More universities join pro-Palestine protests

New universities have joined the student movements triggered by American and Western universities in solidarity with the Palestinians.

In the Netherlands, students at the University of Amsterdam set up a camp on campus in solidarity with the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, which has been subjected to a devastating Israeli war for seven months.

The students called on the University administration to sever its ties with institutions affiliated with Israel.

In Spain, demonstrations in solidarity with Palestine spread in various universities in the Basque regions, Navarre, Aragon, Andalusia and Catalonia. Students at the University of Basque Country and Navarre announced that the protests would continue indefinitely by setting up camps, as happened in Valencia.

In France, students from the University of Paris 8 went out on a demonstration in support of Gaza and to denounce the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip. The students chanted slogans: “Freedom for Palestine”, “Stop genocide” and “Long live Palestine”.

In Bangladesh, students from various universities organised a march in support of Palestine, demanding “an end to the genocide in Gaza”. The students raised Palestinian flags and chanted slogans such as “Free Palestine” and “Stop genocide”.

On 18 April, students and academics who rejected the war on Gaza began a sit-in on the campus of Columbia University in New York, demanding the University administration stop its academic cooperation with Israeli universities and withdraw its investments in companies that support the Occupation of Palestinian Territories.

With the intervention of the police and the arrest of dozens of protesters, the state of anger expanded to include universities in other countries such as France, Britain, Germany, Canada and India, all of which witnessed demonstrations and demands to stop the war on Gaza and boycott companies that supply weapons to Israel.

READ: Police clear protesters from Swiss university as Gaza demonstrations spread