In recent weeks, pro-Palestinian protests have spread across US college campuses, echoing the protests of the 1960s against the Vietnam War. These protests have resulted in over 400 arrests in just one week, starting from April 18 when around 100 young people at Columbia University in New York began demonstrating. The demonstrations have now spread to other campuses, from California to Georgia, from Boston to Florida.
Students on these campuses are demanding that universities sever ties with companies that do business with Israel. They have organized encampments, sit-ins, and demonstrations. Protests are ongoing at schools such as Columbia University, Harvard, New York University, and UC Berkeley. In Atlanta, the chair of the philosophy department at Emory University, Noelle McAfee, was handcuffed and escorted off campus by an officer. Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, a naturalized American Somali elected to Congress in 2019, also showed up at Columbia University to support the protesters. Her daughter, Isra Hirsi, was among the group of pro-Palestinian protesters who were cleared from the university by police last week.
These protests are part of a growing movement for Palestinian rights and reflect a deepening divide between pro-Israeli and anti-Israeli forces on college campuses across the country. Many students see themselves as part of a larger struggle for social justice and believe that supporting Palestinian rights is an important step towards building a more equitable society. Others view these protests as an attempt to undermine national security and disrupt academic freedom on campus.
The situation is complex and divisive. On one hand, supporters of Palestinian rights argue that Israel’s actions against Palestinians amount to human rights abuses and war crimes. They point to decades of Israeli occupation of Palestine and continued construction of settlements on occupied land as evidence of Israeli wrongdoing.
On the other hand, opponents argue that Israel has every right to defend itself against terrorism and maintain its borders