Democracy Now (of WBAI radio NYC/Pacifica Stations), April 30, 2024 report of students at Columbia University occupying Hamilton Hall, the site of a 1968 student occupation, in protest to Columbia's ties to military research at that time. That student protest began about three weeks after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr..
This is not a political blog, this is my personal blog, and my main themes are Old School BMX freestyle, economics and our collective future, and my Sharpie art and creativity. But these student protests began to grow and spread, protests in response to Israel's current and ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip. Israel's actions are in response to a horrific attack on October 7, 2023, by Hamas. The initial attack killed 1.139 Israelis, and about 250 hostages were taken.
The response of the nation of Israel to this attack, orchestrated by Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu, has killed an estimated 34,000 Palestinians in Gaza, with 13,000 of those being children. The last estimate I saw was that at least a million Palestinians have been displaced, and half of the buildings in the Gaza Strip have been damaged or destroyed. Widespread famine is the current fear, since very little aid has been allowed into Gaza in the last 7 months. The nation of Israel is now committing genocide against Israel's Palestinian population, by definition. That's not in question, though many fear to acknowledge it. In the U.S. mainstream media, this is generally called the "War in Gaza." So this whole ongoing situation in Gaza, and the ties of particular colleges to Israel or Israeli business, are what American students are protesting.
I'm going to link several of the news reports about the protests at U.S. colleges here in my blog because these protests totally remind me of the Vietnam War protests I remember seeing on TV as a little kid, in the early 1970's. These protests sparked up, and then spread to so many other campuses so quickly, that I think we're seeing history playing out here, much like the years of student protests in the 1970's. Another interesting thing this time is the different responses that different schools have taken to these student protests. Some college chose a massive response by police, while others negotiated with protestors, to find common ground.
Sometimes we study history, other times, usually times of crisis, we watch it happen live. I'm posting some of these reports just as documentation of what's happening right now, early May 2024, and we'll see how all of these various issues play out as time goes on. A lot of U.S. college students have become very politicized in the last week or two.
Here is a report on the War in Gaza- the root of all the protests in the U.S.-
BBC News report from early March, 2024- Over 30,000 killed in Gaza
Here are a series of reports, nearly all from the past week, of college and university protests in the U.S.-
Student protests about April 25- MIT Campus/Columbia
MSNBC report- May 2, 2024 on Columbia University and UCLA
Democracy Now May 2, 2024 report about UCLA encampment and skirmishes with counter protestors
Effspot YouTube channel (car channel) documentation of UCLA campus encampment/counter protestors/police action- Video uploaded 5/3/2024
University of Texas- Dallas- Protestors and police- May 2, 2024
Protests and commencements- University of Virginia- Charlottesville, University of Michigan
Protestors at Brown University reach deal with school- take down encampment voluntarily
Protests at Northwestern University- Jewish students feel unsafe
Northwestern reaches deal with protestors- there is fallout afterwards
Protestors being arrested at U.C. San Diego- this report is one hour old as I finish this blog post on the morning of Monday, May 6th, 2024.
Blogger's Note: Here's a May 8th article from CNN about the arrests on college campuses during the Israel-Palestine war protests. There have been more than 2,400 arrests at more than 50 colleges and universities across over half of the states in the U.S..
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