The Israel-Palestine conflict has reached new battlegrounds far beyond the land of Canaan. The new hot zones are familiar to many: America’s universities. Soldiers are replaced with students; their lethal weapons are substituted for fighting words. As our intellectual hotbeds draw more and more parallels with active war zones, it becomes important to understand the history of college activism, what the current protestors want, and the direction this growing movement will likely take.
The History of University Protests
While early protests, such as those held by Harvard students in 1766, were over spoiled butter, modern-day college protests have found themselves centered around societal problems and governmental actions. [1] Columbia University, the primary catalyst for the recent nationwide rallies regarding the Israel-Palestine conflict, has a long history of protests.
Strikers on the ledge of Mathematics Hall, one of five buildings at Columbia University that students took over in April 1968. (William E. Sauro/The New York Times)
In 1968, students took over five university buildings and held the dean hostage in response to America’s involvement in Vietnam. 1984 saw demonstrators bottlenecking the entrance to Hamilton Hall, calling upon university leaders to divest from South Africa and their system of apartheid. Climate Change was the hot topic of recent protests in 2019. [2] However, Columbia University is not alone. Students at UC Berkeley in the 1960s turned small sit-ins and demonstrations into large-scale rallies that enveloped the campus. Their demands – removing McCarthyist policies restricting their on-and-off-campus political activities – were ultimately reached. [4] But why are colleges uniquely key to motivating protests? College campuses have attracted unparalleled activism for a few reasons. First, students tend to be more idealistic and hold fewer responsibilities than their adult counterparts. Colleges also romanticize defying societal expectations. Furthermore, campuses pack like-minded students together, reinforcing these idealistic beliefs and cultivating sites for activism. [3] No matter the concern, you can always bet that college students will get their voices heard.
So why are students protesting right now?
Tensions are flaring following the October 7th attack by Hamas that led to 1,139 deaths in Israel, and Israel’s following retaliatory assaults that have killed more than 34,000 Palestinians. Much like their predecessors, the current protestors want their universities to financially divest from Israel. Divestment means to sell or remove all financial ties, in this case, with Israel. Protestors want their universities to divest because the endowment funds of large schools are massive. Valued at millions or even billions of dollars, university endowments utilize returns from their investments to fund everything fund everything from lab research to financial aid. [5]
Cred Joyce Ma/Visual Capitalist
Divestment has long been a goal of a movement that views financial investment in Israel as complicity with what it views as a hostile conflict. “The university should do something about what we’re asking for, about the genocide that’s happening in Gaza”, said Columbia University student and protest leader Mahmoud Khalil. “They should stop investing in this genocide.” [6]
Although protesters make divestment seem as easy as selling a few company shares, logistically, the actual mechanics of divestment make it a more difficult undertaking than it appears. First and foremost, it is unclear whether universities are directly invested in Israel in the first place. University endowments are rarely public knowledge, and third-party analysis of investment information, such as the one given by Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), has no guarantee of accuracy. Secondly, what even counts as an investment in Israel? Sure, directly held stock investments in Israel-owned companies are divestable assets, but what about mutual funds and ETFs? These funds intentionally expose holders to a variety of investments and are constantly adjusting their portfolios. Divesting from this indirect form of investment in Israel, as students at Brown University acknowledged in a separate proposal targeting their school’s alleged Israel-tied investments, “would be logistically challenging”. [7] Lastly, there are questions about the efficacy of divestment as a practice. Studying the impacts of the 1980s South Africa divestments, economists from the University of California system found almost no effect on share price. The researchers noted that “the boycott primarily reallocated shares and operations from ‘socially responsible’ [investors] to more indifferent investors and countries”. [8] While divestment may lead to perverse outcomes, that does not mean the practice or advocacy for such is useless. The mere protesting for divestment can raise awareness and stigmatize the support of targeted actors. [9]
Now, where will these protests go?
Well, these protests are unlikely to stop anytime soon. Even as student groups enter discussions with their schools’ leaders, many, like Columbia’s, remain steadfast in their cause, committing to protesting until administrators meet their demands of divestment. [10] But time is ticking. With graduation in less than a month, many university leaders are scrambling to clear up the tents and protestors that litter their green lawns. Many universities have turned to law enforcement to clear protests. Videos have emerged on social media of police takedowns at Emory University, showing officers using excessive force, including tear gas. [11] Police in full riot gear swarmed protesters at New York University, clearing the city campus streets in less than an hour. [12] In Boston, the Northeastern University police ran through an encampment after a shout of “Kill the Jews” was heard. All in all, at least 900 protesters have been arrested at pro-Palestine demonstrations in the past 10 days, marking the largest police response to campus activism in years. [13]
However, finding resolution will be difficult as the social and political complexities of these protests evolve. University leaders must balance order on their campuses with their students’ right to free speech. Administrators must acknowledge their demands while avoiding appearing as if they are appeasing anti-Israel demonstrators. Presidents must do all of this with lessons gained from former Harvard president Claudine Gay and former University of Pennsylvania president Liz Magill, whose careers unraveled late last year following accusations of antisemitism for their comments on how to deal with protesters. Perhaps all university leaders want to do, as Nicholas Dirks, former chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley says, is “get to the end of the year and have students finish their classes and graduate.” [13]
Sources:
[1] https://www.bestcolleges.com/blog/history-student-activism-in-college/
[2] https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/columbia-past-protests/
[5] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68908885
[7] https://drive.google.com/file/d/1J3VLPCRi7qvMkdcWqj-2HPwR9C1Oq1uL/view
[8] https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=10203
[13] https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/04/28/policing-college-protests-arrest/