Education / Events / Health & Beauty / Relationships/Marriages/Human Behavior / Services

Nationwide Student Protests & How Florida Is The State Of Refuge From Insanity

by Susan Sun Nunamaker · May 1, 2024

Dear Friends & Neighbors,

Universities in the United States with Israel–Hamas war protests in April 2024. Columbia University is marked in red. Other colleges that had encampments are marked in green, and non-encampment protests are marked in blue. (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_2024_Israel%E2%80%93Hamas_war_protests_on_university_campuses_in_the_United_States#/map/0, Attribution: Wikimedia/OpenStreetMap, Public Domain license: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain, Presented at: WindermereSun.com)

Scenes of the reinstated Gaza Solidarity Encampment at Columbia University on its fourth day. (Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Columbia_reinstated_Gaza_Solidarity_Encampment_Palestinian_flags.jpg, Attribution: عباد ديرانية, Creative Commons CCO 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en, Presented at: WindermereSun.com)

Windermere Blue Sunset (credit: Windermere Sun-Susan Sun Nunamaker)

(Please click on red links & note magenta)

For updated global info & data on COVID-19, please click HERE. For updated global data & graphs on COVID-19, please click HERE. For COVID-19 cases and death counts in USA by state, please click HERE. For COVID-19 cases in Florida via Florida COVID Action, please click HERE. For COVID-19 cases in Florida, via Florida state government, please click HERE.

I apologize for having been taken away by various other projects (I do have other commitments in life), and therefore have gotten behind on posting at WindermereSun.com. In response to many of our readers’ inquiry, I have returned and will try my best to make up for lost time.

The most recent event that directly or indirectly would affect all of us is 2024 pro-Palesitinian protests on university campuses. More detailed coverage may be found in italicized segment taken from wikipedia, below:

As part of the wider Israel–Hamas war protests, the 2024 pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses began in the United States on April 17, then spread to other countries. They began after mass arrests at the Columbia University campus occupation, led by anti-Zionist groups, in which protesters demanded the university’s disinvestment from Israel.^[5]^[6] As of May 1, over 1,400 protesters have been arrested,^[7] including faculty members,^[1] on more than 30 U.S. campuses.^[8] Universities have suspended several students, with some also expelled.^[1]^[9] The different protests’ varying demands include severing financial ties with Israel and its affiliated entities, transparency over financial ties,^[10] and amnesty for protesters.^[11]

Demonstrations spread on April 22, when students at several universities on the East Coast—including New York University, Yale University, Emerson College, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and Tufts University—began occupying campuses, as well as experiencing mass arrests in New York and at Yale.^[12] Protests emerged throughout the U.S. in the following days, with protest camps established on over 40 campuses.^[13] On April 25, mass arrests occurred at Emerson College, the University of Southern California, and the University of Texas,^[14] as protests spread to Europe, Australia and Canada. A continued crackdown on April 27 led to approximately 275 arrests at Washington, Northeastern, Arizona State, and Indiana University.^[15]^[16] Several professors were among those detained at Emory University,^[9] and at Washington University in St. Louis, university employees were arrested.^[15] On April 28, counter-protests were held at MIT, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).^[17] On April 30, approximately 300 protesters were arrested at Columbia University and City College of New York.^[18] The next day, pro-Israel counter-protesters violently attacked the encampment at the UCLA campus occupation.^[19]^[20]

The occupations have resulted in the closure of Columbia University and the Cal Poly Humboldt for the remainder of the semester;^[21]^[22] votes of no confidence initiated by faculty members in California, Georgia, and Texas;^[15] and Portland State University pausing its financial ties with Boeing over its ties to Israel.^[23] Over 200 groups have expressed support for the protests,^[24] as well as Jewish U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders and multiple progressive members of Congress.^[25] The protests have been criticized by President Joe Biden;^[11] U.S. governors Ron DeSantis^[26] and Greg Abbott;^[27]^[28] and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu^[29]—all of whom have called them antisemitic. Police response to the protests has also been criticized by U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Texas Democrats.^[30]^[31]

Background

Protests, including rallies, demonstrations, campaigns, and vigils relating to the Israel–Hamas war have occurred across the U.S. since the conflict’s start on October 7, 2023, alongside other Israel–Hamas war protests around the world. Pro-Palestinian protesters criticized U.S. military and diplomatic support for Israel and Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip and its war conduct, which some called a genocide.^[32]^[33]

Some of the protests are organized by groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace, founded in 1996 as a progressive Jewish anti-Zionist organization; IfNotNow, founded during the 2014 Gaza War; and Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), which has over 200 North American chapters.^[34]^[35]

In late 2023, SJP chapters were banned or suspended on university campuses at Brandeis University,^[36] Columbia University,^[37] and Rutgers University.^[38] In Florida, chapters were ordered to disband.^[39] In response, SJP chapters at the University of Florida and University of South Florida filed federal lawsuits.^[40] Pro-Palestinian students were also doxxed by Accuracy in Media at Harvard, Columbia, and Yale University, calling them “leading antisemites”.^[41]^[42]

Overview

Demands

Many of the protests involve student demands that their schools sever financial ties to Israel and companies involved in the conflict, as well as an end to U.S. military support for Israel,^[43]^[44] as part of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.^[45] Some protests have also demanded that the universities sever academic ties with Israel, support a ceasefire in Gaza, and disclose investments.^[46] Student demands have varied among the different occupations, including for universities to stop accepting research money from Israel that supports the military, and an end to college endowments investing with managers who profit from Israeli entities.^[45] Student protesters called on Columbia University to financially divest from any company with business ties to the Israeli government, including Microsoft, Google and Amazon.^[47] NYU Alumni for Palestine called on New York University to “terminate all vendor contracts with companies playing active roles in the military occupation in Palestine and ongoing genocide in Gaza, namely Cisco, Lockheed Martin, Caterpillar and General Electric“.^[48] Pro-Palestinian protesters demanded that the University of Washington cut ties with Boeing.^[49]

Protesters have identified a wide range of ideologies as motivating them such as antiracism, intersectionality, anti-colonialism, anti-imperialism, policing, the impact of climate change, and Indigenous rights.^[50] Protesters have criticized Joe Biden and his administration’s support for Israel.^[51]

After several mass arrests, the demands have also included amnesty for students and faculty who were disciplined or fired for protesting. The protests on many campuses are created by coalitions of student groups, and are largely independent, but some have claimed that they were inspired by other campus protests. All have disavowed violence.^[52]^[53]

Participants

Participants include students, faculty and non-campus individuals of various backgrounds,^[54] with both Jews and Muslims participating. The protests have hosted teach-ins, interfaith prayer, and musical performances.^[53] Some protests invited people to tour or speak, such as Palestinian photojournalist Motaz Azaiza, who was invited to and visited Columbia’s protest.^[55]^[56] Some who have participated have also raised concerns about treatment on campus of Palestinian students, with one anonymous student at the University of Pennsylvania claiming that the administration had created a hostile environment for Palestinian students while attempting to combat antisemitism and protect Jewish students.^[57]

Pro-Palestinian activists at Columbia have said that their movement is anti-Zionist^[58] and several protests on campuses have been organized by anti-Zionist groups.^[35] Protests have been criticized for antisemitism^[59] and U.S. Representative Kathy Manning described seeing signs calling for the destruction of Israel.^[60] Some protesters have asserted such claims are weaponization of antisemitism,^[61] and denied that protesters are antisemitic.^[58]

Concern has been raised over the presence of outside groups at protests.^[54] Far-right agitators and white nationalists have been spotted at some protests seeking to sow chaos and violence.^[62] Experts have raised concerns over far-right groups attempting to infiltrate protests to cause harm, and subsequent reactions from militant far-left activists aligned with the anti-fascist movement.^[63]

Analysis

The Guardian described the protests “perhaps the most significant student movement since the anti-Vietnam campus protests of the late 1960s“.^[64] Protests at Columbia University have been compared to the 1968 protests due to their scale and tactics,^[65] and as echoing the 1968 movement.^[66]^[67] According to The Independent, protesters studied the historical movement. A Columbia undergraduate said that student organizers learned from the experiences of older generations, calling the movement “completely built” on the legacy of the 1968 protests.^[68]

Far-right influencers and some Republicans have portrayed the protests as violent, a “Marxist takeover,” and “terrorism.”^[63] The New York Times noted that the protests have come during a presidential election year in which Democrats have “harnessed promises of stability and normalcy to win critical recent elections,” and that the protests come as a Republican messaging opportunity to divide Democrats.^[69]

Such protests have spread to different parts of the country. Florida is also affected, report below:

Florida

On April 24, a protest organized by the “UF Divestment Coalition” took place at the Plaza of the Americas at the University of Florida in Gainesville.^[140] Nine people were arrested at another protest on April 29.^[141]

A protest was held at the University of Central Florida on April 26.^[142]

A planned encampment on Landis Green at Florida State University lasted only a few minutes on April 25 before being disbanded by university police and the use of sprinklers by school administration.^[143] On April 30 police arrested five protesters at another encampment on the FSU campus.^[144]

Three people were arrested at a protest and encampment at the University of South Florida on April 29.^[145] The following day, 10 people were arrested following a physical altercation between police and protesters. Police officers used tear gas on protesters.^[146]

An encampment was set up at the University of North Florida on April 30.^[147]

For more details on April 2024 Israel-Hamas war protests on university campuses in the United States, please click HERE.