As the Gaza War Continues, Protests Erupt Across Campuses

A collection of photographs from encampments at college campuses throughout the country.

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On April 18, police arrested more than 100 students who had set up encampments at Columbia University in New York City to protest the war in Gaza and demand that the school divest from Israel and corporations that profit from the war. In the following days, the crackdown at Columbia would inspire thousands of students on nearly sixty other campuses across the country to create similar encampments. The news was soon flooded with images of students and supportive faculty being arrested, pepper sprayed, and beaten at institutions such as Emory University in Georgia, the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

As of this writing, many of the encampments have ended. While the assault on Gaza continues, the demonstrators have achieved tangible results—including successfully pressuring at least seven universities to take divestment seriously, as well as likely helping to push President Joe Biden to threaten to withdraw weapons shipments if Israel invades the densely populated city of Rafah. The refusal of young people to treat Palestinian lives as necessary casualties in a war funded by their government may well be remembered as a moral wake-up call.