Tensions have been rising across campus since October. Here is an overview of how the movement began

Tensions have been rising across campus since October. Here is an overview of how the movement began

Tensions on US college campuses have risen since the October 7 Hamas attack, when militants killed about 1,200 people and took more than 200 hostages. Israel’s counterattack on Gaza has killed more than 34,000 people, according to its health ministry.

Reports of antisemitic acts have surged across America and particularly on college campuses since October 7. Islamophobia is also rampant. A recent surge in protests has fueled those tensions, forcing leadership to make decisions when free speech on campus crosses the line and becomes threatening.

But protests particularly escalated in mid-April at Columbia University, when the university’s president, Minouche Shafik, testified before a House committee about the school’s response to accusations of campus antisemitism. Pro-Palestinian protests began on campus at the same time.

Following his testimony, Shafik requested in a letter issued by the university that the New York City Police Department remove people camping on the campus’ South Lawn who were “violating University rules and policies” and trespassing. More than 100 people have been arrested, according to law enforcement.

The encampment was organized by Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), a student-led coalition of more than 100 organizations, including Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace, to protest what they described as “the university’s continued financial investment in company. profits from Israeli apartheid, genocide, and military occupation in Palestine,” according to his news release.

Pro-Palestinian encampments have since begun on campuses across the US, including at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Emerson College, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Michigan, the University of Southern California and the University of California, Berkeley.