Lawsuits and Sit-Ins: Updates from the Student Intifada, August 2024
As students prepare to return to campus for the next semester, the fight for Palestine continues.
Callout: Anti-protest architecture
As the next semester approaches, students across the world will once again swing into action and escalate on their campuses in support of the Palestinian cause. Universities have been preparing for this too. We are calling on students to scout their campuses and original encampment spots to look for infrastructural or architectural changes that might have been installed by the university to deter camps.
This can look like: new fences, declaring open grounds off-limits, locks on ground floor windows, new surveillance cameras or check-points. Please reach out to us with your findings so that we can (with your consent) share the information for the benefit of the international student intifada.
Australia
On Saturday 17th, Australia National University ended their encampment.The ANU Encampment was the longest standing encampment in the country, having stood for 110 days.
Students at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology voted in favor of University divestment from weapons manufacturers and companies affiliated with the Israeli government and in favor of a free Palestine in mid-August. Their administration has failed to respond, and students at RMIT published an open letter on Thursday 22nd, calling for Vice Chancellor Alec Cameron to act upon their demands and respect the democratic voices of students.
Singapore
On Friday 13th, a coalition of students at Singaporean universities for the academic boycott of Israel put out a statement on their position of solidarity with Palestine, calling for the BDS list to be applied by their universities. They held a series of solidarity demonstrations at the graduation ceremonies of National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University, and Singapore Management University. The students donned bracelets with the colors of the Palestinian flag, and collectively spelt out the phrase “No More Universities In Gaza” on their forearms.
“We join the broader Singaporean society in calling for a society that can be truly just and free from violence, which is intrinsic to any act of colonization or occupation. As alumni, we expect our academic institutions, including NUS, NTU, and SMU, to take a stand against these injustices, and divest from the settler colonial project named Israel.”
Japan
On Sunday 25th, students from the University of Tokyo, the University of Tohoku and the National Student Action Network’s Tokyo block participated in the “Stop the Genocide! Solidarity with Palestine” demonstration outside Sendai Station. The demonstration, which was organized by the Protest in Sendai action group, marked the group’s 20th protest in the last ten months and over one hundred people participated. Students then participated in sit-ins in the subsequent days.
On Wednesday 28th, students of the University of Tokyo marked four months since the start of their encampment. Despite having to temporarily dismantle one tent due to typhoons, the students released a statement declaring their commitment to maintaining their encampment until the University of Tokyo ends their complicity in genocide.
Czech Republic
On Monday 26th, Academics Against Apartheid, a Prague-based pro-Palestine student and staff collective launched a petition that calls for the partnership between Charles University (CUNI) and Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI) to be severed. HUJI was founded in the Jewish settlements before the establishment of Israel to prepare the conditions for the settler state, and continues to provide technological, material and human resource support to the IOF. HUJI and CUNI have an inter-university agreement that expires on 16th of September 2024, and the petition demands that the agreement not be renewed:
“Charles University claims to be an apolitical institution that cherishes the values of freedom, justice and equality. This is false.”
UK
On Tuesday 20th, students at University College London published an open letter to the Provost, Vice Provost, and Registrar of UCL, drawing attention to the fact that by evicting students from the main quad and forcing them to end their encampment, the University acted in violation of international law and the Human Rights Act of 1998. The letter also highlighted incidents of racism and anti-Palestinian discrimination from University administration and repeated students' desire to have UCL divest from supporting illegal occupation of Palestinian land.
On Wednesday 21st, students at the University of Oxford revealed police have dropped their case against 17 activists arrested on May 23rd during a peaceful sit-in at the offices of the Vice Chancellor. Students involved stated:
“We feel vindicated by the police’s decision and relieved that we will not need to divert our previous resources to a legal battle [...] But it should never have come to this. We condemn Oxford University and the Vice-Chancellor’s choice to call the police and unleash the full force of state violence onto its own students, alumni, workers, and local community.”
United States
Rutgers-New Brunswick has recently implemented an array of changes with regards to students freedom of expression pertaining to the 2024-2025 school year, including demanding that student protests be authorized by Student Centers and Activities (being deemed illegitimate if not), updating their policy regarding chalk on campus, and installing fences at Brower Commons.
On Monday 19th, students at Barnard College protested the school's disciplinary policies surrounding pro-Palestine protestors on the day in which many students were moving onto campus after Barnard had refused to grant due process to their students. In response, Barnard campus police and NYPD arrested several students at the college’s gates.
On Thursday 22nd, New York University administration released their new code of conduct. Students at NYU criticized the policy for its “conflationary logic”. Namely, it conflates anti-Zionist speech with speech that is potentially anti-semitic and a violation of civil rights, thus putting student protestors under more constraints and limiting freedom of speech on campus.
Administration at the University of Michigan has proceeded with retaliatory actions against student and faculty protesting against the genocide in Gaza, pursuing felony charges against four protestors and threatening the employment of eleven protestors. Seven activists involved with a protest in November 2023 have been told they are “indefinitely ineligible for rehire”.
Chile
On Wednesday 21st, students at Pontifical Catholic University of Chile published a letter criticizing media treatment of Palestinian Chileans, particularly ones implicating that they are linked to a rise in political radicalism, as dangerous and discriminatory.
Sweden
Trials continued on the 21st, 28th, and 30th of August against students involved at the Palestinagård at Lund University.
On Tuesday 3rd September, students at Stockholm University set up a “mini-encampment” on the first day of classes. The encampment was removed by police within 24 hours. Organizers stated:
“The demands remain the same as before, that SU enact an academic boycott of Israeli universities […] Camping for us, however, was a means rather than an end. We chose it because the senior management at SU refuses to engage in an open and honest discussion with us. When the halls of power are inaccessible to the public, what other means do we have but to protest outside of them?”
Poland
On Monday 1st September, students and protesters held a silent march in Warsaw, through the town and arriving at the gates of the University of Warsaw. The march commemorated the victims of the Israeli genocide, and those involved wore veils and carried coffins wrapped in keffiyehs.