make clear if he had been suspended or expelled.
Santul Nerkar and Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs contributed reporting.
