Gaza solidarity encampment

Film on Gaza solidarity encampments is launched amid Trump’s crackdown on student activism

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Original article republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Mahmoud Khalil, featured here in “The Encampments”, was a leading student activist in the Gaza Solidarity Encampment while studying at Columbia

A new independent film about the Gaza Solidarity Encampment at Columbia University aims to shift the media narrative regarding the movement for Palestine

A new documentary chronicling the Gaza Solidarity Encampment at Columbia University will premier at the CPH:DOX Film Festival in Copenhagen on March 25, 2025. “The Encampments,” a film produced by BreakThrough News and Watermelon Pictures, “challenges the dominant media narrative by revealing the true spirit of the encampments—what it felt like to be there, the emotions that fueled the students, and what motivated their drastic action,” said directors Kei Pritsker and Michael T Workman. 

The film was produced by nonprofit media organization BreakThrough News, Grammy-award winning musician Macklemore, and Watermelon Pictures, a production company focusing on Palestinian-centered films.

“This is more than a student protest—it’s a generational struggle for justice,” said Macklemore. “Students have always led the charge for justice, from the sit-ins of the Civil Rights Movement to the campus protests against South African apartheid. They’ve never been on the wrong side of history. The encampments that started at Columbia are part of that legacy, inspiring millions of people around the world. The film ensures the students in US and Gaza are heard, their actions are remembered, and the fight for Palestinian liberation continues.”

Presenting: THE ENCAMPMENTS, by @watermelonpicturesco, @Macklemore & BreakThrough.

Only in theaters March 28th (NYC) with a nationwide expansion to follow.

🎟️ Book now: https://t.co/FluCY0Ukrg

The film follows Mahmoud Khalil and other students in their historic stand. pic.twitter.com/GiiH1HpFnB

— BreakThrough News (@BTnewsroom) March 21, 2025

The release of “The Encampments” comes shortly after the release of the pro-Israel documentary “October 8,” backed by actress Debra Messing. “October 8” gives a Zionist perspective on the events of October 7 as well as the subsequent movement for Palestine, focusing on the allegations of anti-semitism against said movement.

“The Encampments” aims to provide an alternative view to the mainstream dominance of pro-Zionist narratives, highlighting the student movement for Palestine at Columbia from the perspective of the students themselves. Many of the most prominently featured students in the film, such as recent graduate Mahmoud Khalil, have faced severe state repression due to their activism. Khalil was detained on March 8 by immigration authorities, based on his protest activity, and continues to be imprisoned at the notoriously violent ICE detention center in Jena, Louisiana.

The Trump administration has aimed to make an example out of the students who took a brave stand in solidarity with Palestine at Columbia University, issuing a letter demanding that the university sanction protest in a variety of ways or else lose USD 400 million in federal funding. Columbia has complied with these demands—expelling, firing, suspending, or revoking the degrees of 22 students over alleged involvement in pro-Palestine protest activity. This includes the president of the graduate student union at the university, Grant Miner, also prominently featured in the film.

The film will also be playing at the Angelika Film Center in New York City from March 28-April 2.

Original article republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Donald Fuhrump says that Amerikkka doesn't bother with crimes or charges anymore, not being 100% Amerikkkan and opposing his real estate intentions is enough.
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Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Continue ReadingFilm on Gaza solidarity encampments is launched amid Trump’s crackdown on student activism

Students launch encampments in solidarity with Gaza across the US

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Original article republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Students set up an encampment at the University of Michigan in solidarity with Gaza (Photo via Jewish Voice for Peace UMich)

Police launch new wave of repression as student movement for Palestine grows

Almost a week after Columbia students launched their Gaza Solidarity Encampment, students across the country have taken from their example and began encampments in public spaces in their own universities in solidarity with Palestine.

In the early hours of the morning of April 22, students at New York University began an encampment on Gould Plaza, joining their New York City counterparts at the New School, which had launched an encampment the previous day.

In the Greater Boston Area students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Emerson College, and Tufts University set up encampments at their own universities. Students at the University of Michigan also launched an encampment on April 22, pitching tents outdoors with ice still visibly on the ground.

Also on the morning of April 22, New Haven police repressed the Gaza Solidarity Encampment at Yale University, which had been established on April 20, making 47 arrests. In response, students took over the street outside of campus, shutting down an intersection with hundreds of demonstrators.

Students are broadly demanding that their universities divest from Israel, and have pledged to maintain their encampments until their demands are met. The intensification of the student action began when Columbia students launched their encampment at 4 am on April 17. Despite a severe crackdown by the University and the NYPD, resulting in 122 arrests, students have been able to sustain the encampment on the Butler Lawn for almost a week, inspiring others across the country to do the same and put pressure on their own universities to divest from Israel. 

On the afternoon of April 22, a new wave of repression began outside of Columbia’s campus as several demonstrators were arrested outside the campus gates, who were picketing outside of the encampment. 

Original article republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Continue ReadingStudents launch encampments in solidarity with Gaza across the US

Columbia students continue Gaza solidarity encampment in defiance of police crackdown

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Original article by Natalia Marques republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Gaza solidarity encampment. Photo: Wyatt Souers

The sun once again shines on the students occupying the main lawn of Columbia University which continues despite a heavy coordinated crackdown

On the morning of April 19, Columbia students emerged from their tents camped out on the main lawn of Columbia University’s campus in New York City, after having held their ground for over 48 hours in what organizers dubbed the “Gaza solidarity encampment.” This action was coordinated entirely by the students, who are part of various organizations including Columbia University Apartheid Divest, Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine, and Columbia Jewish Voice for Peace.

On Friday, inspired by the bold action taken by student organizers, students at both the University of North Carolina and Miami University in Ohio have begun to stage their own encampment in solidarity with Columbia students and Gaza. In response to the upsurge in student solidarity actions, National Students for Justice in Palestine has issued a “call to action” for students in universities across the country to “seize the university and force the administration to divest, for the people of Gaza.”

Outside of Columbia University, a large crowd has taken to the streets in solidarity with the encampment.

Students initially took over the lawn at 4 a.m. on Wednesday, April 19, and managed to hold their ground for over 24 hours. The energy on the ground at the encampment reached a peak last night when arrests of students on campus appeared to be imminent. Over 400 students poured into campus and formed a march around the encampment to protect students from a potential crackdown by either the New York Police Department or the Columbia administration. Students chanted “We will not stop, we will not rest, we will divest!” Soon, Columbia President Minoushe Shafik would call in the New York Police Department to arrest 122 students on Thursday afternoon. Police then confiscated student belongings, throwing them haphazardly in an alleyway in between dorm buildings on campus.

After the mass arrest, the hundreds of students who had been picketing around the encampment in solidarity moved immediately into action. Around 1,000 poured into the other side of the lawn to start a second encampment, and have been able to successfully hold the lawn since then. 

The last of the arrested students were released late into the night on Thursday, to resounding cheers from fellow students and supporters who stood outside of the 1 Police Plaza NYPD headquarters in solidarity with those held inside. 

Early on day 2 of the encampment, three students at Barnard College, the women’s college that is part of the larger Columbia University system, woke up to their suspensions via email and the disabling of their student IDs. The Columbia administration is reportedly issuing a new wave of suspensions to any student who attempts to pick up their belongings. 

Columbia students are drawing from the example of the 1968 occupation of the University’s Hamilton Hall by students in protest of the Vietnam War. This time around, students are protesting their institution’s complicity in the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza. Their demands are that “Columbia University divests all finances, including the endowment, from corporations that profit from Israeli apartheid, genocide, and occupation in Palestine.”

“Morale on campus is high. People initially expected that we were gonna bleed members on the second day, but that’s not happening,” Grant Miner, Vice President of the Student Workers of Columbia, the union of graduate student workers, told Peoples Dispatch on Thursday, shortly before he himself was arrested. “We’re here to stay until we get divestment. We won’t be moved until we are moved by force, or until Columbia meets our demands. No compromises.” Miner was one of the last to be released late on Thursday night.

Original article by Natalia Marques republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

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Continue ReadingColumbia students continue Gaza solidarity encampment in defiance of police crackdown