Map of Where Students Are Protesting.  Courtesy of The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Dear Commons Community,

The anti-Israel protests are spreading throughout the country with students demanding that their colleges cut ties with weapons manufacturers that are supplying arms to the Israeli government. Many student protests are taking the form of “Gaza solidarity encampments” or “liberated zones,” inspired by pro-Palestinian student protesters at Columbia University.

The Columbia arrests came one day after its president, Nemat (Minouche) Shafik, testified at a congressional hearing about her administration’s response to campus antisemitism since the Israel-Hamas war began.

The surge in activism comes at the end of the spring semester for most colleges. The central demands of each protest are the same: Institutions should divest their endowments from companies with ties to Israel and its military, as well as call for a ceasefire in Gaza.

See the map above for where encampments, multi-day protests, and sit-ins have appeared on campuses.

It is my sense that the protests will be expanding through the end of the Spring Semester. As we have seen at Columbia University in New York, these protests will challenge the wherewithal of university leadership.

Tony

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