Universities Must Respect Students Right To Protest Against Gaza Genocide

By Louis Charbonneau\Human Rights Watch Photos: Wikimedia Commons\YouTube Screenshots Pro-Palestine university campus protests have spread across the United States, with harsh crackdowns at some institutions, including Columbia University, the University of Texas, and Emory University. These include mass suspensions, evictions from university housing, and arrests of students, faculty, legal observers, and journalists covering these events. Columbia University students set up tents on campus on April 17 to express solidarity with the Palestinian people. Student groups said they were protesting Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, which has killed over 34,000 people and left well over a million displaced and starving. Protesters also demanded that the university divest holdings in companies profiting from the assault on Gaza and Israel’s unlawful settlements in the occupied West Bank. Also on April 17, Columbia’s President Minouche Shafik testified at a congressional hearing on antisemitism. On April 18, she suspended the protesters, revoking their access to campus. In a letter to the New York Police Department, Shafik said Columbia “provided multiple notices and warnings and informed the encampment participants that they must disperse or face immediate discipline.” Shafik said the protesters were violating Columbia’s rules and policies, and raised safety concerns. She said the encampment posed...