BOSTON — Pro-Palestinian student activists continued protests at colleges across the country, as demonstrations spread to more campuses Thursday and students from California to Georgia, Boston to Florida, redoubled efforts to draw attention to the war in Gaza.
The intent behind the protest is to express disdain against Texas Senate Bill 17, which prohibits Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) offices and initiatives at public colleges and universities across the state. Earlier this month, almost 60 UT Austin employees were laid off because of their work in DEI roles.
Officials said: Protesters had six demands, among them an academic boycott of Israel, protecting free speech on campus, stopping displacement in Palestinian territories, no policing on campus, and calling on USC to “end the silence on the genocide and Palestine."
But Police however, continued to confront protesters on some campuses not to course mayharm, and more demonstrators had been arrested at Emerson College, the University of Southern California and the University of Texas at Austin. At campuses across the nation, students who want their schools to cut ties with corporations doing business with Israel were organizing encampments, chanting, and holding demonstrations.
