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The Encampments review – account of pro-Palestine student protests overtaken by events

Documentary on Columbia unrest of April 2024, when students set up an outdoor camp, is fascinating but much has been superseded by the arrest of student organiser Mahmoud Khalil after the re-election of TrumpThe horror of Gaza is approached in this documentary via a story from the Joe Biden era – and it has arguably been overtaken by events. In 2024, students at New York’s Columbia University set up outdoor pro-Palestinian protest encampments, filling East Butler Lawn with tents; this was in the boisterous tradition of the 1960s anti-Vietnam-war campus demonstrations and the Occupy Wall Street movement, demanding an end to Columbia’s direct and indirect investment in Israel. The protests were led by the calm and personable figure of student Mahmoud Khalil and protesters were entitled to point out that Columbia had, after all, divested from Russia over Ukraine.The protests carried on and spread to other universities in the US, and Columbia president Minouche Shafik came under immense pressure. The encampment escalated to the occupation of a university building, which gave the university authorities the pretext they needed for sending in the NYPD, and the protest was violently, acrimoniously (but not completely) halted. Continue reading...

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