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Repression

Masked Israel Supporters Attack UCLA’s Palestine Solidarity Encampment

Los Angeles, CA — Over more than five hours on Tuesday night, pro-Israel Zionist agitators violently beat, pepper sprayed and threw fireworks at hundreds of college students and protesters in a “unilateral, surprise attack“ as they held UCLA’s Palestine solidarity encampment while security and police stood by idly. Though police didn’t intervene until the fifth hour of the attack, the encampment stayed intact with the students repelling the continuous onslaught as they defiantly chanted “we’re not leaving” and “Free Palestine.”

As A Free Speech Organization, We Condemn Campus Crackdowns

Defending Rights & Dissent condemns the crackdown taking place across campuses in the United States. Across the country, we have seen protests calling for a ceasefire and end to Israel’s brutal war in Gaza. Increasingly, many of  these protests have taken place on America’s campuses. Since the Columbia University occupation began on April 17, protests, including encampments, have spread across college campuses as students link their opposition to Israel’s war with demands for university divestment. In spite of false claims to the contrary, the protests have been overwhelmingly peaceful and nonviolent.

Why Pro-Palestinian Student Protesters Wear Masks On Campus

As demonstrations over the war in Gaza have surged on campuses, around cities and in offices across the US in recent weeks, a visible tension has emerged between the desire for public protest and a fear of professional reprisals. On the Columbia University campus, where the latest spike in protests began on 17 April, demonstrators have worn masks and used blankets to block counter-protesters from filming students. Protesters at a tent encampment at the University of Michigan handed out masks upon entry, and students there refused to give reporters their full names in case the school took punitive action against them.

NYPD Storm ‘Hind’s Hall‘ In Violent Raid Of Columbia University

Dozens of student protesters were cleared out from Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall building by New York police late on 30 April, after storming and occupying the building the night before as part of demonstrations in support of Palestine. Hundreds of police officers wearing helmets and carrying riot shields surrounded the building, with a number of policemen climbing into Hamilton Hall via a ramp extending from one of the police vehicles into a window of the building. Dozens of pro-Palestine students were detained and dragged away from the scene with their hands zip-tied behind their backs.

Did Columbia University Violate The First Amendment?

Defending Rights & Dissent, a non-profit advocacy group, in their recent letter to Columbia President Minouche Shafik (which has lots of good information) stated: Although Columbia University is a private institution not governed by the First Amendment, the role of state actors — in this case members of Congress — in instigating the action would raise serious First Amendment concerns. This might seem odd to people. Many people think that private groups can disregard the First Amendment, which only limits government action. However, Defending Rights & Dissent is perfectly correct in noting this case may be different.

Students Stand With Palestine, Palestine Stands With Students

“We, the students of Gaza, salute the students of Columbia University, Yale University, New York University, Rutgers University, the University of Michigan, and dozens of universities across the United States who are rising up in solidarity with Gaza and to put an end to the Zionist-US genocide against our people in Gaza,” wrote the Student Frameworks Secretariat, composed of a variety of student organizations part of larger resistance groups and left parties—including but not limited to the Islamic Resistance Movement, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine, Fatah, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and the Palestinian People’s Party.

Denver Police Department Brutalizes Student Encampment For Palestine

Denver, CO – On Friday, April 26, the Denver Police Department (DPD) attacked an encampment for Palestine set up by Students for a Democratic Society. The encampment was set up on Thursday, April 25 as a part of the growing wave of student encampments across the country. The organizers are demanding their universities completely divest from Israel and corporations that are helping Israel carry out a genocide against the Palestinian people. Around noon, April 26, university officials called DPD, which then descended upon the encampment and started arresting protesters.

Columbia University Threatens To Deploy National Guard On Students

Columbia University students who are part of the Gaza solidarity encampment have raised the alarm that during negotiations, the university administration threatened to call in the National Guard to evacuate the camp. The threat from Columbia’s administration comes on the seventh day of the encampment of hundreds of students who are demanding that the university divest all finances, from corporations that profit in any way shape or form from Israeli genocide and cut academic ties with Israeli institutions. The Columbia encampment already withstood a violent eviction at the hands of the New York City Police Department on Thursday April 18.

Students Launch Encampments In Solidarity With Gaza Across The US

Almost a week after Columbia students launched their Gaza Solidarity Encampment, students across the country have taken from their example and began encampments in public spaces in their own universities in solidarity with Palestine. In the early hours of the morning of April 22, students at New York University began an encampment on Gould Plaza, joining their New York City counterparts at the New School, which had launched an encampment the previous day. In the Greater Boston Area students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Emerson College, and Tufts University set up encampments at their own universities.

The War On Protest

Amin Chaoui had been in Atlanta less than 24 hours when things took an unexpected turn. Chaoui, then 31, drove down from Richmond, Va., to attend a March 2023 music festival organized by activists trying to stop the construction of the police training facility known as Cop City. The sprawling compound in one of Atlanta’s largest urban parks would require clearing at least 85 acres of partly forested land that abuts a predominantly Black neighborhood in DeKalb County. It faced growing opposition from racial and environmental justice advocates, including an occupation of the forest that began in November 2021.

Academics Form National Group To Advocate For Justice In Palestine

Academics have launched a new national network to advocate for Palestine. Faculty for Justice in Palestine (FJP), which was formed in solidarity with Palestinian students, already has 80 affiliate groups across college campuses. “After the genocidal war on Gaza began, groups of academic workers began to organize on campuses nationwide to support and protect students from the immediate onslaught of harassment, discrimination, and punishment,” the group’s facilitator Sherene Seikaly told Mondoweiss. “With 80 affiliate groups on campuses across the country, the Faculty for Justice in Palestine (FJP) national network is committed to the cause of Palestinian liberation through education, advocacy, and action.

Thousands Take To The Streets In Argentina

Thousands of Argentines demonstrated, this Wednesday December 20, “against the economic austerity measures” implemented by Javier Milei’s government. The day was marked by high tension early on, following a major police operation carried out at the main entrances to the city of Buenos Aires. The Minister of Security, Patricia Bullrich, announced that she would debut her “anti-picketing protocol”, presented last Friday December 15, and threatened that they would not allow the demonstration to take place. However, the call to mobilization managed to overcome the fear that the government tried to install.

Paris Protests For Gaza Despite Repression

The open repression of Palestine solidarity protests in Paris over the last months has been unprecedented and violent. Although there have been some alarms ringing on this reality of state violence in France, including a statement by Amnesty International, it is important for all who witnessed this new wave of street-level suppression to speak out. I am writing this text after having been present at a number of recent Palestine solidarity actions in Paris. As mass protests demanding a permanent ceasefire in Gaza continue around the world, French authorities are systematically deploying police forces to silence demonstrations calling for justice in Palestine.

University Of Michigan Administration Caves To Zionist Pressure

Last week, the University of Michigan student body was set to vote on a resolution calling for the university to recognize the genocide in Gaza and to assess the ethics of the institution’s investments, including investments in the State of Israel. The campaign has been led by the Tahrir Coalition, a broad and diverse group of over 60 student organizations. As the vote was underway, the university administration buckled to pressure from a coalition of off-campus Zionist organizations and canceled the vote, citing improper use of a university listserv to promote the vote. Michigan Hillel, with the support of an off-campus Zionist coalition including Maccabee Task Force, the Anti-Defamation League, Stand With Us, The iCenter, and the Israel Forever Foundation, raised $46,000 to influence the student vote and promote their own pro-Zionist resolution.

Academic Freedom Under Fire As Gaza Burns

Academic freedom and freedom of expression on university campuses across the Anglosphere have continued to come under attack in the past week with Israeli lobbyists conflating anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism. As Israel resumed its bombing campaign, now focusing on southern Gaza, the push to hold back the growing tide of disgust is intensifying, as the official Palestinian death toll in the strip nears 16,000. On Tuesday, the presidents of Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are being hauled before a U.S. congressional committee to face accusations that protests on their campuses were anti-Semitic in nature.
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