From coast to coast, calls to end the Israel-Hamas war are spreading on college campuses.
Daily Archives: 24. April 2024
Pro-Palestinian Campus Encampments Spread Nationwide Amid Mass Arrests at Columbia, NYU & Yale
Palestinian solidarity protests and encampments are appearing on college campuses from Massachusetts to California to protest Israel‘s attacks on Gaza and to call for divestment from Israeli apartheid. This week, police have raided encampments and arrested students at Yale and New York University. Palestinian American scholar and New York University professor Helga Tawil-Souri describes forming a faculty buffer to protect students, negotiating with police, and the ensuing crackdown that led to over 100 arrests Monday night. Uptown in New York City, the encampment at Columbia University is entering its seventh day despite mass arrests of protesters last week.
12 suspended Columbia students reinstated just days after anti-Israel protest, as lawyer vows to take ‘fascist’ school to NY Supreme Court
“Speech, no matter how unpopular it may be, is the essence of academia. Protest against Zionism in Israel is pure protected speech. … If Jewish students are made uncomfortable by it, f— them!” Cohen, who was raised in an Orthodox Jewish home, told the Village Sun.
“Speech is supposed to make you uncomfortable. This is not lighting candles and kumbaya. … All speech is protected unless the imminent intent is to commit violence — like shouting ‘Fire!’ in a crowded movie theater,” he added. (…)
“I got f—ing suspended from Columbia 50 years ago. I got thrown out of Columbia after a week for anti-war protesting,” he lamented.
“Columbia is fascist,” he said.
120 antiwar protesters arrested at NYU; Calif. students form barricade
At the University of Minnesota, police moved in during early-morning hours at the request of the institution, arrested nine people and cleared tents in a grassy expanse in front of the main library. That followed the arrest of 120 protesters at New York University on Monday night, according to the New York Police Department.
The developments at those two schools mirrored scenes at Columbia University on Thursday and Yale University on Monday. On the West Coast, California State Polytechnic University at Humboldt went into a lockdown after student protesters barricaded themselves inside a building.
It began with defiance at Columbia. Now students nationwide are upping their Gaza war protests
What began last week when Columbia University students refused to end their protest against Israel’s war with Hamas had turned into a much larger movement by Tuesday as students across the nation set up encampments, occupied buildings and ignored demands to leave.
When will the US finally act to hold Israel accountable?
While the U.S. has waged war in the name of spreading democracy, it blatantly refuses to hold Israel accountable for its deeply undemocratic actions and violations of international law in Gaza and the West Bank, including its treatment of prisoners like my cousin. There are many days when I wake up and I feel like I’m in the twilight zone.
US Senate votes to advance Israel aid bill after months of delay
As voting continues, the Senate votes 72 to 13 in favor of advancing the package of four bills passed by the House, more than the 60 needed to pave the way for a vote on final passage as soon as Tuesday or Wednesday.
The legislation will send $17 billion in defense aid to Israel, and some $9 billion to provide humanitarian relief to people in Gaza, as well as other war-torn regions (the final decision on allocation was up to the White House, with analysts expecting roughly $2 billion would go to Gaza).
Gaza death toll rises to 34,151
(22.04.2024)
Gaza‘s health ministry said that 54 people have been killed in Israeli attacks on the enclave in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 34,151 since 7 October.
Blinken Denies US Human Rights ‘Double Standard’ for Israel
“Do we have a double standard? The answer is no,” Blinken said in response to questions about the Biden administration’s handling of allegations of abuses by Israeli forces in Gaza, compared with those attributed to Hamas.
Have a confidential tip for our reporters? Get in Touch
Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal
US Speaks Out About ‚Mass Grave‘ Found in Gaza
„I‘ve seen those reports and we are inquiring about it with the government of Israel,“ Miller said.
When asked in a follow-up question if the U.S. will „press the Israelis to find out more about this issue,“ Miller replied: „that‘s exactly what we are doing.“
Newsweek has also contacted the State Department for further comment.
U.N. Calls for Inquiry Into Mass Graves at 2 Gaza Hospitals
Mahmoud Basal, a spokesman for Palestinian Civil Defense, an emergency services organization, said some of the bodies found in Khan Younis were handcuffed, shot in the head or wearing detainee uniforms. He accused Israeli forces of killing and burying them. Israel’s military declined to address those claims on Tuesday, and they could not be independently verified.
On Tuesday, hours after the top U.N. human rights official called for an inquiry into the mass graves, the Israeli military said that its forces had exhumed bodies that were buried by Palestinians “in the area” of Nasser Hospital and examined them as part of an effort to locate hostages. It did not comment on the report of the mass grave at Al-Shifa.
Mass graves in Gaza show victims’ hands were tied, says UN rights office
The development follows the recovery of hundreds of bodies “buried deep in the ground and covered with waste” over the weekend at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, central Gaza, and at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City in the north. A total of 283 bodies were recovered at Nasser Hospital, of which 42 were identified.
“Among the deceased were allegedly older people, women and wounded, while others were found tied with their hands…tied and stripped of their clothes,” said Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Citing the local health authorities in Gaza, Ms. Shamdasani added that more bodies had been found at Al-Shifa Hospital.
UN ‚horrified‘ after more than 300 bodies found in mass grave at Nasser Hospital in Gaza
The UN voiced its alarm at the reports, with the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, saying he was „horrified“.
He called for an independent investigation into the killing of civilians at Nasser Hospital and what was Gaza‘s largest medical complex, Al Shifa Hospital.
“The intentional killing of civilians, detainees and others who are ‚hors de combat‘ is a war crime,” Mr Turk said.
“We feel the need to raise the alarm because clearly there have been multiple bodies discovered,” Mr Turk‘s representative Ravina Shamdasani said.