Okay so Billy there are these huge protests that are happening on college campuses around the world but they started in the US where did this story of protesting begin so the protests are over the Israel and Hamas war and I think whenever we talk about the war in Gaza it's important to give some brief context to start so on October 7 Hamas.
Launched an attack on Israel and according to data cited by the UN roughly 1,200 people were killed Hamas which Australia lists as a terrorist organization captured about 240 hostages and today about 133 remain captive now Israel responded by declaring war and bombarding Gaza and according to Da sided by the UN at least 34,000.
Palestinians have now been killed since that date of the 7th of October and Israel's war in Gaza has caused a massive humanitarian crisis there and in the seven months since the War Began there have been Mass protests all over the world there have been protests at universities there have been protests on the streets they have really been.
Everywhere but this recent wave of student protest began at Colombia University in New York City in mid April so more than two weeks ago now okay so Colombia is where this Story begins it's one of the most prestigious universities in New York Barack Obama is one of the alumni of that that college what's happened there yeah if.
You haven't heard of Columbia University you have definitely heard of many of its graduates it's a very prestigious University over there so what's happened now so on the 18th of April more than 100 students were arrested after they refused to vacate an encampment on the campus can I just stop you there encampment that word's been everywhere.
In the headlines what does it actually mean basically is just a group of tents that students are setting up on University Lawns and they are sleeping there so they have been sleeping there for more than 2 weeks now so students at Columbia University for example have been sleeping on The Lawns of their uni for more than two weeks now so these.
Encampments were set up on the 18th of April at Columbia University it's now the 3rd of May what's happened between then and now yeah the protests have really only intensified since then it's been a massive story this week it's been the leading story of the New York Times so week students forcefully occupied one of the Halls on campus the Hamilton Hall.
Which is actually a really well-known hall for several protests that have happened there over centuries and it was completely vandalized and blockaded and the uni put out a statement saying that well they said that they had no choice but to reach out to the police and that is when Riot police were actually brought in to clear the building and.
They arrested dozens of people in the process of that happening and it being cleared out it was pretty remarkable Vision it was being live streamed kind of by most news outlets and it was police wearing like full gear in these huge trucks coming and coming face to face with student protesters it was quite remarkable vision and the uni has.
Also released a statement saying that students who were part of that um will possibly face expulsion so tensions are very high I think is probably an understatement to be honest and Joe Biden the US President also weighed in a spokesperson for him said that forcibly taking over a building on campus is absolutely the wrong approach and so in.
This instance these protesters were met by police specifically the NYPD there's been quite a lot of discussion around what that interaction between police and protesters looks like what do we know about that yeah so there has been this conversation of police violence and there have been several reported incidents of police violence.
That have come from students who have been at the protest some of the organizers in Colombia for example they said that multiple students were injured by police and had to be taken to hospital um they also said that some students had emerged with swollen faces from being kicked repeatedly and also from getting tackled to the ground so.
Some really concerning incidents there so those are some of the reports that we've heard about police violence but in this this case we haven't heard directly from the New York police department or from universities verifying the situation from their perspective hello I'm James and I produced the video you're watching if.
You're enjoying what you're watching we'd love it if you considered subscribing and checking us out on our other platforms it would really help in getting the word out about what we're doing here at TDA thanks very much and now back to the Deep dive it's not just Colombia though where this has happened it's happened across the country and now.
In fact across the world how has this grown this movement yeah it's grown massively I mean students are now protesting at around 50 other university campuses in the US and also in Canada um some of the universities include Harvard I'm sure many listeners are familiar with that one y and John's Hopkins as well and CNN reports that more than a.
Thousand students have now been arrested across the US in at least 21 states so this has spread a lot across the country these aren't just the US ual protest that we often see they they literally camping on The Lawns and sleeping there and the students have been extremely clear that they are saying they will not end this will not stop until their.
Demands are met here is one student from Colombia speaking to the media earlier this week we will not be moved by this intimidation tactics you can see outside you now that the students are mobilized there's hundreds of them here today they will not be moved we demand divestment we will not be moved unless by force I want to get into what exactly the.
Demands of these protesters are because you've just said that they don't plan to leave or they will try not to leave until those demands are met but can we actually talk about what it is they are pushing for here yeah so as you heard In that clip what they are asking for is divestment what does that mean so they are wanting their universities to divest.
From which just means stop investing funds in companies that are linked to Israel now like I mentioned there are 50 different un facing these demands from these students so I'm not going to go into the responses from every single one of those 50 universities but let's again we've been talking about Columbia University a lot because that's where it.
Started it has said that it will not divest from Israel but it did say that it will expedite a review Into the matter so they're saying that they'll look into it but they're absolutely not making any promises but one examp example of a university that has reached an agreement with the students is at Brown University and they have reached a.
Pretty rare agreement with the protesters they announced that its leaders have agreed to discuss and they then later will vote on whether or not to divver funds from companies connected to Israel and as a result of that agreement the protesters have stopped their encampment on their campus and I think just good to note that there isn't.
This one body that is is organizing all of these different encampments they are all slightly varied they're being organized locally on campuses so while the demands are broadly the same there are a few variations between them I do want to turn now to some incidents of anti-Semitism that have occurred on college campuses what can you tell me.
About that yeah there have been many reports of anti-Semitism occurring during these protests um video showed your students being physically prevented from entering their colleges and there have been some incidents of assaults on Jewish students as well and many Jewish students have said that they don't feel safe at their University going to their.
Classes anymore Columbia University has strongly condemned quote chance signs taunts and social media posts from our own students that mock and threaten to kill Jewish people and it said that many Jewish students have left campus and that is a tragedy and theyve also banned a student from campus due to their anti-semitic Behavior mhm as we've said.
It's now not just in the US that we're seeing these protests it's also Happening Here in Australia right yeah there are now similar encampments Happening Here in Australia there are ones at the University of Melbourne University of Queensland also a&u in CRA they're also at Sydney uni we had a colleague who was there yesterday and.
She sent through photos of the camps being set up there so again it's spreading all across Australia now and the organ organizers here in Australia are asking for a similar demand to those in the US they asking for the universities to stop their partnership with Israeli institutions and another thing to.
Mention is that mcari University is quote working to wholly understand what happened when one of its academics ran an event at the usid protest for young children where they were filmed chanting phrases including inada and Israel is a terrorist state look it's a really complicated topic and I know that it's one that affects a lot of our listeners.
Um a lot of University age students listening to this podcast so hopefully we have been able to unpack a bit about where this movement has started where it might be going next but that's it from us today thanks for listening to the Daily Oz we'll be back again on Monday but until then have a great weekend
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