Younger Americans generally more supportive of Palestinians.
Students at an increasing number of American colleges are assembling in protest encampments with a single demand for their schools stop doing business with Israel or any corporations that support its current conflict in Gaza.
The demand stems from the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, which has been campaigning against Israel’s policy against Palestinians for decades. The campaign has gained fresh traction as the Israel-Hamas conflict approaches the six-month mark and reports of misery in Gaza prompt worldwide calls for a cease-fire.
Inspired by continuous demonstrations and the arrests of over 100 students at Columbia University last week, students from Massachusetts to California are assembling by the hundreds on campuses, erecting tent camps and committing to remain until their demands are realized.
Campus protests began after Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 on southern Israel, when militants killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians and took roughly 250 hostages. During the ensuing war, Israel has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the local health ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between combatants and noncombatants but says at least two-thirds of the dead are children and women.