Middle East Eye reports:

The academic semester has kicked off at many US universities this week, and schools are working in a myriad of ways to tamp out the pro-Palestinian and student-led demonstrations that roiled the country this past spring.

As students make their way back to campus, familiarising themselves with class schedules and reconnecting with university life, administrations have been working – often in conjunction with the police – to weed out the possibility of a repeat of last semester when university authorities were blindsided by the scale and potency of pro-Palestinan protests that swept campuses.

Several campuses morphed into battle zones with police, often resorting to brutal tactics on unarmed student protesters in scenes streamed live for the world to see.

The efforts to halt the regrowth of the movement have materialised in several different ways.

Back to school has meant new guidelines on hate speech, banning of encampments and maintaining the suspension of students involved in setting up Gaza solidarity encampments last semester.
But as Israel’s war on Gaza continues with no end in sight, and as the Palestinian death toll in Gaza continues to rise, the student mobilisation around Gaza has already resurfaced, as it was always likely to.

Protests and demands for schools to end their financial stakes in companies profiting from the war have returned this semester, and administrations have already begun dealing with these protests with force, echoing the responses earlier this year. [Continue reading…]