PARIS, France: Student protests against the Israeli military incursion on Gaza has spread across several countries with no truce in sight.
WeNews presents a round-up of the main demonstrations across the nations.
United States
Demonstrators have gathered on at least 40 college campuses in the United States since April 17, often setting up tent camps to protest the rising death toll in the Gaza Strip.
According to US media, nearly 2,000 people were detained in demonstrations reminiscent of protests against the Vietnam War.
In recent days, police have violently broken up several student sit-ins, including one at New York University at the request of its administrators.
Protesters barricaded inside Columbia University, the epicenter of student protests in New York City, complained of police brutality as officers cleared the faculty.
At the University of California, Los Angeles, hundreds of police cleared the encampment, tearing down barriers and arresting more than 200 protesters.
Brown University on Rhode Island has reached an agreement with students to remove their camp from the property in exchange for it considering divesting “companies enabling and profiting from the genocide in Gaza.”
President Joe Biden broke his silence on the protests on Thursday, insisting that “order must prevail”.
France
Police on Friday forcibly evacuated protesters from a pro-Gaza sit-in at Sciences Po in Paris, the country’s top political science school.
According to authorities, 91 people were arrested.
Sciences Po’s interim administrator Jean Basseres rejected the students’ demand to investigate the institution’s ties to Israeli universities.
The Union of Jewish Students in France set up a “dialogue table” outside the nearby Sorbonne University on Friday.
At Paris-Dauphine University, administrators banned a conference featuring Rima Hassan, a French-Palestinian expert on international law who had loudly condemned the “genocide” in Gaza.
The ban, introduced on the grounds that there was a threat of public order being disturbed, was overturned by the judicial authorities.
Germany
Police intervened to evacuate protesters outside Humboldt University in central Berlin on Friday.
A number of protesters were “forcibly” removed after they refused to move to another location, police said.
Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner criticized the protest, saying on X that the city does not want to see events like those in the United States or France.
Canada
Students protested the war in Gaza in several cities, including Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver.
Hundreds of protesters joined the first and largest encampment at McGill University in Montreal in the face of the threat of a police background check.
They promised to remain there until McGill severed all financial and academic ties to Israel.
University administrators said Wednesday they wanted to remove the encampment immediately, saying some of the protesters were not members of the student body.
Australia
Hundreds of rival supporters of Gaza and Israel clashed at Sydney University on Friday, shouting slogans and waving flags.
Except for a few heated exchanges, the protest and counter-protest took place peacefully.
The protesters camped for 10 days on the green lawn in front of the university for the truce. They want it to cut ties with Israeli institutions and refuse funding from arms companies.
Ireland
Students at Trinity College Dublin launched a sit-in on Friday, calling the protest a “Palestine solidarity camp”.
Mexico
Dozens of students from the country’s largest university, UNAM, set up camp in the capital on Thursday, chanting “Free Palestine” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will overcome.”
They want the Mexican government to cut off all ties with Israel.
Switzerland
About 100 students have occupied the entrance of Lausanne University since Thursday, calling for an academic boycott of Israel and an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. The peaceful negotiations are expected to continue until Monday.
