Capitals - Saba:
Amidst the ongoing Zionist war of extermination against the Palestinian people in the occupied and besieged Gaza Strip, student movements have returned to universities in a number of countries in solidarity with Palestine, and to demand the withdrawal of investments from companies linked to the Zionist entity, and to stop the ongoing aggression on the Strip since October 7.
In the United States of America, dozens of students at Columbia University organized protests on Tuesday, the first day of a new school year, in front of the university entrance, demanding that the university administration stop all forms of dealing with the Zionist entity, which has been waging a genocidal war in the Gaza Strip for 11 months.
According to American media, the university administration imposed restrictions on students entering the campus, closed some gates, and ordered students to be searched before entering.
The American ABC network quoted Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate student at the university and the representative of the protesters in the negotiations with the university, as saying: As long as Columbia University continues to invest and benefit from the Zionist apartheid system, students will continue to resist, not only through protests and camps, but by all possible means.
With the same restrictions, Georgetown University decided to restrict student demonstrations and events supporting Gaza, and oblige students to pay fees that may reach several thousand dollars.
The university's decision included that if a person wants to demonstrate, the university administration must be notified seven days in advance, specifying the number of participants, and whether the number is expected to exceed 70 participants or not, and that students will pay the police expenses, which the administration estimated at $65 per police officer per hour.
Georgetown University took these decisions for the first time, as last year witnessed student demonstrations and events for Gaza in a number of colleges on campus. Faculty members and students participated in more than one march on campus. Hundreds of students raised Palestinian flags at graduation ceremonies... demanding that the university administration stop investing in companies that support the Zionist entity.
For their part, the students announced their rejection of the university's decisions... stressing that this cannot happen on the ground, and they considered the university's decisions to be aimed at preventing students from demonstrating and not protecting the demonstrators, while stressing that the students object to these decisions and will not implement them.
In Australia, dozens of students at Monash University in Melbourne gathered on Tuesday inside the university campus, demanding that the administration sever ties with the Zionist entity, chanting slogans against the Zionist occupation, and calling for freedom for Palestine.
Protesters also demonstrated in the center of the German capital Berlin under the slogan "Stop the war of extermination in Gaza and the Judaization of Al-Aqsa Mosque", after a pro-Gaza event in Frankfurt, where hundreds attended the Palestinian culture festival organized by supporters of Palestine, despite attempts to ban the festival.
The scene was repeated in Norway, where activists supporting Palestine organized a protest in the capital Oslo, to denounce the massacres of the Zionist enemy in Gaza and its ongoing incursions into the West Bank, raising Palestinian flags and wearing Palestinian clothes and keffiyeh, to draw attention to the crimes of the occupation against the Palestinians, while an anti-occupation stand was held in front of the central train station in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
Yesterday, Wednesday, Danish police arrested protesters during a demonstration at the University of Copenhagen to demand an end to the Zionist aggression on Gaza, and to call for severing ties with all educational institutions linked to the occupation.
Scenes - published by activists on social media platforms - documented aspects of that demonstration and the police leading some students amidst chants by protesters in support of Palestine and the detainees, in addition to the police arresting climate activist Greta Thunberg who participated in the protest and was wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh.
In addition, activists demonstrated in the French city of Herault in protest against the governor's decision to ban demonstrations and solidarity events with Gaza, following the incident of burning the Jewish synagogue in the city of Grand-Motte.
The global boycott movement "BDS" in Montpellier called for a protest stand, denouncing the authorities' decision to exploit the attack on the synagogue as a pretext to prevent all forms of solidarity with the Palestinian people, after a decision to ban pro-Palestine demonstrations against the Grande-Motte incident, a decision that activists and human rights activists widely condemned.
The University of Victoria in Canada also witnessed pro-Palestinian and anti-university graffiti sweeping the dorms a day before the new students were due to move in. The messages included slogans such as "Free Palestine" and "Stop Funding Genocide", which appeared on buildings and trucks, and red and green hand molds were sprayed near entrances and mailboxes and power outlets.
This event came after a period of prolonged quarterly protests on campus calling for the university to withdraw investments from companies that support the Zionist entity and to sever academic ties with it, while the university continues its investigations and is working quickly to remove the writings, it confirmed that it will take weeks to repair them.
M.M
