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A New York Times article updated on July 22 has a list of confirmed arrests or detainments of the protestors in several colleges and universities across the United States protesting the genocide and their respective university's ties with Israel. The number totals to 3142 from 74 universities/college campuses. This vast number of arrests in just two months begs our attention: Why and how are the students protesting? What are their aims? Why arrest the protesting students? And, more importantly, what do they intend to highlight?
One afternoon at the encampment, Purdue University.
Encampment as a form of protest
The act of protest in the form of encampments began when the Columbia University students set up camps in their lawns on April 17, 2024, demanding the university divest from Israeli companies and agencies that are funding the ongoing genocide in Palestine. Several universities followed suit, especially after the violent repression of the Columbia students' protest by the state and the university using armed police. Despite the horrifying mistreatment of students and faculty by the police and security forces and by the administration, the students continued to sleep and study in their encampments for at least over a month. Zionists attacked the students on campus – as it happened at UCLA. Several campuses, like Purdue, opened a case against their students and eventually cut all means of financial aid, employment and housing to their students. The New York Police Department entered Columbia University premises in riot gear and violently removed the protestors. The brutality and fear tactics escalated elsewhere in Indiana as snipers were spotted on the rooftop aiming at the students protesting at Indiana University. Several other universities rose in rage against the police violence and for a free Palestine. All of them were met with severe brutality. The widespread university protests are a remarkable moment for such movements are not frequently sighted in the United States. Several commentators compared this new wave of pro-Palestine protests to the 1968 protests against the US's involvement in Vietnam. What are the demands of this large-scale protest demonstration that instigated a wave of protests worldwide, too?
Boycott, Divest, Sanction!
BDS is a movement to dismantle the settler-colonial apartheid regime of Israel economically. The movement professes a solution similar to one practised during the South African apartheid regime days – where South Africa was boycotted, even in the Olympics. Such systematic boycotts eventually led to the end of the apartheid system in South Africa in 1994. Those who believe in BDS today as the solution to war crimes, like the students protesting through encampments in America, understand that the money flowing into the genocide could be used to better the health and education system in the domestic countries. Therefore, the university students demanded the divestment from Israeli companies and agencies that are bombing the civilian localities in Gaza indiscriminately. Certain universities have positively responded to the protest by agreeing to be more transparent regarding their investments and also beginning to discuss divestment. These universities include Wisconsin-Madison and Evergreen State College of Washington, among others. But the victory is nowhere near, for the students wouldn't rest until Palestine is free – from the river to the sea. But the question remains: why are the students protesting on a large scale now and never before?
Early days of Liberation Zone at Purdue.
Living in the times of a live-streamed Genocide
The story begins on October 7, 2023, in most Western media accounts. Let us also start our story from this day. On October 7, Gaza broke open the silence of continued oppression. Hamas, a political outfit governing Gaza, has launched Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, killing dozens in Israel and taking a few as hostages. The hostages, they said, will be released in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons. At least 1326 Palestinians were under administrative detention, that is, detention without trial, in Israeli jails up until September 30, 2023. Several others were legally detained, but one who knows the workings of law understands that imprisonment does not necessarily equate to wrongdoing. Historically and across the world, imprisonment is a question of power. What constitutes a criminal is decided by a ruling class or a ruling politico-economic system, making Palestinians in Israel easy criminals. For fifteen years, since 2007, Gaza has been an open-air prison system with several barricades to mobility. However, the history of violations of rights dates back to the World War I era when, in 1917, with the Balfour Declaration, the British promised a Jewish homeland in Palestine. But how can Palestine, already populated with Palestinians, become the homeland of Jewish people? Hence, the formation of the state of Israel in 1948 was followed by ethnic cleansing or Nakba of Palestinians from their homeland. With no right to return home, Palestinians have lived in refugee camps while Israelis occupied the houses of Palestinians to make space for Jewish immigrants.
14200+ flags planted at Memorial Mall, Purdue University, in February 2024. Each flag represents the life of a child lost in the genocide.
It is entirely true that the current genocide in Gaza that we regularly see in the news began after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7. However, if placed in the continuum of history and looked at October 7 not from the "war" or "conflict" lens but from the lens of colonialism and apartheid, one can understand October 7 was a revolt by colonised people of Gaza, those living in this open-air prison system for years. Only a colonial power, not a democratic country, would use all its might upon unarmed civilians, babies, and hospitals as a retaliation to resistance. According to Gaza's Health Ministry, 38000 Palestinians have been killed since the beginning of the offensive by Israel as a retaliation to Hamas's attack. Half of them are children. The first fourteen pages of the 649-page document with the names of those killed had the names of infants whose age was listed as zero for they are under the age of one. In another revealing report, blowing the minds of netizens and activists, Lancet's study's estimates show that at least 1,86,000 have been killed since the beginning of the offensive. Students in the US universities were protesting genocide. A genocide which is made possible only because Israel is monetarily, socially, and culturally supported by their respective universities.
Experiencing Encampments
Resistance is contagious. At Purdue, where I am doing my PhD, inspired by Columbia University students, encampments began on April 25. The Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and the Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) chapters of Purdue were at the forefront of the encampment protest. These nineteen and twenty-year-old students occupied a lawn that was unavoidable to anyone entering the campus, and they called it a liberated zone. They soon organised events, book discussions, and teach-ins. In no time, it was called popularly a "popular university." The topics of the teach-ins were fascinating and diverse. The faculty and graduate students at Purdue took turns teaching the undergraduate students keen to learn about social justice, resistance, and socialism. The students inspired the formation of Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine (FSJP) at Purdue. As a PhD student and a member of FSJP, I did a teach-in at the Popular University of Purdue on the topic, "Incarceration and (In)Justice." I traced the genealogy of modern prison and policing systems to the workhouses in Europe that aimed at better output during the Industrial Revolution to their current form, where disciplining populations through imprisonment and torture is central to the working of the state. These trends are similar across the world – be it in Israel, the United States, or even India. The encampments were more than just the teach-ins.
Teach-in on "Incarceration and (In)justice" by Vipanchika at the encampment, Purdue.
The undergraduate students would take turns standing at the road with the sign "Honk if you think Palestine should be free." I would sit in the camp all day with my books. Sometimes, I look up to smile as the students cheer on the honks they receive in support of Palestine. The working-class community in West Lafayette, including the bus drivers, would honk the most in support of Palestine. On the side, some students would be playing football; sometimes, they would meet to discuss the strategies to keep the encampment lively. The encampment lasted for around three weeks until it was formally taken down on May 12 because the students had already left for their summer break. But those few weeks showed what students collectively camping out can do to the conscience of the town's residents where the university is located. I met several community organisations in West Lafayette for queer and disabled people who were keen to extend their solidarity to the protesting students. One afternoon, we received several pizzas from a nearby pizza restaurant. None of the students asked for it, but they were freely fed for most days by the community, encouraging them to continue protesting and studying for their exams. Police brutality at Purdue was non-existent, unlike in Columbia, Indiana, NYU, and others. Perhaps that was a PR move by the administration to keep the protests low-profile; one would never know. However, soon after the new semester began in August, the Purdue administration singled out students of colour, a Palestinian included, and took action against them. Despite charges against these students, they are still organising on the campus against the genocide. As I am writing this article, it has been 350 days of genocide. Several students in the US who, with their debts, had come to study in fancy universities for a better future have been suspended or are facing charges that leave them with no means of survival. One such student was asked by the faculty at Purdue if he wanted them to pool money to help him meet his ends. He replied that he'd rather want the faculty to pool money to get a student from Gaza to the US.
Poster of the "liberated zone" given out to students as an announcement that Purdue began with its encampment.
Long Live the Resistance
The act of selflessness displayed by the student who asked to pool money for someone who really requires it is the spirit of the encampment movement. This movement in the US universities is for a free Palestine, for humanity, and for all oppressed of the world. The students and specific faculty protested in the face of a highly militarised US police system that brutally beat them up. That act of courage displayed by several unarmed, non-violent, extraordinarily informed and well-read protestors is significant, for it marks the beginning of the end of the 21st-century colonial fascist regimes.
Ms Vipanchika Sahasri Bhagyanagar is a History PhD Student at Purdue, working with a social historian, Dr Tithi Bhattacharya. She has a master’s in political studies from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, and a bachelor's in history and politics from Miranda House, University of Delhi. She was also a 2023 Rhodes Scholarship finalist. Vipanchika's interests span the broad areas of prison studies, punishment, justice, sexuality, and violence. She is interested in prison abolitionist movements and literature. She was part of the anti-curfew movement during her bachelor's. As the President of the Students' Union then, a series of protests and negotiations under her leadership culminated in abolishing the curfew at Miranda House Residence, University of Delhi. At Purdue, she founded the Progressive South Asia Collective, an educational and scholar-activist club which hosted the likes of Anand Teltumbde, Audrey Truschke, and others.
LinkedIn - @Vipanchika Sahasri Bhagyanagar
Twitter - @Vipanchika6
Instagram - @Vipanchika_Sahasri
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