Global attention is focused on universities in the United States, where students have set up camps to demand action to end Israel’s war in Gaza.
The growing protests have taken hold on the campuses of some of the country’s top academic institutions, including Columbia and Harvard.
And in recent weeks, they have sparked heated debates about free speech, Palestinian solidarity activism in the US and the use of violence to break up student protests, among other issues.
But the students at the heart of the movement say the reason they began their demonstrations — the urgent need to end Israel’s deadly bombing of Gaza — risks being lost in a cacophony of voices and distractions.
“Gaza is the reason we are here. Gaza is the reason we do this,” said Rue, a student at The New School in New York City who asked to be identified only by her first name for fear of reprisals.
“The New School camp is happening because we want to make sure we do everything we can to end this genocide,” Rue told Al Jazeera.
List of demands
Camps have sprung up at universities and colleges across the United States this month as the Palestinian death toll in Gaza surpassed 34,300 and mass graves were reportedly discovered in the coastal enclave.
The students presented a list of demands to their respective universities, including divesting from companies that may profit from the Gaza war or providing weapons and other support to the Israeli military.
They have that too urged an end to reprisals against students who spoke out in support of the Palestinians and an administration commitment not to send police or other law enforcement onto campuses to break up their protests.
Images of throngs of New York Police Department (NYPD) officers marching on the Columbia University campus to break up a protest camp in Gaza earlier this week motivated students elsewhere in the US to also set up their own protest sites.
Since the camps began, hundreds of students have been arrested across the country.
A first-year doctoral student at New York University (NYU), who spoke to Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, said that students “act based on the ideals and history that they have .” [they’re] be taught”.
“As students who are taught in class about colonialism, about indigenous rights, and about the impact of nonviolent protest on history, it would be extremely hypocritical – or completely undermine the purpose of our education – if we did not act.” said the 25-year-old.
“At least we can show that there was resistance” to what was happening in Gaza, the student added.
“The horrors in Gaza are truly unimaginable. These small acts of resistance, these are small sacrifices – [they] are nothing compared to what is happening on the ground in Palestine.”
“Scholasticide” in Gaza
Like other protesters across the U.S., many American students said they felt a push to act given the U.S. government’s long-standing support for Israel.
The United States provides Israel with $3.8 billion in military aid annually, and President Joe Biden has continued to provide strong support to the country in the Gaza war. On Wednesday, Biden signed a major funding package that will provide Israel with an additional $17 billion.
The Israeli military’s attacks on Palestinian students, teachers and academic institutions across the Gaza Strip during the war also acted as a catalyst for the university protests, the students said.
Last week, a United Nations group of experts found that 80 percent of schools in the Palestinian enclave have been damaged or destroyed since the war began in early October. Almost 5,500 students were killed, as well as 261 teachers and 95 university professors.
“It may be reasonable to ask whether this is a deliberate attempt to comprehensively destroy the Palestinian education system, an action known as ‘school murder,'” the experts said in an April 18 statement.
“These attacks are not isolated incidents. They represent a systematic pattern of violence aimed at destroying the foundations of Palestinian society.”
Etta, a senior at NYU who also asked to be identified only by her first name for fear of reprisals, told Al Jazeera it was “appalling” to see her university not recognizing the destruction of Palestinian academic institutions.
“As an institution that should have a function of education, intellectual formation and academic freedom, they cannot even take the time to acknowledge, mourn and discuss the destruction of these institutions in Palestine,” Etta said.
“There is a refusal to even acknowledge that this is happening as we all bear witness [to it].”
“Bigger than us”
While there is uncertainty about the future of US university camps and threats of dismantling them, students say they remain committed to continuing their protests – and keeping the focus on what is happening in Gaza.
“Palestine is the center, liberation is the center of this conversation,” Etta said.
This was confirmed by New School student Rue.
“I feel like there is a moral imperative for everyone to do their best to protest, fight against and end this genocide,” Rue told Al Jazeera.
“We are part of something bigger than ourselves,” she added.
“We are currently part of a global movement and the incredible solidarity inspires and strengthens us [we’re] See you across the United States, across college campuses, around the world.”