Student Activism Unites: Pro-Palestinian Demonstrations Spread Across US College Campuses

Pro-Palestinian protests have been spreading across US college campuses, echoing the protests of the 1960s against the Vietnam War. These protests have resulted in over 400 arrests in just one week, starting from April 18 when around 100 young people at Columbia University in New York began demonstrating. The demonstrations have now spread to other campuses, from California to Georgia, from Boston to Florida. Students on these campuses are demanding that universities sever ties with companies that do business with Israel, and have organized encampments, sit-ins, and demonstrations.

Protests are ongoing at schools such as Columbia University, Harvard, New York University, and UC Berkeley. In Atlanta, the chair of the philosophy department at Emory University, Noelle McAfee, was handcuffed and escorted off campus by an officer. Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, a naturalized American Somali elected to Congress in 2019, also showed up at Columbia University to support the protesters. Her daughter, Isra Hirsi, was among the group of pro-Palestinian protesters who were cleared from the university by police last week.

These protests are a response to decades of Israeli occupation of Palestine and its treatment of Palestinian people. They also reflect growing support for Palestinian rights among younger generations in the United States. While some argue that these protests are misguided or even dangerous