12/5/2024–|Last updated: 12/5/202409:21 PM (Mecca time)
Reuters quoted experts and academics regarding their expectations regarding the demonstrations in support of Palestine at American universities. Some of them said that they were about to subside, while others expected that the summer would be filled with more of them and that they would move from the middle of the universities to the streets.
According to observers, the main question now for the protesters, university administrations, and police is the extent to which the strength and momentum of the demonstrations – launched by university students due to the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip – will continue after the end of graduation ceremonies and parties, the approaching summer vacation, and the dismantling of most of the sit-in and protest camps.
Academics who specialize in studying protest movements and the history of civil disobedience say that it is difficult to maintain the presence of student protesters in universities if there is no longer a reason for their presence.
They also noted that university demonstrations are one tactic in the broader pro-Palestinian movement that has been around for decades, and that the summer break will provide plenty of opportunities for the momentum that began on campuses to spill over into the streets.
According to Reuters, today some students – who were arrested by the police during the dispersal of a sit-in on a university campus in Denver, Colorado – came out of custody and were received by their fellow demonstrators with cheers and cheers, and a number of them waved yellow papers carrying summonses for investigation, considering them small flags of victory and urging them to preserve their integrity. On the momentum of protest.
Students participating in the protests say that they will continue their movement until their university administrations meet their demands, which include a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, the withdrawal of university investments from arms export companies and other companies that benefit from the war, as well as amnesty for students and faculty members against whom disciplinary measures have been taken or dismissed. Because of the protest.
The power to continue
Dana Fisher, a professor at American University in Washington, D.C., who has written a number of books on grassroots movements and activists, says the university movement spread across the country in response to police being called to Columbia University’s campus on April 18, when authorities arrested more than 100.
The non-profit news organization The Appeal says that since that incident, at least 2,600 demonstrators have been arrested in more than 100 protests in 39 states and Washington, D.C.
Fisher told Reuters, “I do not see a sufficient organizational infrastructure to support the continuation of a group of young people participating in the movement at a time when they are not on university campuses. Either the movement will develop significantly or it will not be able to continue.”
Students in Denver believe that the spread of the protest movement from the coast of the country to the center and to small universities shows that it has the strength to continue. Other countries also witnessed similar protests organized by students in their universities.
Crazy recipe
On the Auraria campus, a 21-year-old student named Steve – who refused to reveal his full name for fear of being subjected to punitive measures – said, “We will continue our protests and sit-ins until our demands are met, no matter how long it takes. We will be here during the summer vacation and until next fall if necessary.” .
Fisher said that the police’s handling of the protests helped motivate participation in activities and movements among a new generation of students, and she saw that the current demonstrations on campus herald “a long, hot summer of protest” on many issues.
Fisher also believes that the Republican National Convention next July and the Democratic National Convention next August will be among the opportunities to organize mass protests.
“The risks have escalated, largely because the police acted in a more violent and repressive manner than they did in the 1960s,” she added, referring to student-led protests against the Vietnam War at the time.
Fisher considered that these events also occurred in an election year, warning “of possible heated developments this year. It is a recipe for madness.”
Style and tactics
For his part, Michael Heaney, an American politics lecturer at the University of Glasgow in Scotland whose research and books focus on American protest movements, says that demonstrations on universities are just one method and tactic in the broader movement to support the Palestinians, which is an ongoing effort that dates back decades.
Heaney added that the spread of the idea of setting up sit-in and protest camps inside universities on a wide geographical scale, to appear in places such as the University of Denver, constitutes an opportunity to deliver the message of the broader movement to areas that it had not reached before.
He said that “for any movement, protests occur in cycles” such as occasional waves, citing the various manifestations of the African American civil rights movement in the United States, which dates back 200 years.
Heaney explained that the end of a protest at one point does not necessarily mean that the movement has faded as a whole.
He added that the emergence of pro-Palestinian protests in American cities this summer could increase if the Israeli war on Gaza continues, and that the widespread university movement will constitute an impetus for such demonstrations.