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SvennoJ on 04 May 2024
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UCLA protester, a Jewish-American, promises to continue protest

Ryan, a student at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and pro-Palestine protester, told how police had – unprovoked – hit him with their batons as they cleared a peaceful Gaza solidarity encampment on the university’s campus.

“The school [would] rather physically intimidate their students … than even consider divestment, and that is what’s so frustrating. We didn’t do anything wrong,” Ryan told Al Jazeera.

“I received a [police] citation for unlawful assembly, and I’m proud of that,” he added.



Senator Sanders tells protesters to ‘stay peaceful and focused’

US Senator Bernie Sanders has told members of the student-led, pro-Palestine movement protesting at US college campuses that they are “on the right side of history”. “In 1962, we organized sit-ins to end racist policies at the University of Chicago. In ’63, I was arrested protesting segregated schools,” he wrote in a post on X.

“But we were right. I’m proud to see students protesting the war in Gaza. Stay peaceful and focused,” he added.




Trinity College students set up Gaza solidarity encampment, demand divestment

Students at Trinity College Dublin (TCD) have established a Gaza solidarity encampment on their campus to demand the iconic Irish university cut ties with Israel.

“Trinity College Dublin tonight, after students set up an encampment for Palestine, demanding that their university cut ties with Israel as per BDS principles supported by the vast majority of students and staff,” the college’s student union president Laszlo Molnarfi said in a post on social media.

Video footage of the encampment shows tents pitched on a grass lawn near a library where the Book of Kells – a 9th-century manuscript and one of the country’s most visited tourist attractions – is housed. The protesters also placed wooden benches in the doorway entrance of the library, saying the location was “now closed indefinitely”.

“No business as usual during a genocide,” Molnarfi wrote on social media, and called on the university’s administration to “cut ties with the genocidal state of Israel”.

Cuban students hold pro-Palestine rally in Havana


Hundreds of university students held a pro-Palestine rally in the Cuban capital Havana on Friday. The demonstrators also criticised police repression against students and professors at universities in the US.

During the rally, which was held at the University of Havana, the students called for a ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza.

“We consider it inexcusable to wake up one more day knowing about the genocide that is taking place today in Gaza, knowing that children, young people, the elderly are continuing to die,” said Jose Alberto Almeida, president of the University Student Federation at Havana University.


Journalism student Valeria Nunes takes part in a rally in support of the Palestinian people and American students, in Havana, Cuba, on May 3


Student protesters at Goldsmiths win concessions, name room after Shireen Abu Akleh

Samira Ali, a student protest organiser at Goldsmiths, University of London, said their Gaza solidarity activism has been ongoing for six months and has won important concessions from the university’s management.

“It’s involved protests and walkouts, actions which have included occupations,” Ali told Al Jazeera. “We are currently in an occupation of the library.

“One of the most seminal things we’ve won is the Palestinian scholarships. Now, this university will provide two extra Palestinian scholarships and one of them will include an undergraduate scholarship. “We think this is really important considering the total destruction of educational infrastructure in Gaza.

“One of the lecture theatres that we were occupying, we have won that it is going to be renamed after Shireen Abu Akleh [the Al Jazeera journalist killed in the occupied West Bank by Israeli forces]. “To have that recognition of a Palestinian journalist that was murdered by the [Israeli military] and have that memorialised at this university will be amazing and something we are really proud of.”


A mural depicting Al Jazeera’s slain Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh adorns a part of Israel’s controversial separation barrier, in the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem in July 2022. The mural was painted by Palestinian artist Taqi Spateen [Mahmoud Illean]