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Hundreds of people, mostly students, have been arrested this week across the country as pro-Palestine protests spread at college campuses.
Protesters are calling for a cease fire and have now added a new demand: they expect their universities to sell off stocks in companies that directly or indirectly benefit from Israel's actions in Gaza and the West Bank.
Columbia University in New York has shifted to online classes after over 100 pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested last Thursday.
Protests continued this week at several universities in the country where local police departments arrested hundreds more.
At New York University, 133 protesters were taken into custody on Wednesday and later released with summonses to appear in court.
At least 57 protesters were arrested in Austin on Wednesday as a protest sparked on the University of Texas campus, according to a spokeswoman for the Travis County Sheriff's Office, cited by the Associated Press.
Over 90 people were arrested on Wednesday night at the University of Southern California according to the Los Angeles Police Department. The university has since closed the campus and said it expects anyone trespassing to be arrested, in an effort to stop the protests.
Two more people were arrested at Ohio State University. Seventeen were arrested at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. In Boston, 108 people were arrested in an Emerson College encampment, while 48 were arrested at Yale University in New Haven.
More encampments were put together on campuses at the University of Michigan, University of Minnesota and University of California, Berkeley.
Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that "what's happening in America's college campuses is horrific."
"Antisemitic mobs have taken over leading universities. They call for the annihilation of Israel. They attack Jewish students. They attack Jewish faculty," said Netanyahu, who has been widely criticized for the actions of Israel Defense Forces in Gaza, which have taken 34,000 civilian lives according to the Palestinian Health ministry.
Read also: Israel Gears Up For Military Strike In Rafah Despite Biden’s Warning
Student protesters launched an encampment in the Harvard University Yard on Wednesday, demanding the university to "divest from Israel's war in Gaza," the Harvard Crimson reported.
Harvard boasts the largest university endowment in the world, at about $50 billion, which is made up of approximately 14,000 funds.
SEC filings by the Harvard Management Company, which operates the investments, don't show Israeli companies among its largest investments.
Top allocations include stocks from the technology sector, including Alphabet Inc Class C (NASDAQ:GOOG), Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META), NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA), Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) and ASML Holding NV (NASDAQ:ASML).
Protesters at several other colleges also had similar demands, calling for a sell-off of all assets associated with supporting the war effort in Gaza or the Israeli government. The strategy is meant to put symbolic pressure on Israel to reach a cease-fire.
The demand is seen as a clear way in which universities can take direct action against Israel.
While the stakes that universities hold on the targeted companies are not enough to cause significant disruption on an economic scale, the action would be considered a win by the protesting bodies as well as a symbolic gesture that could influence public opinion on the issue.
Columbia University student and protest leader Mahmoud Khalil said to NBC News that his university "should stop investing in this genocide," as protesters sang to the slogan of "disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest."
Columbia President Minouche Shafi marked Friday as the deadline for dismantling the ongoing encampment at the university before having "to consider alternative options.”
What "divesting" actually means varies from protest to protest.
According to the NY Times, protesters at Yale and Cornell demanded for a divestment in all weapon manufacturers including Boeing Co (NYSE:BA).
At Columbia on the other hand, protesters see companies that are indirectly benefiting from Israeli as targets for divestment, including Alphabet-owned Google, which has a $1.2-billion contract with the Israeli government for cloud services.
Last week, it became known that Google fired 28 employees who participated in a sit-in protesting the same contract from within the company. The contract also includes Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN).
Airbnb Inc (NASDAQ:ABNB) was also targeted by students because it has open listings of lodging in areas of the West Bank occupied by Israel.
By Thursday, no major U.S. university had publicly announced plans to divest in companies following protester's demands.
Shutterstock image: Supporters from various groups and some students continue pro-Palestinian protest at Columbia University in New York on April 19, 2024, as part of “March for Divestment.”
