Students Launch Encampments In Solidarity With Gaza Across The U.S.

Almost a week after Columbia students launched their Gaza solidarity encampment, students across the country have followed their example and begun encampments in public spaces in their own universities in solidarity with Palestine.

In the early hours of the morning of April 22, students at New York University began an encampment on Gould Plaza, joining their New York City counterparts at the New School, which had launched an encampment the previous day. In the Greater Boston Area students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Emerson College, and Tufts University set up encampments at their own universities. Students at the University of Michigan also launched an encampment on April 22, pitching tents outdoors with ice still visible on the ground.

Also on the morning of April 22, New Haven police repressed the Gaza solidarity encampment at Yale University that had been established on April 20, making 47 arrests. In response, students took over a street outside of campus, shutting down an intersection with hundreds of demonstrators.

Students are broadly demanding that their universities divest from Israel, and pledge not to leave their encampments until their demand is met. The movement of encampments began when Columbia students launched their encampment at 4 a.m. on April 17. Despite a severe crackdown by the university and the New York Police Department resulting in 122 arrests, students have been able to sustain the encampment on the Butler Lawn for almost a week. This is inspiring others across the country to do the same and put pressure on their own universities to divest from Israel.

From the Peoples Dispatch / Globetrotter News Service

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