By Dilara Karatas, Murat Karadag and Melike Pala
ANKARA (AA) – Student protests of Israel’s offensive on Gaza which started last month at New York’s Columbia University have since spread to universities across the world.
In France, demonstrations in support of Palestine continue at many universities, often met with harsh police intervention. In Paris, students gathered in Pantheon Square demanding an end to Israel's attacks on Gaza.
At Sorbonne University, students who set up tents faced police intervention. Protesters, including some at Sciences Po, voiced solidarity with Palestine despite police action.
Students at the Sorbonne protested during a speech by President Emmanuel Macron, with police securing the area.
Hundreds of students demanded an end to the crackdown on campuses, chanting "Long live Palestine" and "Israel is a murderer, Macron is an accomplice."
- Calls for action in UK
In the UK, University College London students joined protests, calling on the university to end its cooperation with companies and banks that provide financial support to Israel and to condemn Israeli war crimes in Gaza.
Other universities, including Newcastle, Bristol, Warwick, Leeds, Sheffield, and Sheffield Hallam, also saw demonstrations.
Goldsmiths University in London pledged to address student demands amid ongoing protests.
- Trinity College Dublin protests
At Ireland’s Trinity College Dublin, students demanded the university sever ties with Israel and set up protest tents.
Activists in Dublin marched to Trinity College waving Palestinian and Irish flags.
Students wrote "Israel is a terrorist state,” "End the genocide," "From the river to the sea," and "Free Palestine" on tents they set up on campus.
- Spain’s Valencia University
At Valencia University in Spain, students protested Israel's attacks on Gaza and its policies with a sit-in at the Philosophy Faculty.
Students chanted "No to Israel's genocide in Gaza and apartheid," with some faculty members joining in.
- Berlin’s Humboldt University
Students at Germany's Humboldt University protested in Berlin with banners demanding "Free Gaza" and "Stop the genocide."
Police intervened and removed the students from the university grounds. Some demonstrators who resisted the police were detained for identification.
A tent camp set up by Palestine supporters in the green area opposite the German parliamentary building was evacuated by the police and 161 people were detained.
- Italian university protests
Students at Sapienza University in Rome protested the school's ties with Israel. Some 200 people demanded that the school suspend cooperation with Israel over its attacks on Gaza.
Over 200 academics and technicians at the University of Florence signed a letter calling on the Italian Foreign Ministry not to participate in industrial, technical and scientific cooperation with Israel announced last November.
The protests extended to universities in Naples, Pisa, and Bologna, with faculty members and students calling for divestment from Israel.
- Protests in Switzerland
Students at the University of Lausanne protested Israel's actions in Gaza, demanding an end to academic collaboration. Around 100 students occupied a building on campus.
- Netherlands
Jewish academics and students in the Netherlands called on universities to take a strong stance against Israel's actions.
They contrasted the situation to the response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, urging similar actions, according to a statement in a local newspaper.
- Support for Palestine across universities worldwide
At McGill University, Canada, students demanded the administration cut ties with Israeli-affiliated firms, facing police attempts to disperse them. Similar protests took place at universities in Toronto and British Columbia.
In Australia, solidarity protests with the US demonstrations began at the University of Sydney, spreading to Melbourne, Brisbane, and Adelaide. Leaders warned against actions damaging unity, amid accusations of racism and antisemitism directed at protesters.
At Auckland University, New Zealand, students protested Israel's Gaza attacks, demanding the end of ties with Israeli universities and companies. The university's handling of protests drew criticism from 65 academics, urging support for student demonstrations.
In Tokyo, students at Waseda University protested with chants of "Free Palestine" and "Save Gaza," calls echoed at Sofia, Tama Art, International Christian, and Hiroshima International Universities.
Indian students at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi demonstrated solidarity with Gaza and Columbia University.
Mideast countries also expressed support, with protests at universities in Lebanon, Tunisia, Egypt, and Kuwait. Around 150 students from the American University of Beirut in Lebanon unfurled a giant Palestinian flag in front of the administration building and chanted: "Students and workers against the occupation."
- University protests in US
In protests that began at Columbia University in the US in April and spread around the world, students condemned Israel's attacks on civilians in Gaza and demanded that school administrations stop supporting the genocide of the Palestinian people.
Approximately 2,500 people were detained during protests in many universities in the US, where police intervened at the request of the administrations. Over the weekend, 25 Palestinian supporters were detained at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville and 68 at the Art Institute of Chicago.
Amid ongoing police crackdowns at universities, 17 students at Princeton University in New Jersey started a hunger strike. They demand the administration avoid collaboration with Israeli-affiliated companies to prevent potential support for genocide, ensure protesting students face no disciplinary action, and grant amnesty to those who did. Princeton's administration agreed to their demands.
Similarly, the University of California's Riverside campus responded positively, pledging not to approve study abroad programs in Gaza or the West Bank during the conflict. Other universities, including Evergreen, Brown, and Northwestern, also reached agreements with students.
*Writing by Muhammed Yasin Gungor in Istanbul