6/5/2024–|Last updated: 5/6/202408:57 PM (Mecca time)
American university students continue their sit-ins and protests in support of the Gaza Strip in the face of the Israeli aggression, while the movement expands in Britain, the Netherlands, and Belgium.
The prestigious Columbia University in New York announced on Monday that it had decided to cancel the main student graduation ceremony next week.
The university said that it would “abandon the university-wide ceremony scheduled for May 15” and will organize a series of small events instead.
The university said in a statement that it decided to limit graduation activities to honoring individual students.
For his part, US House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson said, “The Board of Trustees of Columbia University must dismiss the university president immediately to restore order.”
He added, “The president of Columbia University would rather cede power to Hamas supporters than restore order.”
Eviction and strike
Protests against the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip continue in many American universities.
In Los Angeles, CNN reported that the police had removed the protest camp on the university campus, which remains closed.
According to CNN, human rights and civil rights organizations in the United States have opened investigations into police behavior during the dispersal of university protests.
The network reported that police “are evacuating a pro-Palestinian protest camp at the University of California, San Diego.”
In the same context, 17 students at Princeton University in New Jersey announced a hunger strike until their demands related to stopping American support for the Israeli aggression on Gaza are met.
Sit-in and refuse
In Belgium, students at the University of Ghent began a 3-day sit-in, demanding that the university administration sever its relationship with Israeli institutions and institutes, and demanding more transparency regarding the agreements concluded. Last Friday, the university administration rejected the students’ request to the Board of Directors to provide clarifications regarding the partnership and cooperation with Israel.
In Britain, students from Oxford and Cambridge universities began demonstrations in support of Palestine.
Students supporting the Palestinian cause at Oxford University set up tents in the garden of the Pitt Rivers Museum.
The group – which called itself the “Oxford Organization for Action for Palestine” – confirmed that the university facilitated the genocide by investing in companies that cooperate with Israel.
The students participating in the demonstration demanded that the university sever its ties with the companies concerned, and stated that they would continue their protests until their demands were met.
On the other hand, members of a group called “Cambridge for Palestine” announced that they would camp on King Parade to protest their university’s investment in companies cooperating with Israel.
The students stated that their university supports the genocide committed by Israel against the Palestinians in Gaza, and they refused to remain indifferent to this situation.
The group added, “We stand with all Palestinians, and we call on the University of Cambridge to disclose all its relationships with organizations that aid and incite genocide in Gaza, and to end those relationships.”
Also in the United Kingdom, the sit-in by students at the University of Edinburgh continues, which began yesterday, Sunday, in the garden of the university’s main headquarters.
The university administration contacted the students and said that it was ready to talk and discuss their demands. The students say that they will continue the sit-in until their demands are met, the most important of which is severing relations with Israel.
Amsterdam is on the line
In the Netherlands, a number of students from the University of Amsterdam – which is one of the most prominent research universities in Europe – began a sit-in to denounce the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip and in support of the Palestinian people.
The university administration is considering whether it will allow the protesters to remain on campus or will resort to the police to break up the sit-in, similar to what happened in some American and French universities. According to official figures, the university has about 40,000 students.
In the Danish capital, Copenhagen, a student protest sit-in began inside the courtyards of the University of Copenhagen, in solidarity with American university students and in support of Palestine and Gaza.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza, which has left tens of thousands dead and wounded, most of them children and women, massive destruction, and famine that has claimed the lives of children and the elderly.
On April 18, students and academics who rejected the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip began a sit-in on the campus of Columbia University in New York, demanding that its administration stop its academic cooperation with Israeli universities and withdraw its investments in companies that support the occupation of Palestinian territories.
With the intervention of police forces and the arrest of dozens of protesters at American universities, the state of anger expanded, with demonstrations extending to universities in countries such as France, Britain, Germany, Canada, and India.