Arson attack, student coalitions, lawsuits in North America & the UK: The Student Intifada July 29-August 4
An arson attack of student encampment in Munich, lawsuits in the UK, America and Canada, further protests in Japan, students marching in Indonesia, coalition building in Italy and Poland
Australia
On Thursday, August 1, students at the University of Sydney protested a draconian campus access policy that "welcomes" the repression of free speech on campus by requiring a 72-hour notice to set up stalls, put up posters, hand out leaflets, and protest. (link)
Bangladesh
The student movement continues in full swing across the country, now stepping up into a Total Non-Cooperation Movement. Multiple Palestinian flags have been seen at demonstrations across the country, as well as other demonstrations of inter-solidarity between the movements.
Canada
On July 15, Vancouver Island University filed a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation against their students, a common tool for corporate entities to censor free speech. VIU named four students as the defendants and held them responsible despite the presence of a larger group. (link) On August 8-9, the four students named in the suite will have their hearing and are raising funds for their legal fees.
After 78 days, the encampment at Dalhousie University (Al Zeitoun University) was closed down by police and campus security on July 30. This is following a notice of trespass which Dalhousie University served the encampment on July 27. The students had sought aid from Asaf Rashid, a barrister and solicitor in the province of Nova Scotia. (link, link)
Germany
On Friday, August 2 around midnight, a man used gasoline to set fire to part of the student camp in Munich while students were saying their evening prayers. Encampment members managed to contain and extinguish the fire but lost part of their camp, including signs, flags, and pallets. (link)
India
Kerala State Chalachitra Academy hosted a film festival with one of the themes being ‘An Ode to Resilience: Tales from Palestine.’ The festival was organized by students attending universities across Kerala and included various short films and documentaries highlighting Palestinian resilience and resistance from July 26-31. The event was inaugurated by Kerala State Minister M.B. Rajesh, who also stated his and the state of Kerwasala’s solidarity with Palestine. (link)
Indonesia
On Saturday, August 3, student organizers from Brawijaya University, Muhammadiyah Malang University, and the State University of Malang organized a rally at the town hall of Malang in honor of International Day of Solidarity for Gaza and Palestinian Prisoners.
Italy
The national meeting of the Italian Intifada Studentesca took place on July 26 at the Festival Alta Felicità in Val Susa, near Turin. This area is known for the decades-long No Tav movement against a high-speed train project. The meeting aimed to coordinate national efforts and develop strategies for continuing the protest inside and outside universities this fall. (link)
Japan
On Friday, July 26, Dean Fumitaka Mafune of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Tokyo issued a statement responding to the demands of the Tokyo University Palestine Solidarity Camp. The Dean claimed that the student encampment demands — including a written statement from the university calling for a ceasefire and recognizing Israeli military actions as genocide and ethnic cleansing under international law — were being handled at the university level. The university administration reiterated that the student encampment was not permitted and urged students to vacate. (link)
On Saturday, July 27, the People’s University of Tokyo held a seminar entitled “Tokyo University and Democracy”. The demonstration was prompted by the university’s refusal to engage in dialogue with the students who have been encamped for over three months, instead calling thirty police officers to a peaceful demonstration. The students congregated outside Yasuda Auditorium, a building of immense significance for the student movement, to protest against the University of Tokyo’s silence and complicity. (link)
Lebanon
Students from American University Beirut and Beirut Arab University organized a demonstration of solidarity at Martyrs’ Square in Beirut on Saturday, August 3, follow the Israeli strikes upon a southern suburb of Beirut and in the deaths of several children this week. This also marked a commemoration of the International Day of Solidarity for Gaza and Palestinian Prisoners. (link)
New Zealand
On Tuesday, July 30, students from the University of Otago led a march across campus while Otago Students for Justice in Palestine (OSJP) representatives met with the administration inside. The representatives put forward a demand to cut all ties with Israel, endorse the BDS movement, and condemn the violent removal of student protestors by police from campuses. (link)
Poland
On July 27-28, students from multiple Polish cities met at the Delegates' Congress in the encamped building of the University of Wroclaw. They talked about organizing, marched, and spent time together with the Palestinian diaspora. (link) On Monday, July 29, negotiations with the Conference of Rectors of Academic Schools in Poland (KRUP) were meant to start, but the representation of KRUP did not show up. Students announced further engagement. (link)
Portugal
The University of Coimbra signed a public declaration on Friday, July 26, calling for "an immediate ceasefire in Gaza." This came as a result of a month-long encampment, 162 signatures by academics and staff, and a long silence from the institution where the rector mocked protests while refusing to meet students. The declaration also expresses solidarity with the victims of the conflict, condemns the Israeli military offensive, and denounces the violation of human rights. (link)
This comes after a similar declaration by the University of Minho, and both statements express solidarity with both Palestinian and Israeli academics and universities and do not address demands for divestment and defunding Israel.
Students at Porto Polytechnic Institute launched an open letter (link) denouncing Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto's connections to companies in the weapons manufacturing industry. (link)
On Thursday, July 25, students in Braga protested a UEFA game against an Israeli football team. Banners in support of Palestine were dropped by activists around the city. The protests at the stadium resulted in police repression. (link)
Sweden
July 27-28 marked the last two days of Swedish Week of Rage, organized in Stockholm by groups from all around the country. An academic blocked was organized demonstration on Saturday, an academic bloc was formed. (link) Swedish students are still raising funds for upcoming trials after police brutally evicted their encampment at Lund University. (link)
United Kingdom
After SOAS served their student encampment accelerated proceedings for eviction on Wednesday, July 31, organizers have decided to settle with the university out of court. (link) Following notice of the eviction hearing, 7 SOAS students were suspended and threatened with expulsion without a notice of when the suspensions would end. (link)
On Friday, July 29, the student encampment at the University of York announced that they considered four out of their five demands had been met by the administration and were decamping. In a statement, they said there was more to do to hold their university administration accountable but that there was not a need for the encampment to continue that work. (link)
USA
On Tuesday, July 30, students and community members disrupted the University of Michigan orientation to show new students and their families the university’s refusal to divest from genocide. (link)
In Michigan, a group of autonomous activists dyed a fountain at Wayne State University, stating the water was “stained red with the blood of Gaza’s children, makes their suffering impossible to ignore.” (link)
Following the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill’s Triangle Gaza Solidarity Encampment in May, UNC-Chapel Hill Police have pressed charges against nearly 40 of the student protestors. In recent weeks, the UNC-Chapel Hill SJP chapter has been organizing numerous defendant-led press conferences concerning these charges. The SJP chapter, previously banned by the university, released a statement last week decrying the prosecution as an effort to censor the Palestinian liberation protestors, noting that they “... demand nothing less (but rather much, much more) than for all [their] charges to be dropped unconditionally.” (link)
Last week, the third-party law firm hired for an “independent review” of the response to pro-Gaza campus protests by Indiana University was criticized when it came to light that the firm had various ties to Israel and was heavily involved in legal assistance to Israeli startups. Previously, the firm has signed a letter decrying the actions of Palestinian liberation protestors as antisemitic, one part of Indiana University’s actions against pro-Palestine students. (link)