This past week, a wave of protest encampments and demonstrations has rapidly spread across the U.S. The encampment set up by Columbia University students on April 17 in the middle of campus, the University’s attack on it the next day with arrests of over 100 students, and the students’ response—setting up a new encampment—was a big inspiration and spark. 

By week’s end, students from Portland State, Oregon, in the northwest… to the University of Southern Maine in Portland, Maine, in the northeast… from the University of Florida, Gainesville, in the southeast… to the University of Arizona in Tucson in the southwest set up encampments or held demonstrations against Israel’s genocide in Gaza and in solidarity with Columbia students. 

These encampments in solidarity with the people of Gaza were often set up in the face of threats or quickly subject to violent assaults by police or campus authorities, desperate to maintain “order” and stop the contagion from spreading further, including to surrounding communities. Instead, the encampments have spread to campuses across the U.S., and to campuses in Australia, France and more.

Encampments and Protests Rapidly Spread Nationwide

At Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, police arrested 60 people on Monday, April 22, including 47 Yale students, after they refused to leave an encampment on campus demanding the university divest from weapons manufacturers. Defying the pigs, students locked arms. Protests have continued on the campus.

New York University, Monday night: After students occupied a campus plaza, the NYPD violently attacked and arrested dozens, including some 20 faculty members who tried to shield the students from the cops. Students have continued to protest on or near the campus.

University of Southern California (USC), Los Angeles: Anger was running high after USC canceled the commencement speech by pro-Palestinian valedictorian Asna Tabassum. Students began an “occupation” of Alumni Park on the campus in support of the Palestinian people which called for an end to university investments in Israel. On Wednesday, April 24, the LAPD came in with batons and violently arrested 93 people who had refused to leave the park. Another 200 protesters moved to the edges of the park, chanting, “Disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest.” This week USC canceled its main commencement ceremony and the occupation has continued, despite ongoing threats of repression by the campus administration and the police.

University of Texas at Austin, April 24: Hundreds of students walked out of class to protest the genocide in Gaza and were violently attacked by local and state police—including some on horseback. Fifty-seven protesters were arrested. Fascist Gov. Greg Abbott threateningly declared, “These protesters belong in jail. Students joining in hate-filled, antisemitic protests at any public college or university in Texas should be expelled.” Despite this repression, protests have continued on campus.¹

Emory University in Atlanta: At least 28 people were arrested on Thursday, April 25 in one of the most violent police crackdowns against protesters. Local and state police swept onto the campus just hours after students had set up tents on the quad in protest against Israel’s war on Gaza as well as the planned police training center known as Cop City. Police used tear gas and stun guns to break up the encampment as they wrestled people to the ground.²

By week’s end, at least 40 encampments had been set up or protests had taken place at some 100 different campuses across the country. More than 700 students and faculty had been arrested at 19 different campuses.³ Yet protests and battles with the police are still spreading. As we go to press, encampments are being forcibly dispersed and more than 200 students and others arrested at Washington University in St. Louis, Northeastern, Arizona State, and Indiana Universities.⁴ (See also Palestine Is Everywhere, An interactive map of Gaza Solidarity Encampments around the world.) 

Encampments—Disrupting Campus Business-as-Usual 

The encampment students have set up present an ongoing, visible, 24/7 protest, a pole of opposition disrupting campus business-as-usual. They’re a focal point where students and others—including from off campus if the university isn’t locked down—can come to take part, learn more and discuss the issues of the day. 

A Spirit of Solidarity and Putting the People in Gaza First 

In addition to the broad demand for a ceasefire and end to Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza, these protests are demanding the universities sever any financial or academic ties to Israel, disclose their financial connections, and drop charges or disciplinary actions against the students. 

There’s also a broader spirit at work—of caring about the world and people other than yourself and a willingness to put yourself on the line for them. 

One UCLA student said students aren't backing down in the face of repression:

I don’t think that our concerns about our personal safety are at the forefront of our minds right now. I think at the forefront of our minds is the violence that Palestinians are suffering at the hands of the Israeli state every day these last six months and last, again, almost 80 years.⁵

A USC student echoed this sentiment: 

What we’re putting on the line is so minimal in risk, compared to what Gazans are going through…This is the least we can be doing, as youth in a privileged situation, to take ownership of the situation.⁶ 

One Barnard student put her motivation this way:

I cannot and could not stand to be complicit in our university’s ongoing support for Israel’s genocidal campaign. There are no universities left in Gaza, so we chose to reclaim our university for the people of Palestine.⁷ 

Major Escalation of Threats of Repression from Highest Levels of the Ruling Class

Early in the week, as students defied college administrators and local authorities and campus encampments and protests rippled across the country, the ruling powers seriously escalated their threats against protesters. This brutal repression was fronted by the big lie that the protests were anti-Semitic and “creating an unsafe atmosphere for Jewish students” (despite the fact that many of the student protesters are themselves Jewish!) 

On April 22, President Biden slandered and threatened the students, declaring, “I condemn the antisemitic protests.” The day before Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) also denounced and smeared these righteous protests against Israel’s Gaza genocide: “Every American has a right to protest, but when protests shift to antisemitism, verbal abuse, intimidation, or glorification of Oct. 7 violence against Jewish people, that crosses the line. Campuses must remain safe for all students.”⁸ 

On Wednesday, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and a gaggle of Republi-fascists officials held a press conference on Low Steps in the heart of the Columbia campus. Johnson denounced what he called “the troubling rise of virulent antisemitism on America’s college campuses,” and warned “lawless agitators and radicals” were “taking over.” Students from the protest encampment across the plaza loudly booed him when he’d finished.⁹ 

Trump called for more police to be deployed at Columbia,¹⁰ and fascist Republican Senators Tom Cotton, Josh Hawley and dozens of their colleagues demanded the National Guard be called in to crush the protests: “The nascent pogroms at Columbia have to stop TODAY, before our Jewish brethren sit for Passover Seder tonight. If Eric Adams won’t send the NYPD and Kathy Hochul won’t send the National Guard, Joe Biden has a duty to take charge and break up these mobs.”¹¹ 

Christian Fascists Mass at Columbia’s Gates—Countered by Pro-Palestinian Christians

The call below was taken up on by hundreds of Christian fascists on April 25 who massed at Columbia University’s gates in a “United for Israel” march, threatening and insulting students inside. “We stand against the rising antisemitic spirit on college campuses across America,” said Christian musician and fascist provocateur Sean Feucht. “We said it started here, it’s going to end here.”¹² 

A group of Christians who support the Palestinian people—Friends of Sabeel North America—courageously counter-protested the fascists, carrying signs such as “Not In Jesus’ Name!” and “It Should Be Easy As A Christian To Oppose Genocide.” It’s “imperative that Christians who stand against genocide show up to protect the students at Columbia University's encampments and represent what Jesus would truly want us to embody,” they stated.¹³ 

Confrontation Between Students and Zionists at UCLA

On Sunday, hundreds of Zionist thugs amassed at UCLA. They tried to bully and attack the student encampment but people from all over LA gathered to defend the encampment, linking arms and blocking access. 

This roundup is partial in a rapidly developing situation.