Students, shutdowns and police clashes: US colleges surrounded by tents in pro-Palestine protests

University of Southern California protesters push and shove University Public Safety officers. Credit: AP

Students across the US are surrounding their colleges with tents to take a stand against Israel's war in Gaza.

The extensive encampments and protests have led to clashes with the police.

Hundreds of officers, including some on horseback and holding batons, clashed with protesters in violent scenes in Texas on Wednesday.

At New York University this week, police said 133 protesters were taken into custody, while more than 40 protesters were arrested on Monday at an encampment at Yale University.

Meanwhile California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, shut down its campus for days after students barricaded themselves inside the lecture halls.

A University of Southern California protester is detained during a pro-Palestinian occupation at the campus. Credit: AP

The Pro-Palestinian groups are demanding colleges stop doing business with Israel or any companies that support its ongoing war in Gaza.

The movement has taken on new strength as the Israel-Hamas war surpasses the six-month mark and stories of suffering in Gaza have sparked international calls for a cease-fire.

Inspired by ongoing protests and the arrests last week of more than 100 students at Columbia University, students from Massachusetts to California are now gathering by the hundreds on campuses, setting up tent camps and pledging to stay put until their demands are met.

“We want to be visible,” said Columbia protest leader Mahmoud Khalil, who noted that students at the university have been pushing for divestment from Israel since 2002.

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A sign is seen as pro-Palestinian protesters gather in front of Sproul Hall on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley. Credit: AP

"The university should do something about what we’re asking for, about the genocide that’s happening in Gaza. They should stop investing in this genocide.”

The protest groups have stemmed from the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, a decades-old campaign against Israel's policies toward the Palestinians.

Campus protests began after Hamas’ October 7 attack on southern Israel, when militants killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took roughly 250 hostages.

Israel has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, two-thirds of the dead are children and women according to the Hamas run health ministry.

Tents erected at the pro-Palestinian demonstration encampment at Columbia University. Credit: AP

Protests on many campuses have been orchestrated by coalitions of student groups, often including local chapters of organisations such as Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace.

“Antisemitic mobs have taken over leading universities.

"They call for the annihilation of Israel, they attack Jewish students, they attack Jewish faculty,” Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed in a statement.

He also went on to liken the scenes to those before the Holocaust in Nazi Germany, the Times of Israel reported.

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Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would 'make its own decisions' amid pressure from international leaders. Credit: Abir Sultan/Pool Photo/AP

At Emerson College, tents sporting slogans including “Free Gaza” or “No US $ For Israel” lined the entrance to the courtyard, with sleeping bags and pillows peeking out.

“I would love to go home and have a shower," said Owen Buxton, a film major, “but I will not leave until we reach our demands or I am dragged out by police.”

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