Student activists prepare for more pro-Palestinian protests
- Columbia student negotiator says they are considering 'range of actions'
- Activists also expressed grievances after school sent delegation to Israel
- Some campuses say they won't take a position on international affairs
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(NewsNation) — Pro-Palestinian student activists are preparing for what they call “Round 2” of campus protests for the upcoming school year.
Student organizers at Columbia University tell NewsNation they have been working on plans all summer to make their voices heard in an effort to convince the university to divest from Israel as students and faculty return to campus next month.
Activists say they are still deciding what forms of protest they will deploy when school resumes Sept. 3.
Mahmoud Khalil, a student negotiator with the Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), told “The Hill” they were “considering a wide range of actions throughout the semester, encampments and protests, all of that.”
The CUAD also expressed grievances with the school after it sent a delegation to Israel, saying the group posed for and published a photo from the trip but never “mentioned the mass slaughter Israel is currently perpetrating against Palestinians.”
A Columbia representative says current conversations are focusing on the current climate of antisemitism on campus and hope for the future.
As the school braces for what could be significant disruptions from student protesters, university president Minouche Shafik put out a statement saying her team is “working hard on fostering community” while also clarifying how protests can be conducted. Shafik also says the university is rolling out what they call community building through programs called “Dialogue Across Differences” and “Campus Conversations.”
Meanwhile, some campuses say they will no longer take a position on international affairs and politics. Some colleges, including Brown University and Northwestern, did agree to some of the demonstrators’ demands after protests erupted nationwide in the last academic year.
Last spring, pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia sparked demonstrations on campuses across the U.S. Though much of the chaos came to a close when the academic year ended, over 2,000 arrests were made in New York.
However, prosecutors dropped most of the criminal charges, citing a lack of evidence that tied them to specific trespassing charges.
