Anti-Israel protests set to reignite on US and Canadian college campuses as YDSA plans student strike

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Pro-Palestinian college students are planning to skip classes at the start of the upcoming semester to pressure their schools to divest from Israel, according to a report by The Free Press on Monday.

The far-left organization Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA), published a new resolution last month urging its members across over 100 university chapters nationwide to join a “Student Strike for Palestine.”

The purpose of the resolution is to reignite the anti-Israel protests and tent encampments that spread to over 40 American and Canadian college campuses during the 2023-2024 academic year.

Encampments were set up to protest the war in Gaza, which began when Hamas terrorists invaded Israel’s southern border, brutally killing 1,200 men, women and children, and kidnapping 250 people, both alive and deceased into the Gaza enclave.

Protesters demanded that colleges divest from companies doing business in or with Israel, but this yielded little response from many school administrations.

YDSA chapters are once again being encouraged to “organize democratically run campaigns demanding their school’s divestment from Israel, a ceasefire in Gaza, and free speech on campus,” the report stated.

During previous protests, Jewish students reported feeling unsafe on campus, and violent incidents occurred at several universities, including the University of California-LA, Columbia University and other Ivy League schools across the United States.

The Free Press report cited an article published by the YDSA, in which a member claimed the encampments “did not win” despite being the “largest national student movement of our lifetime.”

The publication also stated that a student strike would pressure the universities to meet the demands of the protesters because “no one can just turn around and plug their ears when the university can no longer call itself a university.”

The YDSA further stated it would form a “Palestine Committee” to guide and oversee the management of the planned strike.

The committee would provide training to “define the nature of a student strike, explain why a student strike is strategic in terms of YDSA winning our demands, and help plan an escalatory campaign timeline for chapters,” according to the report.

Columbia University, UCLA and New York University (NYU) – hotbeds of anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian protests last year – are among the schools that host YDSA chapters.

In July, a lawsuit was settled at NYU after Jewish students accused the school of failing to stop incidences of antisemitism on campus, claiming it had violated federal civil rights laws by not adequately enforcing its own anti-discrimination policies, including the permission of violent chants like “Gas the Jews” and “Hitler was right.”

The NYU students also alleged their complaints to administrators were “ignored, slow-walked, or met with gaslighting.”

On Wednesday, Columbia University President Minouche Shafik announced her resignation, following months of campus protests turned violent. Shafik had previously testified before a Congressional panel investigating antisemitism on college campuses, acknowledging her school could do more to combat the issue.

Columbia University announced last week that the threat to safety has escalated, and they will now restrict campus access to individuals with school IDs and their registered guests.

According to a Reuters report, many college campuses are tightening protest rules, updating disciplinary processes and increasing security in preparation for the upcoming semester.