Protests against war in Gaza: the escalation of the crisis at US universities

“I brought my children to inspire them,” says Shaan Sethi as he lifts the children, aged 7 and 9, so they can see what lies beyond the security blockade.

We are at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), one of the most prestigious higher education institutions in the United States.

On the other side of the double fence, guarded by agents and “decorated” with banners that say “Free Palestine” or “Stop the Genocide”, around two hundred students have been camping since Thursday (25/4) to demand that the institution dissociate itself of companies and individuals who “are benefiting” from the Israeli military operation in Gaza.

According to the United Nations, there are around 2 million civilians on the brink of starvation.

“This has always been an open area where students lounged on the grass or gathered between classes,” says Sethi, who graduated with a degree in International Economics from this same campus years ago.

He says he had never seen this area fenced off and surrounded by security guards.

“So, I wanted to show it to my children, because it’s something new but also so they understand how polarized the country is these days,” he adds.

Protests at American universities due to the war in Gaza are not a new thing.

They have occurred, with greater or lesser intensity, since the Hamas attack and the beginning of the Israeli offensive in Palestinian territory.

Closely followed by Democratic and Republican parliamentarians on Capitol Hill, they made several people responsible for the main university centers in the United States appear before Congress.

In January, the controversies arising from this conflict ended up costing the then dean of Harvard, Claudine Gay, her position.

But the mobilizations took on another dimension in the last two weeks, after police invaded Columbia University, in New York, and arrested a hundred pro-Palestinian students who were camping on the campus.

The students continue with the protests in Columbia, running the risk of being suspended for not having met the deadline for removing the camp established by the university authorities — at 2 pm local time on Monday (1 pm Brasília time).

And not only did the demonstrations not stop at Columbia, they spread to universities across the country, from Yale to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), including Emory, Emerson, Tufts, Brown, Stanford and the University of Texas at Austin .

The West Coast is no exception. The University of Southern California (USC), located in Los Angeles and one of the most important private educational centers in the state, announced on Thursday that it would cancel its graduation ceremony “given the security risks posed by the protests.”

Further northwest, on the UCLA campus, the day of greatest tension occurred on Sunday, when pro-Palestinian protesters clashed with a counter-protest organized by the American-Israeli Council.

The organization, founded with the mission of “building a committed and united Israeli-American community that strengthens the next generation’s Israeli and Jewish identity and bond with the State of Israel” proclaims on its social media that it is “unacceptable for any university campus becomes a platform for pro-terrorist and anti-American activities.”

Fences were torn down, there were verbal confrontations, insults, some skirmishes, a woman with minor head injuries.

Campus police arrived around 2:30 p.m. and the dozens of people gathered were asked to disperse.

“UCLA has a long history as a site of peaceful protest,” said Mary Osako, vice president for Strategic Communications, in a statement released by the university’s press office. “We are appalled by the violence that has erupted.”

This Monday, all that remained was reinforced security, a tense calm and the huge screen and speakers that the organizers of the counter-protest had placed the day before at Dickson Plaza, on a patch of grass a few meters from the fenced-in student camp.

Adorned with banners demanding the release of hostages and highlighting support for Israel, the audiovisual apparatus continued to repeatedly broadcast images of the October 7 attack, interviews with survivors and messages of support from figures in the Jewish community.

“We want to educate students and everyone who passes by, show them what Hamas does and what this campus supports when they shout ‘Intifada, intifada, revolution’ or ‘From the river to the sea'”, a motto that refers to the geographic area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, says one of the organizers of the counterprotest, who claims to have no ties to the university and asks to remain anonymous.

“I’m disgusted, disgusted. It’s incredible that those who call themselves activists for human rights sing and make proclamations of death and destruction,” adds Alex Jacobs, who identifies himself as a student at UCLA, but prefers not to say which faculty.

He wears sunglasses, a cap and a mask to avoid being recognized, while pointing at the campers.

“I understand the need to speak out, to express opinions, but as a Jewish and pro-Israel student I no longer feel welcome at this university where I always dreamed of studying,” says Andrew Gerbs, a Sociology student at UCLA, who arrived early to observe the situation and who, unlike others, is open to speaking to the media and allowing himself to be photographed.

“I think I can speak for other Jewish students. This creates anxiety in us, distracts us from our studies, because after all this is a study center”, he emphasizes, although he recognizes that classes continue to be taught normally on campus, something that BBC News Mundo , the BBC’s Spanish-language news service, was also able to verify.

“Come, come and find out the truth!”, shouts a woman to several students passing in front of the square.

But it’s already noon and the students ignore her and run to another part of the campus.

It turns out that for this time, 12 o’clock, two simultaneous marches were planned, called by the Faculty of Justice in Palestine, which brings together professors and other university employees, and by the UCLA Students for Justice in Palestine.

“We are with our students”, says the banner carried by teachers sympathetic to the camp.

Slogans in favor of the liberation of Palestine are heard. Other chants directly quote the Israeli prime minister: “Tell us, Netanyahu, how many children did you kill today?”

There are dozens of people and some wear their academic badges as they march along Plaza Portola street.

“The university is a place of ideas, of debate, and we defend students’ right to express them, their right to mobilize,” says Ananya Roy, founding director of the Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy at UCLA and professor of Urban Planning, Social Welfare and Geography.

“Students are now protesting for Gaza as those who protested for Vietnam did,” he adds.

She recognizes the differences, but draws a parallel with the student protests that, in the late 1960s, ended up taking over the national political scene and are remembered more and more among those who comment on the current situation on campuses.

“Where are we going to protest if not here? This is the ideal place to do it,” says a student who prefers not to reveal his name but who serves as press liaison for a student coalition.

“What we ask is that the University of California stops investing funds in those who profit from the genocide in Gaza. And we will protest until we succeed”, he emphasizes next to the Powell library.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the camp area, through the corridors of Royce Hall, hundreds of students march with the same demand, some with keffias (Arabic scarves) tied around their necks or covering their heads, others with pro-Palestine t-shirts, many with masks.

“Anti-Zionism is not the same as anti-Semitism,” says one of the banners they raise.

“The land you kill for does not belong to you,” they wrote on another piece of cardboard.

“The power of the people is stronger than that of the people in power,” says another poster.

“Invest in education, not in war”, calls out another.

It doesn’t take long for them to realize that there are also journalists among the students.

“Don’t talk to the press,” says one of the students coordinating the protest. “Don’t let photos be taken.”

I let them advance under the arches of the corridor where the multicolored camping tents can be seen, I retrace my steps and head to the other side of the security perimeter.

There, I remember the first conversation of the morning, with Sethi, the father who was trying to make his children understand the divided world in which we live.

“I tell them they’re like two teams,” he told me.

“But then they ask me: ‘And which one are we in?'”

To which Sethi replied: “We are among those who support peace.”