Protests across the United States have sprung up at multiple universities in protest of Israel’s actions in Gaza. These protests have caught the attention of the nation and even the world. What began as isolated anti-Israel protests at a few universities have transformed into a nationwide protest centered on college campuses. Over 50 universities have witnessed these protests with many college grounds being occupied by protest encampments.
Police have arrested thousands of students with police in many colleges, being criticized for overreacting or using excessive force on what many consider to be peaceful protestors. Indiana has even witnessed this with Indiana University of Bloomington being the sight of an anti-Israel protest that caught national attention for the presence of heavily armed police.
The war between Israel and Hamas, located in Gaza, has been ongoing for over seven months. What began as an attack by Hamas on Israel has devolved into a full war with accusations of war crimes and genocide by both parties. The United Nations Human Rights Council has stated that there is evidence of international law by both sides, and there is now an ongoing case in the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of genocide. Though the final ruling will likely take years, the court has said that it is plausible that Israel is committing genocide. And on May 20, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for the leaders of Hamas and Prime Minister of Israel, Netanyahu.
“On the basis of evidence collected and examined by my Office,” a statement from ICC Prosecutor Karim A.A. Khan KC read. “I have reasonable grounds to believe that Benjamin NETANYAHU, the Prime Minister of Israel, and Yoav GALLANT, the Minister of Defence of Israel, bear criminal responsibility for the following war crimes and crimes against humanity committed on the territory of the State of Palestine (in the Gaza strip) from at least 8 October 2023.”
The statement then listed out several crimes including; starvation of civilians, willfully causing suffering, willfully killing, intentionally attacking civilians, extermination, persecution, and other inhumane crimes.
The protests originally began in response to the detainment of other anti-Israel protesters at Columbia University in New York. These students are often calling for universities to distance themselves from companies aiding Israel. Police detained protestors occupying school grounds, and the university threatened to suspend remaining protestors and make seniors ineligible to graduate.
Following these events, protests across the country erupted at college campuses across the country. Commonly seen are protests occupying school grounds or buildings and building encampments, and at many of them, police have arrested protestors. More than 2,900 have been arrested nationwide at dozens of universities. At IU-Bloomington, 57 have been arrested.
At present, many of these protests are now ending or dying down, but accusations of police overreacting against peaceful student protests, and many are unhappy with how their universities dealt with the protests. At Columbia, witnesses have reported seeing protestors bloodied, and it was previously confirmed an officer fired his gun while inside the school, no one was believed injured.
