Los Angeles, CA – On April 24, thousands of student activists and community members occupied Alumni Park in the middle of the University of Southern California (USC) to protest the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Student activists demanded that the university divest from corporations that sell weapons and technology to Israel, a complete academic boycott of Israel, and an end to its silence on the genocide of Palestine.

Something big is happening. From Columbia University to UCLA and points in between, the student movement that stands with Palestine has been erecting encampments on campuses. The results have been powerful. The demand for universities and colleges to divest from, and break all ties with, Israeli apartheid serves to weaken the apartheid regime.

Denver, CO – On Saturday, April 27, the Auraria Campus Encampment for Palestine entered its third day. Despite freezing temperatures and downpouring rain, dozens of protesters have remained through the second night at the encampment.

The previous day the encampment faced attacks from the Denver Police Department. After arresting over 70 protesters, DPD retreated from the encampment before returning a few hours later. Dozens of riot police surrounded the encampment and issued an order to disperse. The crowd linked arms and did not move.

St. Paul, MN – Starting April 26, Hamline University students are began occupying a building in support of Palestine. Members of the Hamline Students for Justice (HSJ) organized the Friday afternoon rally along with a group of 30 other students. They gathered outside of the Old Main building which houses the university’s administration offices. The fiery crowd started the rally chanting, “Free free Palestine!” and “Not another nickel, not another dime, no more money for Israel’s crimes.”

Denver, CO – On Friday, April 26, the Denver Police Department (DPD) attacked an encampment for Palestine set up by Students for a Democratic Society.

Tacoma WA – On Tuesday, April 23, over 150 students and faculty members from Tacoma School of the Arts, University of Washington Tacoma, and University of Puget Sound walked out of classes at 10:30 a.m. They rallied at Tollefson Plaza to demonstrate student solidarity with Palestine and demand that the United States of America divest from Israel.

Tallahassee, FL – On the early morning of April 25, about 20 students at Florida State University (FSU) started an encampment for Palestine on Landis Green in solidarity with student encampments across the country. Students at schools across the country, such as Columbia, Yale and the University of Minnesota have set up encampments to demand their universities divest and cut all ties to Israel.

Atlanta, GA – On April 25 students at Emory University hosted an encampment at their quad. The encampment followed the recent wave of encampments across the country demanding a free Palestine and university divestment from Israel. Hours after the encampment started, Atlanta Police Department and Georgia State Patrol began brutalizing protesters, shooting pepper balls and arresting them.

In a radical act of solidarity with the Palestinian people, university students across the country have escalated the struggles on their campuses with the campus encampment movement. At Emory University in Atlanta, students, faculty and community members created one such encampment demanding for the immediate and total divestment from the Israeli apartheid state. The Atlanta Police Department and Georgia State Patrol were called to the encampment by the Emory administration where they brutalized, beat and arrested dozens of protesters.

Arcata, CA – On Monday, April 22, around 4 p.m., roughly 30 students began a sit-in in Siemens Hall at Cal Poly Humboldt, California, to show solidarity with Palestine and with other campuses that are doing the same. While many students on other campuses are setting up encampments, theirs is the first in the movement to take over a building so far, and an admin building, no less. This also made them the first state university to join the movement.