Columbia-like encampments emerge at 10 US universities
Responding to calls by the National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP) and several other pro-Palestinian groups on Saturday night to seize the institutions and force the adoption of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS), anti-Israel protest encampments have emerged on at least 10 American colleges in emulation of the Columbia University campus occupation.
The protests have also spread beyond the US, with encampments appearing at the University of Alberta in Canada and the University of Sydney in Australia.
In a social media post by NSJP titled “Campuses in Revolt,” the organization promised that more encampments would be established.
“SJP chapters across the country have erupted in a fierce display of power targeted at their universities for their endless complicity and profiteering off the genocide in Gaza and colonization of Palestine,” the NSJP stated on Sunday. “The encampments transform mass mobilization into long-term sustained occupation, leveraging our tangible power as students to give our institutions no other option but to divest.”
The NSJP said in a Monday statement that there would be no classes or compliance with the administration until their demands to adopt BDS policies were met, stating that “we will seize control of our institutions, campus by campus, until Palestine is free.”
In addition to the Columbia encampment that had started on Wednesday, encampments were initiated in recent days at Emerson College; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; The New School; New York University; University of Michigan; University of Pittsburgh; University of Rochester; Yale University; University of California, Berkeley; and California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt.
Vanderbilt University has had an encampment since March 26, and activists rededicated the protest to coincide with the Columbia movement. The NSJP listed Rutgers University as the location of another encampment but the local SJP groups haven’t displayed any such demonstration.
An encampment was also established on Friday at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, but the local SJP chapter said on Instagram Monday that they had moved from the location. A University of Washington St. Louis encampment was removed, and a police presence has prevented protesters from returning.
At the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, activists attempted to establish an encampment but authorities cleared it on Tuesday before it could fully assemble. Eight UMN students and one staff member were banned from the campus for one year and arrested and charged with trespassing.
On Tuesday, several SJP chapters published identical demands, including the disclosure of financial ties to “Zionist entities,” the issuance of a call for a permanent and immediate ceasefire, and amnesty for pro-Palestinian students arrested and suspended because of the protests.
On Monday, Yale anti-Israel activists claimed that police had arrested over 40 students that morning at the administration’s request. The American
Muslims for Palestine: Connecticut Chapter put the number at 49.
“We will not stop; we will not rest until we have disclosure and divestment,” said AMP.
The police removed the encampment but the activists continued to protest at a new location on campus and demanded the return of their protest materials. On Tuesday, Yalies4Palestine stated that they were “still here,” but that “Police and Yale are still threatening us with arrest.”
The SJP chapter at the New School announced on Monday that they had ended talks with the administration after receiving a suspension threat if they didn’t leave the school lobby.
The NYU Palestine Solidarity Coalition reported on Monday night that the NYPD had arrested over 100 students, faculty and community members at the encampment, but on Tuesday it announced their release.
Humboldt for Palestine said that police had pushed into their encampment on Monday night, and while several student activists had been arrested, they had been released.