"Universities have even gone so far as to suspend leading student groups, like Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), organizing against #Israel’s genocide in #Gaza. Yet, students across the US and the world have remained defiant and steadfast in their demands against their universities' complicity with Israel’s genocide."
What started as a peaceful walkout this morning by hundreds of university staff, professors, lecturers in protest against police violence against students last week is now developing and escalating once again.
The riot police are here, hundreds of them are blocking the entrance to the university. After the university staff finished their rally, the students went in and they have built some tents right into the main hall.
The police are now coming in and [the students] are trying to block the police. They managed for a few minutes but now the police car van is driving towards the entrance and everyone here is very much hoping that the same scenario that happened last week is not repeated here.
The protests are against the war in Gaza and they’re also demanding the university to cut ties with Israeli universities but also to protest against police violence and what they say is a violation of their rights to demonstrate.
So far I’ve only seen peaceful protesters and the police is coming in and of course, there’s a lot of trauma after what happened last week so the situation is quite agitated.
"As protests against #Israel’s genocide in #Gaza, ethnic cleansing on the #WestBank, and apartheid repression within ’48 harden into a proliferation of encampments on US university campuses, still more have popped up across the globe—in Asia, Europe, Mexico and elsewhere."
"What started as a student encampment at #Columbia University in New York City three weeks ago has now turned into a global #StudentMovement, expanding to Europe, Australia, Canada and beyond. We’ll get the latest from the campus grounds and ask what is next for the global #StudentMovementForGaza."
AFTER RAIDS, NYPD DENIED STUDENT PROTESTERS WATER AND FOOD IN JAIL
STUDENTS ARRESTED DURING the police crackdown on protests at universities in New York City last week were denied water and food for 16 hours, according to two faculty members at Columbia University’s Barnard College who collected reports from students who were inside.
Other students reported that they were beaten by New York City Police Department officers after their arrests and taken to the hospital for injuries before being returned to central booking. Photos of the injuries were provided to The Intercept.
"Thanks to student organizers, along with a critical minority of professors, intellectuals, scientists, technical workers, lawyers, human rights activists and cultural producers, people across the US are mobilizing in defense of first-amendment rights and against #Israel’s genocide of #Gaza|ns. They are making history, and they know it. An increasingly authoritarian variant of neoliberalism will not stop them."
"The real occupation of universities is by the political class, in defiance of autonomy and scientific freedom [..] There's a political harnessing and a disconnection from the facts."
#GazaProtests: The 60 days a Paris university was at the heart of the national political debate
"The students, as they will tell you, are there for Gaza, where 90 per cent of schools, and all universities, have been destroyed. The university, meanwhile, is forced to confront the moral vacuity of its policies, which have in the end protected no one except extremists willing to join forces with neo-Nazis to safeguard Israel from criticism."
"As aid barely trickles into Gaza, a group of activists are trying to take matters into their own hands. The #FreedomFlotilla movement planned to set sail to Gaza, bringing more than 5000 tons of aid and taking on great personal risk. The Take looks into their years-long struggle to break #Israel’s siege on #Gaza."
"It is increasingly going to take the batons of police to enforce this consensus of US support for #Israel, which itself has a limited ceiling [..] Many of these students have crossed the fear barrier" - #YousefMunayyer
"#AntiwarProtests sweep across university campuses in the United States. The police response – the violence – has been shocking and so has some of the reporting from the US #MainstreamMedia."
With: Paula Chakravartty,
Noura Erakat, Adel Iskandar,
Elijah Kahlenberg
"The campus crackdown, at both #Columbia and schools across the nation, is indefensible. But when you are defending the indefensible, you need a spokesman like Adams, as prolific an inventor of fables as Scheherazade."
"More than 1,000 people have been arrested in crackdowns on #UniversityProtests across the United States. Facing #PoliceBrutality, arrests, and attacks from counter-protesters, what will #StudentProtesters do next?"
"Across the US, pro-Palestine students have faced repression, suspension, and arrest. We asked more than a dozen students to share how their schools have restricted the right to protest."
Looks like #Ontario NDP leader Marit Stiles has received the message from the activist community. They have given a deadline of May 6th for the keffiyeh ban in the Ontario Legislature to be lifted or else they will defy the ban and also encourage the public to do so.
"#JewishCurrents editor-in-chief Arielle Angel spoke to three Jewish student organizers arrested at the original encampments—Izzy Lapidus, Sarah Borus, and Lea Salim—about their experiences over the past week and what #PalestineSolidarity organizing has looked like on their campuses since October 7th."
"Tensions have been mounting at #ColumbiaUniversity for months, even before the school called police to clear a #GazaSolidarityEncampment. Pro-Palestine students say the administration hasn’t prioritized their safety. In the first of a two-part series, The Take goes behind the protests at #Columbia."
"#UniversityEncampments have spread across the US since New York police first came onto #ColumbiaUniversity’s campus last week. In the second of a two-part series, The Take takes a look inside the #Columbia encampment and the impact it’s having on campus."