U.S. campuses unite in wave of solidarity protests for Gaza Strip

Pro-Palestinian protests that began on 18 April at Columbia University in New York are spreading to other colleges across the United States. Students are demanding a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and for universities to stop cooperating with companies that support the Israeli government.

Students peacefully protesting are facing harsh reactions from the authorities. On 24 April, police entered the University of Texas at Austin (UT-Austin) and the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. At both institutions, their administrations called officers to remove young people who were suspended from their student rights for participating in protests.

At UT-Austin, over 500 students left their classes to demand the university withdraw its cooperation with manufacturers supplying Israel with weapons for attacks on the Gaza Strip and related companies. The demonstration showed no signs of violence before the authorities intervened, although police repeatedly ordered the protesters to disperse and warned they would be arrested for trespassing on campus.

Officers armed with batons formed a line and confronted the protesters, many of whom fell to the ground. Lawyers associated with the ACLU recorded the names of detained individuals being transported to Travis County Jail. Students facing arrest used markers to write lawyers’ phone numbers on their arms. Dozens of people were arrested.

On 25 April, students protested again at UT-Austin. Their demands also included calling for the resignation of university president Jay Hartzell and full amnesty for the protesting students who were arrested. Some lecturers and professors plan to vote on a motion of no confidence against Hartzell.

On 24 April, police also appeared at a peaceful protest on the University of Southern California campus in Los Angeles. The university newspaper reported live on its website: "Helicopter repeats warning that those who remain in Alumni Park will be arrested for trespassing, while Los Angeles Police Department officers enter with rubber bullet launchers, zip tie handcuffs, and tear gas." 93 people were arrested.

Regarding the protests at Harvard, Rage Against the Machine's vocalist Tom Morello commented on X: "Go Crimson! We did the same in 1986. We built a tent city in Harvard Yard to force the university to withdraw from cooperating with companies doing business with apartheid in South Africa." "Harvard Crimson" is the name of the newspaper published by students of this university.

On 25 April, protests also took place at University of Michigan, Ohio State University, University of North Carolina, Yale University, Harvard University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. On that day, students at the Sorbonne in Paris also left their classes in a show of solidarity with the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip.