2023–24 pro-Palestine campus protests

This article covers a current event. The information presented may become rapidly obsolete as new developments take place.

Since late 2023, many university and college campuses around the world have experienced pro-Palestine protests in response to the Zionist genocide that escalated in October 2023.

By university

Brown University

The encampment at Brown was betrayed by its unelected student leaders, who accepted a false deal from the university administration. The encampment ended on April 30, and the university said it would hold hearings on divestment in October.

University of California, Irvine

Students established an encampment on April 29 and demanded that the university divest $32 billion from Zionist companies. Protestors also occupied the Physical Sciences Lecture Hall. At 2:30 p.m. on May 15, 200 riot police attacked protestors at UC Irvine and destroyed the encampment within three hours. They arrested at least 40 protestors.

University of California, Los Angeles

On the night of April 30, Zionist paramilitaries attacked UCLA's encampment with bricks, gas canisters, and fireworks. The encampment survived the attack. In early September, UCLA banned "unauthorized visual displays" such as chalk, restricted megaphone use, and limited protests to designated areas.

Columbia University

In January 2024, two IOF veterans attacked pro-Palestine protestors with nonlethal chemical weapons at a rally.

At 4 a.m. on April 7, 100 protestors from Columbia and Barnard, its women's college, began an encampment on the free speech green and demanded divestment and an economic boycott of Israel, a call for a ceasefire from the university, removing police from campus, and an end to university expansion that displaced local Harlem residents along with reparations for victims. On the night of April 30 to May 1, the NYPD closed off four blocks around Columbia's campus and attacked with columns of infantry along with combat vehicles and jail buses. Student journalists were trapped in Pulitzer Hall so they could not report on the police attack. The NYPD broke into the encampment's headquarters at Hind Hall and arrested at least 100 protestors. Columbia has suspended 15 students and five faculty members and shut down Jewish Voice for Peace and Students for Justice in Palestine.

University of Connecticut

Police arrested at least 26 student protestors at the University of Connecticut.

Cornell University

Cornell used anti-protest rules to target striking maintenance and dining workers.

Kansas State University

On May 1, the Kansas State University Young Democratic Socialists of America (KSU YDSA) demanded divestment from Israel, transparency for the KSU Alumni Fund formed in 2014, and resignation of President Richard Linton from the U.S.-Israel Agricultural Co-Operative. Students set up an encampment on Linton's lawn, but only 12 remained for the whole night. Despite heavy police presence and six neo-Nazi counterprotestors from Young Americans for Freedom, no protestors were injured or arrested, but the encampment collapsed.

University of Michigan

In November 2023, students held a die-in on the Diagonal Green and demanded divestment of the university from Israel. In the spring of 2024, students held an encampment for a month before being suppressed by riot police. Seven students were charged with felonies. In July, the university adopted a policy that banned any disruptive protests and allowed the university itself to file disciplinary complaints in addition to letting students and staff file complaints. It abolished a body of faculty and students previously used to negotiate appeals. On August 28 2024, police arrested four more students at another die-in.

Northwestern University

Northwestern encampment on the night of April 24

On April 24, a group of about 100 students and staff created an encampment on the campus of Northwestern University near Chicago, Illinois. The encampment suddenly ended on May 1 when the organizers made an opportunist and non-binding deal with the university. They agreed not to hold any more protests for the rest of the academic year without administrator approval in exchange for insignificant action from the university. On May 23, Northwestern President Michael Schill said he would never recommend divestment or boycott from the Zionist Entity.

University of Pennsylvania

In November 2023, protestors projected messages criticizing UPenn's investments in Israel onto buildings. The university later banned projecting images onto university buildings.

Rhode Island School of Design

On May 6, students began a sit-in in the Providence Washington building and planned to stay until the university disclosed its investments, divested from companies complicit in Zionism, condemned the Israeli occupation of Gaza, and established a student oversight committee for future investments.

On May 9, President Crystal Williams ordered student protestors to end their occupation of the second floor of Fathi Ghaben Place, telling them that their barricade violated a fire code. Protestors removed a barricade in order to comply with the code, but Public Safety officers entered the building at noon to break down the rest of the encampment. Over 100 protestors surrounded the building as officers blocked them from entering. At 1:30 p.m., 30 protestors made it into the building to unite with the indoor occupiers, and all protestors exited by 1:43 p.m. Williams required all protestors meet with other students faculty affected by the occupation and pay compensation for damages. Anyone who remained in the building by 2:30 p.m. would be expelled.

Vanderbilt University

Vanderbilt University expelled three students for participating in a sit-in in April 2024. In August, the university banned overnight gatherings, prohibited members of the public from joining campus protests, and restricted installations like the Apartheid Wall.

Wesleyan University

Michael Roth, the president of Wesleyan University, promised in August 2024 not to call police against student encampments. In September, he called police to arrest five students participating in a sit-in for divestment.

Yale University

On April 28, protestors created a second Gaza Solidarity Encampment (Yale Liberated Zone). The Liberated Zone was surrounded by a wall of tents on three sides and a sandstone wall on the fourth. Students created a set of community guidelines, selected marshals, and supplied food, drinks, and sanitation to the zone. Police arrested 46 students and pressed charges against them in state courts.