PARTISAN!

Sylvia Ruhl reports on the wave of US campus occupations expressing solidarity with Palestine.

---

From the 17th of April, a series of pro-Palestinian university demonstrations have taken place at universities opposing the continued support of their governments and universities towards weapons manufacturers and Israel amidst its occupation of the Gaza Strip (Goldstein, 2024). The demonstrations have occurred in western countries supporting Israel, and have demanded that their respective universities divest from Israel and companies enabling the conflict.

The first of the current occupation was established at 4A.M. on the 17th of April at Columbia University, New York City. This occupation took the form of several dozen students occupying the campus’ East Butler Lawn with fifty tents and labeling the area the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment”. Demonstrators demanded that the university increase its transparency surrounding its finances, and divest from Israel, with protesters vowing to not leave their occupation until the demands have been met (CBS News, 2024). The administration of Columbia University attempted a heavy-handed repression of the protests early on, with university President Malouk Shafik inviting the NYPD onto campus the following day to remove both the student protesters and the encampment (Debusmann Jr and Vardy, 2024). Although they arrested a number of students, and smashed tents and food at the occupation, they did not succeed in their task. Rather, it helped to highlight the zeal with which the U.S. ruling class will defend Israel from criticism amongst its own population to a rather apathetic broader American public.

The immediate context in which the university responded with such enthusiasm against the protests, must also be noted. That is, the humiliation of President Shafik before a McCarthyist-esque congressional hearing on Columbia University’s response to antisemitism on campus (Borter, 2024). For those playing along at home, accusations of antisemitism on university campuses are a long-standing bad faith attempt by Zionists to equivocate the persecution of Jewry with criticism of Israel. This hearing took place mere hours after the establishment of the Gaza Solidarity Encampment. Most notably, during this hearing, Shafik was asked by Republican Congressman Rick Allen if she would like “Columbia University to be cursed by God”. To which she replied that she did not. This sequence of events continued to show nakedly, the rather crass nature of the U.S. ruling class’s internal crusade to ensure steadfast support for Israel is maintained both their own ranks, and across broader society.

Rapid escalation in response to pro-Palestine campus occupations rather quickly indeed did not prove themselves to be unique to Columbia, have repeated themselves elsewhere; at Ohio State University, campus police surrounded an encampment of approximately 600 a public lawn of the university, brutalising demonstrators and arresting 36 as they closed in (Gallion, 2024). Demonstrators were arrested as a prayer session was underway on the lawn, and Muslimah arrestees were forced by state troopers to remove their headscarves.

Occupations have not been limited to campus lawns, as on many campuses they have continued to spread in the area occupied, with students occupying buildings on some campuses. One of the larger, and more notable of these has been at California State Polytechnic University, at which an administrative building has been occupied by student and non-student protesters. The protesters occupying the building have barricaded themselves in and physically repelled police attempts to forcefully enter the building (Jarvie and Gomez, 2024).