The students in America and Canada have a war to stop, and they are determined to protest the Israeli war on Gaza. The US and Canadian government’s undying support for the genocide in Gaza has brought them under massive protests across university and college campuses, and the students are not backing down, and more campuses in Europe and Australia are joining in a global solidarity movement.
The students are asking for their individual institutions to stop investing in companies aligned with the Israeli war on Gaza. Higher education is a big business and institutions have financial portfolios which include companies benefiting from, or connected to, the war. The students know they can achieve results, because student protests in the 1980’s played a huge role in the fall of the apartheid regime in South Africa.
Similarly, US companies doing business with the oppressive regime in South Africa were pressured to divest of interests, while the American public were pressured by protests to boycott all products made in South Africa. The student protests were part of the successful end to apartheid.
Some universities began threatening students in an effort to stop the protests which have disrupted schedules. Students were threatened with expulsion, and with Princeton University tuition at $50,000 per year, they are taking a monumental risk to protest for freedom for Palestine, a ceasefire, and university divestment. This proves just how passionate these young people are.
McGill University, in Montreal, Canada, has seen protests and rallies since October calling for the school to divest from companies that supply weapons and other items to Israel’s military. Documents on McGill’s website show that it holds investments in companies including Lockheed Martin, a defense contractor that has sold fighter jets to Israel, and Safran, a French air and defense company.
Canadian media, CBC, reported protesters were demanding McGill and Concordia universities “divest from funds implicated in the Zionist state as well as [cut] ties with Zionist academic institutions”. (more...)
US University students in the millions are demanding freedom in Palestine
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