Pro-Palestinian protests spread to 60 universities in the United States

Protests against the war in Gaza have already spread to some 60 universities in the United States with more than 500 detained in recent days, a movement that increases pressure on US President Joe Biden to withdraw his support for Israel.

Since a week ago the police tried to evict a camp in favor of the Palestinians on the campus of Columbia University in New York, the protest movement has spread to some 60 university spaces, according to this Friday’s count in the newspaper The New York Times, prepared based on publications on social networks and local media.

As a result, around 500 people have already been arrested. The latest arrests occurred at Ohio State University, where 36 protesters were detained last nightand at Arizona State University, where there were several arrests this Friday, according to the local ABC affiliate.

Meanwhile, the 57 students at the University of Texas at Austin who had been arrested this week saw the Prosecutor’s Office dismiss the charges against them for illegal entry to the campus this Friday.

Coercive measures have also been taken within the campuses to end the protests. For example, the University of Texas itself announced this Friday in a statement that it had “temporarily suspended” the Palestine Solidarity Committee, organizer of the demonstrations in that faculty.

He also prohibited the students who were detained from accessing the university campus.

In addition, the private George Washington University, located in the center of the US capital, warned the students who started a camping trip on Thursday, that anyone remaining on campus may be temporarily suspended and receive an administrative access ban.

Likewise, the University of Florida (UF) threatened this Friday with suspension and even a three-year expulsion to students who demonstrate on campus.

Despite attempts to repress them, protests continue to appear on university campuses across the country.

This Friday, more than 75 students set up a camp at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hillwith a large banner that reads: ‘What have you done to end the genocide?’, according to photos from the local newspaper The Daily Tar Heel.

In addition, legislators Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jamaal Bowman, who represent New York districts and lead the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, visited the Columbia University campus this Friday to show their solidarity with the students.

“Any leader who has resorted to the use of force and violence against people demonstrating peacefully should feel deep shame,” Ocasio-Cortez argued in statements to the student newspaper Bwog.

The protests have been called by different groups, althoughMost of them aim to show their opposition to the war in Gazawhich has already claimed more than 34,000 lives, and express their rejection of Biden’s unconditional support for the Government of Israeli President Benjamin Nentanyahu.

In addition, protesters are demanding that universities eliminate their investments in weapons manufacturers, as they do not want the money they pay for their tuition to fuel the conflict in Gaza.

There is a historical precedent for this type of student movements. In the 1980s, students in the United States managed to get some universities to eliminate investments they had in apartheid-era South African businesses.

These protests have taken on greater relevance as they occur in an election year and at a time when Democratic President Joe Biden is trying to court the young vote to defeat Republican Donald Trump in the November elections.