Anti-Israel protest encampments have emerged on at least 10 American universities in emulation of the Columbia University campus occupation, following National Students for Justice in Palestine and several other pro-Palestinian groups calling to seize the institution to force the adoption of boycott, divestment, and sanctions on Saturday night.
In addition to the Columbia encampment that had started on Wednesday, encampments were started in recent days at Emerson College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, The New School, New York University, University of Michigan, University of Pittsburgh, University of Rochester, Yale University, University of California, Berkeley, California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt. Vanderbilt University has had an encampment since March 26, and rededicated the protest with the Columbia movement.
NSJP listed Rutgers University as the location of another encampment, but the local SJP groups haven't displayed any such demonstration.
The protests have spread beyond the US, with encampments appearing at University of Alberta in Canada, and University of Sydney in Australia.
An encampment was also established on Friday at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, but the local SJP chapter said on Instagram on Monday that they had moved from the location. A University of Washington St. Louis encampment was removed, and a police presence has prevented protesters from returning.
At University of Minnesota Twin Cities, activists attempted to establish an encampment, but authorities cleared it on Tuesday before it could fully assemble. Eight UMN students and one staff member were banned from the campus for one year and arrested and charged with trespassing.
More than 40 arrested at Yale
In a social media post by NSJP entitled "campuses in revolt," the organization promised that more encampments would be established.
"Over the last 72 hours, the Students for Justice in Palestine chapters across the country have erupted in a fierce display of power and pressure targeted at their universities for their endless complicity and profiteering off the genocide on Gaza and the colonization of Palestine," said NSJP on Sunday.
"The encampments transform mass mobilization into long-term sustained occupation, leveraging our tangible power as students to give our institutions no other option but to divest."
NSJP said in a Monday statement that there would be no classes or compliance with the administration until their demands to adopt Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions policies were met.
"We will seize control of our institutions, campus by campus, until Palestine is free," said NSJP.
On Tuesday, several SJP chapters published identical demands, including the disclosure of financial ties to "zionist entities," issuance of a call for a permanent and immediate ceasefire, and amnesty for pro-Palestinian students arrested and suspended because of the protests.
Yale anti-Israel activists claimed on Monday that over 40 students were arrested that morning by police at the behest of the administration. American Muslims for Palestine Connecticut put the number at 49 activists.
"We will not stop, we will not rest until we have disclosure and divestment," said AMP.
While the encampment was removed by the police, students have continued to protest and have demanded the return of their protest materials. They moved to a new location on campus on Monday. Yalies 4 Palestine said that they were "still here," on Tuesday but that "Police and Yale are still threatening us with arrest."
The New School SJP said Monday that they had terminated negotiations with the administration after they threatened them with suspension unless they left the school lobby.
NYU Palestine Solidarity Coalition said that over 100 students, faculty, and community members had been arrested by the NYPD at the encampment Monday night, but said Tuesday that they had all been released.
Humboldt for Palestine said that police had pushed into their encampment on Monday night, and while several student activists had been arrested, they had been released.