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WILL THEY CRUSH THE BIGGEST STUDENT MOVEMENT SINCE VIETNAM?  
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Jewish Voice for Peace
May 1, 2024
Jewish Voice for Peace
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_ In a matter of days, dozens of Gaza solidarity encampments have
sprung up on over a hundred university campuses across the U.S. It’s
the biggest student movement since the anti-war protests that swept
U.S. universities in the 1960s. _

Peaceful mass protest at UCLA last night, May 1 around 8:00pm, hours
before the massive police assault by the LAPD.,

 

In a matter of days, dozens of Gaza solidarity encampments have sprung
up on over a hundred university campuses across the U.S. It’s the
biggest student movement since the anti-war protests that swept U.S.
universities in the 1960s.

As encampments are erected across the country, students have
peacefully called for divestment from Israel’s oppression of
Palestinians. In response, many school administrations are inviting
police onto campuses to violently crack down on students.  

For over six months, tens of thousands of Jews and countless other
people of conscience have fought to end the genocide Israel is
committing against Palestinians in Gaza. We continue to demand that
the Biden administration end its support for the Israeli military. 

THE BIGGEST STUDENT ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT SINCE VIETNAM

As the movement for a ceasefire grows, students across the country
have organized in the thousands to demand that their universities cut
ties with Israel’s apartheid regime. Over 100 Gaza solidarity
encampments have been established on campuses across the country,
reclaiming the space as  “liberated zones” and “popular
universities for Gaza.” Student chapters of Jewish Voice for Peace
have been involved in organizing at least 47 of these encampments. 

At the UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO, students established the “Popular
University for Gaza”
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main quad of the University of Chicago campus. Painted boards bearing
the messages “Disclose, divest, and repair” and “In solidarity
with Gaza forever” have been erected around the encampment. At
the UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA, after their pro-Palestine encampment
was cleared and nine were arrested last week, hundreds of student
protesters set up a new encampment 
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Monday, linking arms
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it after fresh arrests were threatened. 

And so on, _at over one hundred campuses across the country. _

In response to these peaceful student anti-war protests _against
genocide_, many school administrations have invited police onto campus
for violent crackdowns.

VIOLENT REPRESSION AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY AND CITY COLLEGE

At Columbia University, negotiations broke down and the university
began issuing fresh suspensions on Monday. In response, hundreds of
Columbia students and professors occupied Hamilton Hall, one of the
buildings occupied by anti-war student protesters in 1968. Faculty
linked arms with students to protect protesters inside. 

Students renamed
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occupied building “Hind’s Hall,” after 6-year-old Hind Rajab,
who was murdered alongside her family by the Israeli military in Gaza.
For hours, Hind was left to bleed out as Israeli forces fired on
ambulances trying to reach her. 

On Tuesday evening, the Columbia administration again called the cops
on their own students. As student journalists were confined to
Pulitzer Hall, and told they would be arrested if they left, hundreds
of NYPD police clad in riot gear swarmed Columbia’s campus to
forcefully disperse the encampment and remove the students occupying
Hind’s Hall. Cops deployed an armored vehicle to gain entry to
Hind’s Hall and brutalized the dozens of student protestors who were
doing nothing but peacefully occupying a building on their own
campus. 

One video shows a protester being thrown down the stairs; another
shows cops entering Hind’s Hall with their guns drawn
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confront the unarmed student protesters inside. Just a few miles away,
dozens of cops were deployed in a simultaneous raid to crack down on
protesters at CCNY, where police also used excessive force against
peaceful students, arresting dozens. Across the city, hundreds of
protestors were arrested.

On air, a student reporter for Columbia’s radio station fought back
tears at the news that Columbia President Minouche Shafik has
requested the NYPD remain on campus for the remainder of the school
year.

VIOLENT REPRESSION AT UCLA

At UCLA, tens of thousands of dollars were crowdfunded
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bus Zionist agitators to campus, where they surrounded student
protesters. In one video, a woman waving an Israeli flag is seen
shouting at students: “Go to Palestine. I hope they rape you.” 

On Tuesday evening, masked Zionist vigilantes from outside campus
attempted to tear down the students’ encampment. They beat students
with bats, threw bricks, sprayed mace, and shot fireworks at
protestors, all while police stood by and watched. Later last night,
UCLA student journalists who were walking on campus were followed and
assaulted by Zionist counter-protestors.

VIOLENT REPRESSION ACROSS THE COUNTRY

As dozens of encampments are erected across the country, students
peacefully calling for divestment from Israel’s oppression of
Palestinians are facing an increasingly violent crackdown by the
state. 

Police clad in riot gear have been called in to clear encampments by
force, and over 1,000 students have been arrested in total. Videos
taken of police raids have shown students and professors being thrown
to the ground and handcuffed, shoved, beaten
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dragged by militarized police. 

Across the country, cops are using pepper spray, rubber bullets
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and tear gas
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students, many of whom are still teenagers, at the behest of the
university administrators who claim to care for their safety. At
Arizona State University, videos showed cops removing the hijabs of
female Muslim protesters
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Tulane, mounted police
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through the student encampment. 

Pro-Israel agitators are also doing everything in their power to smear
protesters and get encampments shut down by force. When a man waving
an Israeli flag showed up to Northeastern University’s Gaza
solidarity encampment and shouted “kill the Jews,” the university
had 100 pro-Palestine student protesters arrested
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response. The Northeastern administration justified the crackdown in a
statement citing this antisemitic threat — neglecting to specify
that it was a pro-Israel provocateur making that threat. 

It’s clear that the only violence happening on U.S. campuses is
being perpetrated by the state and Zionist agitators. Yet the U.S.
media and pro-genocide politicians have gone to great lengths to
portray peaceful, student anti-war demonstrations as violent,
antisemitic mobs, in order to justify the increasingly brutal
crackdown on the right to protest.

WE CAN WIN — WHEN WE ORGANIZE. 

Attempts to smear the biggest student anti-war movement since Vietnam
won’t distract us from the urgent work at hand: ending the genocide
in Gaza. Palestinians are digging with their hands to unearth the
bodies of their loved ones wrapped in plastic and dumped in mass
graves outside Nasser and Al-Shifa hospital, some of them with their
hands bound, others still connected to cannulas.In the words of
Palestinian writer Mohammed El Kurd, “We are dying. Focus.” 

Our movements continue to be inspired by these courageous students’
steadfastness in the face of state violence and relentless attacks on
their character.

Because when we organize, we see results. On Monday, after five
consecutive days of demonstrations, students at Northwestern won
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series of concessions from their university, including increased
transparency around the school’s investments. Back in New
York, over 90 percent
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Barnard students voted to divest from Israeli apartheid, and in Rhode
Island, students successfully pressured Brown University
administrators to hold a vote on divestment
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Our solidarity is stronger than those who seek to divide us and pit us
against each other. But our work is only just beginning. Nearly seven
months into the Israeli government’s genocide, we are still fighting
for a permanent ceasefire. As students across the country stand their
ground and escalate their tactics under mounting state violence,
it’s critical that our movements keep the momentum we’ve built
going, too. 

STAND WITH STUDENTS PROTESTING GENOCIDE.

Students are being subjected to an increasingly violent crackdown for
peacefully protesting. Here’s three ways you can support them:

* FOLLOW THE LEADING STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS ON SOCIAL MEDIA and
amplify their alerts and requests widely.
 
* BE READY TO SHOW UP IN-PERSON WHEN STUDENTS NEED COMMUNITY
REINFORCEMENTS, and be prepared to bring requested supplies.
 
* LOOK OUT FOR REQUESTS FOR FINANCIAL SUPPORT from protestors
facing state and institutional repression.

GET THE WIRE
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Jewish Voice for Peace [[link removed]]
P.O. Box 589
Berkeley, CA 94701
(510) 465-1777

Media requests:
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(929) 290-0317
 

* Student protests
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* Gaza protests
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* campus activism
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* Palestine solidarity
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* Israel-Gaza War
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* Divestment
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* Genocide
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* student movement
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* Columbia University
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* UCLA
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* police repression
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* Police assaults
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* university failure
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* apartheid
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* Anti-apartheid
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* Israel
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* Gaza
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* Palestine
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* JVP
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* Jewish Voice for Peace
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* zionism
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* Anti-Zionism
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* anti-Semitism
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