Why are college students protesting?

College campuses have seen increased tension between students, faculty and administration in the months since the Israel-Hamas war began in October. Protests have erupted across the country as campuses face rising rates of discrimination and calls for universities — and the United States — to sever ties with Israel.

Anti-Semitism has soared nationally since the initial attack, and US colleges in particular are coming under pressure for their handling of reports of discrimination. and protests, as the Israel-Hamas war drags into its seventh month.

Last month, Columbia University President Minouche Shafik and other school officials appeared before the House Education Committee to testify about their response to anti-Semitism on campus. His testimony sparked a Gaza solidarity camp that began on the Columbia campus the same day.

Over the next two weeks, many college campuses across the country joined the effort with their own camps. Demonstrations are taking place at some of the country’s most important schools and small colleges, in several states.

The nearly 400 campus protests in that period represented a fifth of the total protests since the start of the war in Gaza, according to an analysis by The Washington Post.

The protests have been largely peaceful, but came to a head this week after hundreds of New York City Police Department (NYPD) officers, dressed in riot gear, moved onto the Columbia campus after protesters occupied one of the campus buildings.

Protests turned violent at the University of California, Los Angeles the same night. The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) was called to the campus after there were reports of skirmishes between camp protesters and pro-Israel counter-protesters.

According to The Associated Press (AP), at least 2,000 people have been arrested in several pro-Palestinian protests since April 18.

People were arrested at 36 universities, including the University of Texas at Austin, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and California Polytechnic University, Humboldt.

The demonstrations have had an impact on the remaining time of the school year left for many schools. Columbia moved the rest of the academic year to a hybrid learning style to take into account the safety of the campus community, and the University of Southern California canceled its main commencement event.

Different protest groups have different motivations, but here are some of their demands.

Divestment from Israel

Students across the country are calling on their universities to divest their endowments from Israeli companies or defense companies that supply weapons to Israel.

Asking colleges to divest for political or ethical reasons is nothing new. It dates back to at least the 1970s, when students called on schools to withdraw from investments that benefited South Africa under the apartheid regime, the AP reported.

Students also asked schools to divest from investments in controversial holdings such as alcohol, tobacco, gambling, coal, oil and gas. Several protests have been successful, but experts say it can take time and a difficult process for schools to change allocations.

The AP noted that university endowments hold hundreds of billions of dollars in assets. For example, Columbia University’s total endowment reached $13.6 billion last year.

Protesters at Brown University reached a deal with the school: they would tear down their camp and cease demonstrations, and the university’s corporate board would vote on a proposal to divest from Israeli interests.

Dozens of protesters were arrested last week at Yale University after an encampment grew to several hundred people calling for the school to divest from military weapons manufacturers.

Other protests called on their schools for financial transparency. A common mantra held by protesters across the country has become: “Disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest.” NPR reported.

US support for Israel’s war

A common theme of pro-Palestinian protests since Hamas invaded Israel last fall has been opposition to the United States’ support for Israel in its counteroffensive.

Since October 7, Israel has conducted a deadly and destructive counter-offensive. Nearly all of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million has been displaced and more than 34,000 people have been killed, according to Hamas-run health agencies. The United Nations has warned that famine is “imminent”.

President Biden made comments Thursday in which he sharply criticized aspects of the ongoing protests, including isolated incidents of violence or vandalism.

“In moments like this, there are always those who rush to score political points. But this is not a time for politics. This is a moment of clarity,” Biden said in prepared remarks at the White House. “So let me be clear… Violent protests are not protected. Peaceful protest is.”

His remarks come just days after the US sent $26 billion in new aid to Israel, approved by an overwhelming majority in Congress. The package is intended almost entirely for defensive and offensive weapons for Israel, with some funding earmarked for U.S. forces in the Middle East.

Biden said Israel’s security “is critical” but also highlighted how the bill contains $1 billion in humanitarian aid for Gaza, as the US air drops food and water and builds a port off the coast to bring more help.

Protesters are calling on the Biden administration to stop funding Israel, despite senior officials saying a ceasefire agreement is close.

According to The Washington PostIsrael has received more US military aid, and more US aid of any kind, than any other country since World War II.

Israel’s historic occupation of the Palestinian territories

Many of the protests focused on American influence in the war, but criticism of Israel’s historic occupation of Palestinian territories brought another level of tension to the campus demonstrations.

Most of the protests denounced anti-Semitism and did not explicitly support Hamas, but some incidents became part of the broader controversy surrounding the demonstrations.

Columbia banned a student protest leader from campus who said, “Zionists don’t deserve to live.” A video of protest organizer Khymani James showed him saying earlier this year that people should be grateful he doesn’t go around “murdering Zionists.” James has since apologized for his comments.

Zionism is the Jewish nationalist movement that aims to create a Jewish national state in Palestine, the ancient homeland of the Jews.

Several senior US officials have called for a two-state solution to the conflict if Israel agrees to allow Palestine to be its own state. In January, Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that she will work to help the Palestinians secure statehood.

As protests continue, calls grow for the Biden administration to do more to combat anti-Semitism on campus. On Wednesday, the House passed a bill aimed at cracking down on anti-Semitism by requiring the Department of Education to use the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of anti-Semitism when enforcing anti-discrimination laws.

Since October 7th, the Anti-Defamation League denounced that there has been an unprecedented rise in anti-Semitism in the United States.