NEW YORK – Pro-Palestinian protests demanding a ceasefire in Gaza and divestment from companies linked to Israel have spread across US universities in the two weeks since Columbia University administrators called in the police to dismantle an encampment on their New York City campus.
Below is a timeline of significant events in the biggest wave of US student activism since the anti-racism protests of 2020.
April 17 - Columbia University students set up a Gaza solidarity encampment on their Manhattan campus the same day the university’s president tells the US Congress she will protect Jewish students from a “moral crisis” of antisemitism.
April 18 - More than 100 pro-Palestinian protesters are arrested at Columbia after university president Minouche Shafik asks the New York police to clear the encampment.
April 22 - The police arrest hundreds of people at pro-Palestinian protests at Yale University in Connecticut and New York University in Manhattan after Columbia University cancelled classes in response to its encampment.
April 24 - Riot police are deployed against pro-Palestinian protesters at University of Texas, Austin, with 57 arrests for criminal trespass. The level of force, until then unprecedented, is later seen at other campuses. All charges were later dropped for lack of probable cause.
April 25 - In comments at Columbia University, US House Speaker Mike Johnson portrays the campus as out of control and suggests US military reserve forces should be brought in to restore order.
April 27 - Arrest numbers swell over 1,000 on campuses as administrators call in the police to break up encampments at universities from Massachusetts to Arizona.
April 28 - Pro-Palestinian protesters tussle with pro-Israeli demonstrators at UCLA after an Israeli American advocacy group holds a counter demonstration near an encampment of pro-Palestinian protesters.
April 29 - Clashes between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli protests erupt at UCLA after a Jewish student activist records himself being blocked from areas of campus by pro-Palestinian protesters, and UCLA authorities declare the protest encampment unlawful. Columbia begins suspending pro-Palestinian student activists at encampment.
April 30 - Brown University students agree to remove camp in return for a vote by university trustees on divestment from firms supporting Israel, marking the first such deal for the protest movement. Pro-Israeli protesters attack UCLA Gaza solidarity camp, four UCLA student journalists are among those injured. The police arrest dozens of people at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt as they clear buildings occupied by pro-Palestinian protesters
May 1 - The New York City police arrest dozens of pro-Palestinian demonstrators occupying an academic building on Columbia University campus and remove protest encampment.
May 2 - The police clear pro-Palestinian encampment at UCLA. REUTERS
