An uprising led by college students around the United States is demanding an end to Israel’s genocide in Gaza, the ongoing occupation of Palestine, and U.S. arms shipments to Israel. Also central to the demands are calls for universities to divest from Israel.
In an approach reminiscent of Occupy Wall Street and other movements for social justice, students have set up encampments on their campuses and have been met by violent police repression and mass arrests. They also face accusations of antisemitism, in spite of the fact that there are significant numbers of Jewish students participating in the protests.
The movement’s epicenters include Columbia University, New York University, and the University of Texas at Austin. But the list of campus encampments is growing and expanding into smaller campuses as well.
On April 29, students at San Francisco State University set up a Free Gaza encampment—and two student organizers named Jacob and Rithik (who used their first names only to protect against official reprisal) spoke with YES! Senior Editor Sonali Kolhatkar on YES! Presents: Rising Up With Sonali from their tent. They explained why they were protesting and gave a visual tour of the encampment.