Washington:

Student protests over the war in Gaza have swept the U.S. in past weeks, with police clearing a number of encampments, at times after confrontations between protesters and counter-protesters; other tent protests dismantled after universities agreed to protesters’ demands; and some demonstrations continuing.

Here are details on the protests:

WHAT DO THE PRO-PALESTINIAN PROTESTERS WANT?

Across campuses where protests have broken out, students have called for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, an end to U.S. military assistance for Israel, university divestment from arms suppliers and other companies profiting from the war, and amnesty for students and faculty members who have been disciplined or fired for protesting.

The students are protesting Israel’s offensive in Gaza, which it launched after a Hamas attack on Oct. 7 that Israel says killed 1,200 people. Israel has killed over 34,000 people in retaliation, according to Gaza health authorities.

WHO ARE THE PROTESTERS SUPPORTING PALESTINIANS?

Pro-Palestinian protests have drawn students, faculty and outside activists, including of Jewish and Muslim faiths. The groups organizing the protests include Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace.

The encampments have hosted a diverse array of teach-ins, interfaith prayers and musical performances.

Organizers have disavowed violence against pro-Israel counter-protesters, although some Jewish students have said they feel unsafe on campus and unnerved by chants they call antisemitic.

Some city leaders and university administrators have said activists from outside campus have co-opted or orchestrated protests. The University of Texas, Austin, for instance, said of the 79 people arrested on its campus on April 29, 45 had no affiliation with the university.

WHO ARE THE COUNTER PROTESTERS?

Campus counter protests have been led by Israeli American and Zionist groups as well as fellow students and Jewish-American community members.

Hundreds of people attended a counter rally at UCLA in Los Angeles organized by the Israel advocacy group the Israeli American Council. A Jewish student activist at UCLA posted video of himself being barred from an area of campus by pro-Palestinian protesters.

A scuffle broke out at the University of California, Berkeley on May 1 between the co-founder of Zionist group Students Supporting Israel and a pro-Palestinian protester.

At Arizona State University student counter protesters helped police dismantle a protest encampment on April 27. Hundreds of students at the University of Mississippi, some waving U.S. flags and banners supporting former President Donald Trump, chanted against pro-Palestinian protesters on May 2.

WHAT HAS BEEN THE RESPONSE FROM AUTHORITIES?

Some school administrators have called in local law enforcement to arrest protesters and clear camps and sit ins. Others have let camps operate or reached deals to end protests.

Columbia sent in police on April 18, a day after students set up a camp on the Manhattan campus. On April 30 police again raided the camp and a building occupied by students, making hundreds of arrests. President Minouche Shafik said the camp was an unauthorized protests that had made the campus “intolerable” for many Jewish students.

The University of California, Berkeley has allowed a pro-Palestinian camp so long as it does not disrupt campus operations and there is no threat of violence.

Northwestern University, Brown University and Rutgers University are among colleges that have reached deals to disband camps. Brown will hold a vote on possible divestment from firms connected with Israel. Rutgers agreed to set up an Arab cultural center and look into creation of a Middle East studies department.

WHAT HAS BEEN THE IMPACT ON REGULAR CAMPUS LIFE?

Columbia has at times had to switch to all-virtual classes.

The University of Southern California called off its main-stage graduation ceremony after canceling the valedictorian speech by a Muslim student and dozens of arrests after police cleared a pro-Palestinian encampment.

California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, canceled in-person classes after students barricaded themselves in an administrative building.

The University of Michigan said it would allow free expression and peaceful protest at its early May graduation ceremonies but would stop “substantial disruption.”

HOW ARE POLITICAL LEADERS RESPONDING?

Democratic President Joe Biden, who has been criticized by the protesters for supplying funding and weapons to Israel, told reporters on Thursday that Americans had the right to demonstrate but not to unleash violence.

Trump, the Republican candidate for the 2024 election, called the campus protests “tremendous hate” and said the April 30 police raid on Columbia “was a beautiful thing to watch.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

A cause celebre is ringing out across Harvard Yard, Columbia’s South Lawn, Yale’s Beinecke Plaza and UC Berkeley’s Sproul Plaza: Disclose and divest.

And university students say they won’t stop protesting against Israel until that demand is met.

“We’re willing to risk suspension, expulsion and arrest, and I think that that will put pressure,” said Malak Afaneh, a law student at University of California, Berkeley, and a protest organizer.

She and her fellow pro-Palestinian demonstrators want universities to cut their investments in everything tied to Israel and weapons that fuel the war in Gaza. That means funds run by BlackRock, Google as well as Amazon’s cloud service, Lockheed Martin and even Airbnb.

It’s a long-shot demand – university administrators and lawmakers have for decades rejected the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement against Israel, viewing it as antisemitic because it calls into question the legitimacy of the Jewish state and singles out the policies of one country.

It’s fiercely opposed by many donors and alumni, and what’s more, acting on the BDS concept is discouraged by laws in more than half of US states, including New York and California. That’s unlikely to change anytime soon.

“I have consistently opposed all forms of antisemitism, including discrimination against and demonization of the people of Israel through the BDS movement,” said California Assembly Democratic Caucus Chair Rick Chavez Zbur. “I would strongly oppose any attempts to change laws protecting against such discrimination.”

Yet it’s gaining proponents, especially among students at elite universities since Oct. 7, when Hamas attacked Israel and sparked the conflict in Gaza that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians.

They’re chanting on college grounds, waving Palestinian flags, wearing keffiyehs and beating drums. Encampments have sprouted on campuses, including at Harvard where about 30 tents currently stand in front of the John Harvard statue, according to the Harvard Crimson.

Some protesters, including at Columbia and Berkeley, have threatened Jewish students and expressed support for Hamas, which is designated a terrorist organization by the US.

All that has left universities struggling to balance the right to free speech with the need for maintaining order and ensuring the safety of students. But on the question of divestment, they are unmoved.

Harvard, which has the largest US endowment at almost $51 billion, made clear this month it “opposes calls for a policy of boycotting Israel and its academic institutions.” Brown refused to acknowledge BDS demands while students led an eight-day hunger strike. Yale this week wouldn’t even consider a proposal to divest from weapons makers and instead police rounded up protesters outside of the Schwarzman Center, arresting more than 40 students.

BDS supporters take inspiration from the drive to isolate South Africa during the apartheid era – including actions taken at the time by Columbia, Michigan State and California universities – and recent pushes for colleges to address fossil fuel holdings.

This time at Michigan State, where groups of students are camped in tents in People’s Park, there’s no appetite for severing ties with Israel.

“Divestment would conflict with stewarding the institution’s financial health, would increase investment risks, and limit returns and jeopardize the assurance resources will continue to be available now and for future generations,” said Sandy Pierce, chair of Michigan State University’s board, speaking earlier this month at a Board of Trustees meeting.

Columbia in February declined a proposal to withdraw financial support from Israel, months before students set up tents on the Morningside Heights campus and created a standoff with the university that resulted in more than 100 arrests.

Ray Guerrero, 27, who’s studying for a masters in public health, helped pen the divestment proposal for the Columbia University Apartheid Divest coalition. The group has a litany of demands, including cutting ties to Israeli academic institutions, defunding public safety and reparations for the indigenous people of New York. Guerrero understands the goals are lofty for the immediate term, but stresses the main focus for now is disclosure and divestment around Columbia’s $13.6 billion endowment.

Layla Saliba, a 24-year-old studying for a masters in social work, is part of CUAD’s research team, which she said has been studying the school’s financial disclosures, including its tax forms and 13Fs disclosures to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

“We were only able to get about 0.6% of their investments as public information,” she said.

The latest 13F discloses just $47 million of its holdings, with the vast majority stock in Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. That leaves billions of dollars undisclosed.

“That’s really concerning because our endowment, yes, it’s funded by benefactors, it’s funded by donors, but a portion of that is also funded with our tuition dollars,” Saliba said. “And we feel that as students, we need to have more transparency on that.”

Universities say the protesters’ claims aren’t accurate.  

The University of California, which opposes any boycott of Israel, said in a statement that tuition fees are not used for investments. College endowments are almost always funded with donations and investment gains. What’s more, they fund financial aid for students and other operating expenses such as teacher salaries.

And the challenge isn’t just ideological. Endowments typically don’t hold large concentrations of single stocks as they used to decades ago, when activists targeted companies operating in South Africa.

Endowments have long relied on external managers, including private equity firms and hedge funds. Almost 700 institutions hold about $840 billion in endowment assets. They also use ETFs, index funds or mutual funds that pool hundreds of stocks and bonds.

With private equity, a school’s money may be locked up for several years, without an option to withdraw, while hedge fund managers can rapidly move in and out of securities without disclosing their trades to investors.

“These active strategies are not buying stocks to hold on for the long term,” said Philip Zecher, chief investment officer of Michigan State University’s $4 billion fund. “They’re looking to make money off trading. It’s not like your grandmother buying AT&T stock and sitting on it for 50 years.”

The fight against fossil fuel investment, a cause championed by students for decades, also shows how hard it can be to implement divestment. Universities largely haven’t switched strategies to sell holdings, which are frequently tied up in long-term private equity funds, even as they’ve committed to policies designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on campuses.

Despite the setbacks and opposition, some pro-Palestine protesters are undeterred.

“It seems like a no for now, but students will keep pushing,” said Lumisa Bista, a junior studying astrophysics at Yale, who was among protesters at the university who slept overnight at Beinecke Plaza this week. “I’ll keep pushing.” 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)