Israelis dismissing these protests do so at their own risk. Their future depends in many ways on the views formed by these students camped on the lawns of the world’s most prestigious universities – and the impact they will make on their countries’ policies in the future
Allison Kaplan Sommer Haaretz Daily
What began on April 17 with a single pro-Palestinian encampment protesting the Israel-Gaza war at Columbia University – demanding that the establishment divest from weapons manufacturers and other companies that support Israel’s government and military – has now become a global phenomenon.
The encampments have been replicated on campuses across the United States and Canada for weeks. And in the past few days, tents have been pitched on university grounds in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Switzerland, the Netherlands, France and Australia.
As the model has been copied, so have the headaches for university administrators trying to walk a tightrope between the free speech principles for which academia ostensibly stands, and allowing their institutions to function – particularly at a heightened time of year when final exams and graduation ceremonies are taking place.
There is no one story for the encampments – they are as diverse as the institutions where they are taking place, with differing levels of tolerance and toughness depending on the university’s rules and cultural climates. They are most intense and troublesome in major metropolitan cities, where political activists only marginally affiliated with the university – if at all – are interested in the maximum amount of disruption, and not dialogue or negotiation.
Brown University has so far won the 2024 embattled university peace prize by managing to successfully cut a deal with the protesters. It agreed to allow them to make their case for divestment with the school’s board members ahead of a vote on the matter in October. By contrast, the equally prestigious University of Chicago has – as these lines are being written – stood by its warning that if students did not leave the encampment, they will be removed forcibly. Police in riot gear are clearing out the lawn.
At Columbia, where it all started, it has been the worst of all worlds: with attempts at both dialogue and forcible removal failing, and the situation deteriorating to the point where it was announced Monday that the central commencement ceremony was canceled due to the impossibility of maintaining security and order in the current atmosphere.
It is impossible to make sweeping generalizations or draw decisive conclusions about the nature of the protests – although that hasn’t stopped anyone from doing so. The charges that the pro-Palestinian protesters create a dangerous and hostile environment for Jewish students seem ridiculous to many, when students hold peaceful teach-ins and Passover seders. At the same time, the internet is filled with videos of protesters yelling “Go back to Poland!” or “Go back to Brooklyn!” at pro-Israel counter-protesters.
What will happen as May turns to June, the dormitories shut down and students head off on summer vacation and the Gaza conflict eventually – hopefully – draws to a close?
Will pitching a tent and wearing a kaffiyeh prove to be a passing TikTok trend, quick to disappear when photos and videos of dead and maimed children in Gaza are no longer constantly on television and computer screens?
The activists who sparked this movement surely hope not. They are betting that what has unfolded in the past weeks represents a turning point for a generation of relatively disaffected young people in the United States and Europe who came of age during the COVID pandemic, shaping this generation’s political sensibilities as decisively as the Vietnam protests did – and making the Palestinian cause a key element of that political identity.
It has been easy for Israelis to dismiss, or even ridicule, what looks like childish posturing or cosplay to those experiencing real loss and pain in this war.
But they do so at their own risk. Their future depends in many ways on the views formed by these students camped on the lawns of the world’s most prestigious universities – and the impact they will make on their countries’ policies in the future.