Students gearing up for round 2 of pro-Palestinian protests: ‘We’ve been working all this summer’

The pro-Palestinian activists who disrupted campuses across the nation are plotting their return for the new academic year. 

Demonstrators say all forms of protest are still on the table, despite the more than 2,000 arrests so far, as students try to figure out a new strategy to demand their schools divest from Israel, among other goals. 

“What we will see [is] the students will continue their activism, will continue doing what they’ve done in conventional and unconventional ways. So not only protests, not only encampments, kind of any — any available means necessary to push Columbia to divest from from Israel,” said Mahmoud Khalil, student negotiator on behalf of Columbia University Apartheid Divest.

“And we’ve been working all this summer on our plans, on what’s next to pressure Columbia to listen to the students and to decide to be on the right side of history,” Khalil added.

Students will be heading back into the classroom this month after a chaotic ending to the last academic year. 

Dozens of schools across the country saw protests against the war in Gaza, including interruptions to multiple graduation ceremonies, and scores of students were suspended for their actions.  

Since then, the war in Gaza has only escalated with thousands killed and no clear end in sight. 

“There’s definitely conversations happening regarding how they can continue to advocate, to raise awareness about Palestinian human rights and genocide that’s happening in Gaza,” said Zainab Chaudry, director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations office in Maryland. 

“And I think that there’s some students who already started planning over the summer. There have been some meetings that have been organized by some student leaders at different campuses to strategize ahead of the upcoming 2024-2025 academic year.” 

“Just to strategize what are the boundaries and what are students’ options in terms of being able to continue to keep the pressure on administrations to divest,” Chaudry added.  

Students have demanded their schools to divest from companies associated with Israel and release statements against the country’s actions in Gaza amid its war with Hamas, among other policy changes.  

But over the summer, multiple schools, including Harvard University, have said they are no longer taking official positions on political issues, making such statements unlikely. And some schools have strengthened rules against campus encampments.

“I think the challenge for students is going to be how to raise awareness about different policies, different challenges for students, how to continue to advocate and raise awareness about different issues in light of these policies, and how much are they willing to push those policies to continue to advocate about the plight of Palestinians and the need to end the ongoing genocide,” Chaudry said.  

Some student activists are still dealing with the penalties they face from their actions last school year.  

“We have several students who are still suspended and some of them waiting for a hearing from the university. The university is not taking actions in any of these cases, really, so we have tens of students in limbo,” Khalil said. “They don’t know if they will be able to attend school next semester. They’re not sure if they can benefit from university housing, register for classes, any of that, and it has been, for some of them, it has been four months already.” 

But he added that the fear of more repercussions isn’t stopping students from bigger plans to keep the Palestinian cause top of mind on their campuses.  

“We’re considering a wide range of actions, throughout the semester, encampments and protests and all of that,” he said.  

“But for us, encampment is now our new base, as in the past, it used to be protests. Students would do protests every day, but now, kind of, encampments is the new base for us. And I think the university should think really, really, really hard about about meeting our demands,” Khalil said, adding that along with encampments the students “have a big program of political education where we teach and reach out to students to raise awareness about what’s happening in Palestine.” 

Columbia President Minouche Shafik released a statement to the community on July 24, saying she is aware there will be “an intense spotlight” on the institution. She highlighted the work the campus did over the summer, which included plans for more faculty, staff and student engagement.

“To address issues raised by the student protests this past year, including breakdowns in constructive dialogue and good faith engagement, we have asked two faculty from the Negotiation and Conflict Resolution Program at the School of Professional Studies to facilitate a process with affected students to hear their views and work toward mediated outcomes. To date, the two faculty members have held meetings with students, University leadership, faculty, and other stakeholders from across our community, to understand the many perspectives that are relevant to the conflicts dividing our campus,” she said.

Shafik also mentioned the University Senate’s Committee on the Rules of University Conduct is still reviewing the guidelines around campus protest.

Some pro-Palestinian activists did make gains last school year. Colleges including Brown University and Northwestern agreed to some of their demonstrators’ demands and said they would have a vote this fall on whether to divest from Israel. 

The results of how these schools follow through on their promises will likely be a big influence for the protests. 

“I think that students may look to those victories to continue to provide them with encouragement, so that they see the potential of what might be possible,” Chaudry said. “The students have tremendous amount of power on college campuses.” 

—Updated Aug. 5 at 9:28 a.m.