A growing number of U.S. college students are gathering in protest camps with their schools' unified demands: Stop doing business with Israel or with companies that support continued business with Israel. war in gaza.
This demand has its roots in the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, a decades-long movement opposed to Israel's policies toward Palestine.The war between Israel and Hamas has given the movement new momentum Exceeded the 6 month mark and story of suffering International calls for a ceasefire in Gaza are growing.
Inspired by the ongoing protests, arrest last week Columbia University currently has more than 100 students, with students from Massachusetts to California. hundreds of people gathered They set up a tent camp on campus and promised to remain there until their demands were met.
A sign is placed at a pro-Palestinian demonstration encampment at Columbia University on Monday, April 22, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Stephan Jeremiah)
“We want to stand out,” said Mahmoud Khalil, a protest leader at Columbia University, noting that students there have been calling for divestment from Israel since 2002. “The university should do what we're asking for: something about the genocide that's happening right now” in Gaza. They should stop investing in this genocide. ”
Campus protests begin after Hamas attack Deadly October 7th Attack In southern Israel, insurgents have killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taken about 250 hostages. In the ensuing war, Israel has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the local health ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants, but at least two-thirds of the dead were children and children. She is said to be a woman.
What do students want to see happen?
Students are calling on universities to separate themselves from companies that advance Israel's military activities in Gaza and, in some cases, from Israel itself.
Many campus protests are organized by the following coalitions: student group, often including local chapters of organizations such as Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voices for Peace. They come together in umbrella groups like the Anti-Apartheid Coalition at MIT and the Tahrir Coalition at the University of Michigan.
Although some coordination has taken place, each group has largely acted independently. After Columbia University students established the camp last week, they held a conference call with about 200 people interested in starting their own camp. But organizers say most of the events happened spontaneously, with little cooperation between campuses.
Requirements vary by campus. among them:
— Stop doing business with military weapons manufacturers that supply weapons to Israel.
— Stop accepting research funding from Israel for projects that support Israel's military efforts.
— Stop investing your university endowment with asset managers who profit from Israeli companies and contractors.
—Let's be more transparent about the funds we receive from Israel and how they are used.
Student governments at some universities have passed resolutions in recent weeks calling for an end to investments and academic partnerships with Israel. Such bills were passed by student organizations at Columbia University, Harvard University, Rutgers University, and American University.
How are universities responding?
Officials from some universities Conversation with students and respect the right to protest. But they also echo the concerns of many Jewish students that some of the protesters' behavior amounts to anti-Semitism, saying such behavior is unacceptable.
American University President Sylvia Burwell has rejected a Faculty Senate resolution to end investments and partnerships with Israel.
“Such actions threaten academic freedom, the respectful and free expression of ideas and views, and the values of inclusion and belonging that are central to our community,” Burwell said in a statement. ” he said.
New School students and pro-Palestinian supporters gather outside the New School University Center building on Monday, April 22, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altafer)
Professor Burwell cited the university's “longstanding position” on the BDS movement, which spans decades.
Participants in the movement point to similarities between Israeli policies in Gaza, a small strip of land wedged between Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea and home to some 2.3 million Palestinians, and South Africa's apartheid. . After Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, Israel placed it under an indefinite blockade.
Opponents of BDS argue that its message leans toward anti-Semitism.In the past decade alone, more than 30 states enacted law Or it could issue an order preventing agencies from hiring companies that support the cause. Former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos put it this way: “Harmful threat” In 2019, it said it was promoting prejudice against Jews on U.S. campuses.
Asked this week if he condemned “anti-Semitic protests,” President Joe Biden said he did. “I also blame the people who don't understand what's going on with the Palestinians,” Biden said after Monday's Earth Day event.
At Yale University, where dozens of student demonstrators were arrested on Monday, President Peter Salovey said in a message to campus that the university's Investor Responsibility Advisory Committee, which had heard feedback from students, had announced that the university's He said he recommended that the manufacturer not sell its business.
Columbia University President Minoush Shafik said there should be “serious conversations” about how the university could serve the Middle East. But “we cannot let one group dictate the terms,” she said in a statement Monday.
MIT said in a statement that the protesters “have the full attention of our leaders, who are meeting and speaking with students, faculty and staff on an ongoing basis.”
How much money does the school receive?
At many campuses, students seeking divestment say they do not know the extent of their university's ties to Israel. Universities with large endowments spread their money across a vast array of investments, and it can be difficult or impossible to determine where it all ends up.
The U.S. Department of Education requires universities to report gifts and contracts from foreign sources; Problem of under-reportingand universities may avoid reporting requirements by channeling funds through another foundation acting on the university's behalf.
About 100 U.S. universities have reported gifts and contracts from Israel totaling $375 million over the past 20 years, according to a Department of Education database. But the data tells us little about where that money came from or how it was spent.
Some Massachusetts Institute of Technology students have released the names of several researchers who have received funding from the Israeli Ministry of Defense for projects they say could help with drone navigation and missile defense. did. According to pro-Palestinian students, MIT has received more than $11 million from the Department of Defense over the past decade.
MIT officials did not respond to emailed requests for comment.
“MIT is directly complicit in all of this,” said sophomore Quinn Perrian, leader of a Jewish student group calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war. He said there was growing momentum to hold universities accountable for their role in supporting the Israeli military.
“We're all getting paid from the same fire,” he said. “They are forcing us, as students, to be complicit in this genocide.”
Inspired by the Columbia protests, University of Michigan students were camping in a campus plaza on Tuesday demanding an end to financial investments with Israel. The school reportedly transferred more than $6 billion to investment management companies that profit from Israeli companies and contractors. They also mentioned investments in companies that make drones and fighter jets used in Israel, as well as surveillance products used at checkpoints in the Gaza Strip.
University of Michigan officials said there are no direct investments with Israeli companies and indirect investments through the foundation account for less than 1% of the university's $18 billion endowment. The university rejected the divestment request, citing a nearly 20-year policy to “protect university investments from political pressure.”
What will the students do next?
Harvard and Yale students are demanding greater transparency, along with demands for divestment.
Transparency is one of Emerson College's key demands, as 80 students and other supporters took over a busy courtyard on the campus in downtown Boston on Tuesday.
At the entrance to the courtyard are 12 tents with slogans such as “Liberate Gaza” and “No US Dollars for Israel,” with sleeping bags and pillows peeking out of zippered doors.
Students sat cross-legged on brick paving stones, typing their final reports and reading in preparation for exams. The semester ends in a few weeks.
Owen Buxton, a film major, said, “I want to go home and take a shower, but I won't go home until my request is fulfilled or I'm dragged away by the police.''
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