As faculty advisor for Purdue University Northwest’s Students for Justice in Palestine, I was pleased and honored to expand my solidarity work for Palestine liberation by editing this special issue on Palestine for Protest. We received several outstanding contributions from students and faculty from the US, Canada, Tunisia, and Palestine, essays which are included here.
This volume opens with a contribution by the US National Students for Justice in Palestine staff, “The Student Intifada: The Imperial University and the Role of the Student,” provides an introductory overview of the encampments at Stanford and Columbia Universities. The nsjp understands the university system which serves “as an outpost to both replicate and employ the colonial ideology that is at the very basis of its existence,” while standing on the “dispossessed land of indigenous peoples.” Within the university, students themselves are positioned as an “elite” class; even as “functionally the corporate structure of the university is set up to limit student power.” This essay directly acknowledges “how the encampments as a tactic are an expression of the student role within the imperial university,” expressed in calls to “globalize the intifada,”—all of which requires “direct confrontation with the empire.” Demands for disclosure and divestment were expanded to include: 1) defending Palestinian activism and Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim students who have been targeted, 2) declaring the occupation, colonization, and ethnic cleansing of the US-Israeli genocide on Gaza illegal and indefensible.
Encampments leveraged power against institutional targets and learned from previous anti-imperialist and anti-colonial struggles, like movements against the Vietnam war. The student takeover of Hamilton Hall in 1968 was reviewed extensively to inspire Colombia’s Gaza Solidarity Encampment, which in turn sparked a global student intifada—as illustrated in Rim Chakraoui’s report below on Tunisia’s student activism. Kifaah cites Joanna Kenty’s (2024) assessment of the encampments as “protest pedagogy, an act of protest teaching ‘forbidden’ knowledge.” Thus, for Kifaah, (2026), solidarity encampments “were not interfering in the learning process, they were the embodiment of critical inquiry and hands-on learning the universities claim to value,” while challenging what Paolo Freire called the banking model of education and substituting dialogue. nsjp notes that “almost every encampment had scheduled educational programming.” Meanwhile, encampments used the internet and social media—news of the Colombia encampment spread quickly via social media, inspiring others to build encampments within days, which reinforced the messaging of encampments with shared demands across the US and around the world.
Chakraoui’s (2026) contribution, mentioned above, recounts the surge of pro-Palestinian actions across Tunisia, albeit unlike in the US, often with university administration support. Chakraoui notes that students in Tunisia “conceptualized a renewed accountability wherein political awareness is not implicated in civic and decolonial responsibility, but also a harbinger of change … students in Tunisia and across the world are writing a new narrative of resistance.” In Tunisia, universities redefined their roles “as a counterforce and platforms to articulate a dynamic of resistance.” In the unfurling outrage at the massacres in Gaza, “student activism was fueled by the unconditional support of European and American governments to Israel.” When the crackdown on protests intensified, “voices rose more stridently into a student Intifada.”
One instance that contributed to increased student protests was an incident at the French Institute Wall (fit) in October 2023. After the institute whitewashed over a Palestinian flag, students responded by layering the wall with pro-Palestinian, anti-Zionist, and anti-imperialist slogans. The fit wall became a space of contestation—a public space that became a “wall of discord” and an arena challenging French neo-imperialism. Slogans condemned the French presence in Tunisia: “Macron assassin!” “Once a settler, always a settler!”—emblematic of the wider battle over symbols … implicit in any political and ideological confrontation.” After US president Joe Biden visited Israel to offer “iron-clad” support to Netanyahu, protesters demanded the expulsion of the French ambassador from Tunisia.
Under pressure from students, Tunisian university presidents called on staff and students to organize blood and medicine donations along with fundraising as a token of solidarity with Palestine. Students condemned the call as a form of normalization. Faculty of Law and Political Science in Tunis condemned the criminal actions of the Zionists and a violation of international law. In response, Tunisia offered scholarships and lodging to Palestinian students in Tunisia—granted to 144 students from Gaza.
In November 2023, the General Union of Students of Tunisia called for the “University Deluge,” to last for one week at all Tunisian universities. Just thirteen days after the Colombian University encampments began in New York, Tunisian students began their own encampments—insisting that the encampments would continue until all alliances with Israel were ended. Meanwhile, students held a sit-in and boycotted classes and exams. University administrators complied by ending ties with the Israel group kas, and the Scientific Council of the Institute of Press and Information Science (ipis) declared that “partnerships with organizations openly supporting Israel have been terminated.”
Tragically, Fares Khalid died on April 7, 2025, during a day of solidarity with Palestine--part of nationwide actions called by civil society associations, unions, and the Tunisian student union. Fares died after falling as he raised a Palestinian flag on a university building. Thousands of students attended Khalid’s funeral, while the Palestinian National Liberation Movement, Fatah, and the Al-Qassam Brigades issued official condolences. Shortly after Khalid’s death, on April 28, 2025, student protesters challenged visiting French professors at Manouba Univeersity, who advocated normalization of relations with Israel. Students overwhelmed the amphitheaters and interrupted the Franch speakers, while chanting “Free Palestine, Out with the Zionists!”
A consortium of Tunisian academics held a study day on Palestiine in May 2025.
Chakraoui concludes that protests and solidarity demonstrations among students, faculty, and university administrations “showcase unwavering support for justice and human rights.” He notes that actions in Tunisia “were by no means isolated incidents of student activism but part of a broader transnational solidarity with Gaza … Gaza has recalibrated the world; Gaza has awakened humanity.”
The following contribution, “Confronting Intellectual Complicity: Faculty Organizing for Palestine on US Campuses,” by Jennifer Goett and Alexandra Allweiss (2026) from Michigan State University moves from student actions and encampments to faculty solidarity for Palestine liberation. This essay indicates faculty have consistently protested Israeli genocide, organized public talks and teach-ins, and developed course content addressing genocide. Some have also joined protests and faculty encampments, including at the New School in New York City.
Goett and Allweiss note that the UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese’s investigation of companies and institutions, including universities, complicit “in international crimes connected to Israel’s unlawful occupation,” encouraged Michigan State faculty to return to its “rich history of antiwar activism,” exemplified by msu Faculty for Peace in Vietnam and the Southern African Liberation Committee (salc). salc persuaded the msu Board of Trustees to divest $7 million in South African stocks.
Unfortunately, the history of msu Palestine solidarity activism is not well-chronicled or celebrated. The Organization of Arab Students (oas), formed in 1952, organized an anti-racism conference in 1973 following Israel’s 1967 occupation of the West Bank. In short, “connections between the US war machine and empire as well as colonialism and apartheid across Southeast Asia, South Africa, and the Middle East are evident in the history of msu campus activism … Palestine solidarity grew out of a range of commitments, including anti-imperialism, antiracism, socialism, civil rights, religious beliefs, and a focus on peace and justice.” msu faculty also joined academic boycott movements, campus events, and writing newspaper editorials.
One galvanizing moment was the Israeli murder of Tareq Thabeet and fifteen members of his family. Thabeet was a Humphrey Fellow at msu. Hurriya, a collective of 20+ student groups, mobilized for msu divestment which was approved by msu’s student government and the Council of Graduate Students. Faculty joined the effort by submitting a resolution to the msu Faculty Senate. Some faculty also formed a Middle East and North Africa Faculty and Staff Association, organizing the Palestiine Education Project. In April 2024, Hurriya erected msu’s student encampment. Faculty wrote trustees and administrators demanding respect for student rights to free speech and peaceful protest. Faculty also sponsored teach-ins, served as witnesses to negotiations, and began investigating msu’s financial investments in corporations supporting Israeli genocide, publishing a 45-page report in January 2025, titled, “The Cost of Complicity: A Call for Ethical Investment at Michigan State Uuiversity.” The report found that msu held $872 million investments in corporations that supported or profited from Israel’s genocide and occupation, including Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrup Grrumman, General Dynamics, and L3Harris, which supply weaponry used in airstrikes and ground invasions.
Goett and colleagues close their essay, writing that: “msu faculty organizing and the development of a report calling for divestment build on a sustained history of faculty, staff, and student organizing for a more just campus and world since at least the early 1960s. Faculty mobilization in defense of Palestinian rights reflects wider scholarly and activist commitments to social justice across diverse geographic regions … Palestinian liberation is intertwined with other struggles for justice, such as freedom of speech, academic freedom, and immigrant justice … Palestine solidarity [is] more urgent than ever … to support a more just and equitable shared future.”
Alexander Rudenshiold and Mark Gradoni (2026) are leaders of uaw 4811, which represents graduate academic workers for the University of California system, including 10 campuses and five medical centers. Rudenshiold and Grandoni’s contribution “No Matter How Valid: Historicizing the 2024 uaw 4811—University of California Strike,” explains the “political” strike launched by uaw 4811 in defense of student encampments across the uc system. The authors suggest that the uc strike “represents a model for future labor action targeting `political’ issues such as free speech and international solidarity.” In 2014, uaw 2865, the precursor to 4811, passed a Boycott, Divest, Sanctions resolution with 65% approval—a rebuke to the International uaw and afl-cio relations with the Israeli Federation of Labor. uaw 2865 members formed Organizing for Student Worker Power (oswp) following a “mass action” unionization model—part of a union reform movement that brought uaw president Shawn Fein to leadership.
One immediate weakness appeared during the uaw 4811 strike: Student protests targeted the University of California administrations; uaw actions were organized in coalitions with other unions and targeted labor federations and political bodies. In fact, “Labor for Palestine LA” persuaded the Los Angeles County Federation to join calls for a Gaza ceasefire. uaw 2865 received membership approval at 90% for pursuing ceasefire resolutions by labor and others. Perhaps more importantly, although uaw 4811 worked with Palestine Solidarity Encampments at uc Berkeley; at uc Irvine “Rank-n-File”—which opposed the mass action model for labor action—physically blocked 4811 members from participation. After ucla’s encampment was violently dispersed by police; Zionists stormed the camp, beating students and others. On May 3, uaw 4811 filed Unfair Labor Practice charges against University of California with the Public Employee Relations Board for endangering worker safety and curtailing their right to free speech.
On May 6, the uaw 4811 Executive Board called for a strike authorization vote (sav). uaw 4811 also raised other demands with University of California: 1) negotiate with Palestine Solidarity Encampments; 2) amnesty for encampment arrestees; 3) respect for free speech on campus; 4) disclosure and divestment of war profiteering university investments; and 4) funding for reemployment of conscientious objectors in labs funded by war. Although uc claimed, “the uaw strike vote would violate the no-strike clause,” on May 15, 79% of members voted to strike. Almost immediately the National Students for Justice in Palestine criticized uaw 4811 for adopting a “rolling strike” model intended to allow winning uaw member support, urging the union to immediately strike at all 10 campuses. uaw 4811 maintained this would “diminish the strike threat [with] no time for campuses to build their actual strike capacity through explicit worker commitments.”
Once uc Irvine joined the strike on June 5, University of California “forum shopped” in the conservative Orange County Superior Court, where uc won a temporary restraining order (tro), which now placed uaw leaders and members to face contempt-of-court charges. Nonetheless, Rudenshiold and Gradoni suggest that “for unions in which democratic reformers have successfully opened avenues for leadership, such as the uaw, the intensity and perseverance of organizing efforts has borne fruit; uaw President Shawn Fain, Region 9A Director Brandon Mancilla, and Region 6 Director Mike Miller have publicly called for a ceasefire and committed to divesting union funds from Israel.”
Meanwhile, negotiations between uaw 4811 and the University of California system secured an unprecedented victory— “workers producing research they found morally objectionable can receive money to transition to another laboratory or project.” Finally, the authors note that the uaw 4811 strike provides a “mass organizing model for defending workers’ rights to pro-Palestine free speech and to fight for international solidarity … this development of mass political labor consciousness, through concerted worker-to-worker organizing, can extend the fight against imperialism beyond already-engaged activists to build the popular consensus necessary to radically reshape labor’s role in Palestine … to an ally in the struggle for liberation.”
Following the assessment of the uaw strike in California, we have Linda Christian’s, “All Out for Palestine: Community Protests in a Western Canadian City” (2026), which includes interviews with four pro-Palestinian activists leading the All Out for Palestine protests. Each of the interviews features committed pro-Palestine activists, beginning with Candice, a social justice and peace activist who advocates for human rights. Candice works with Independent Jewish Voices, Peace Alliance Winnipeg, and the Mennonite Church. Candice and others petitioned the mayor and then the Winnipeg Equity and Diversity subcommittee of the city, which drafted its own statement in support of ceasefire. The first Indigenous Premier in Canada, Wab Kinew, has been mostly pro-Israel, but at an Iftar (the meal ending the Muslim daily Ramadan) announced that Canada should call for an immediate ceasefire. Christia notes the influence of Zionism in Canada: In 2023, the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg raised over $6 million. In contrast, “Palestinian organizations are small and mostly volunteer led.”
Christian interviews Rubin, who attends to issues of the Holocaust and antisemitism education. Rubin explains how the Jewish Foundation of Western Canada uses the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism, which he sees as “intended to shield Zionism and its settler colonial project.” Rubin’s parents were survivors of the Holocaust, escaped from Poland, to the Netherlands, and then to Canada, where they settled among other Jewish immigrants. Rubin identifies as Canadian, not Israeli, not even Jewish: “I identify as a human being having shared values with all of humanity.” His loyalties have been “with the oppressed and I saw the Palestinians as an oppressed people.” Rubin’s uncle served in Haganah (a Zionist para-military group), which he now understands as “European Jews devastated by Nazi genocide, [carrying out] a genocidal campaign under the `category of a Jewish movement’”—seduced by Zionism.
Harold, like Rubin, was not steeped in what he called “Israelism”—the religious pro-Israel indoctrination.” Harold is the main organizer for Wiinnipeg’s Independent Jewish Voices (ijv) which is “grounded in Jewish tradition that opposes all forms of racism and advocates for justice land peace for all in Isrrael-Palestine.” Harold’s politics are left social-democratic and anti-imperialist, rooted in ideas of justice and fairness. His Jewishness finds a connection with the secular humanism of the Sholem Aleichem Community in Winnipeg. Harold sees the “contradiction between Israel’s `right to defend’ and the Palestinian `right to resist’ within imperialism and anti-imperialism, emphasizing the racism inherent is Western and Israeli imperialism.” Harold says, “I don’t like what Israel is doing in my name. It doesn’t make me feel any safer,” especially after local Zionist petitioned Jewish facilities to ban Harold from the buildings.
Ramsey is president of the Canadian Palestinian Association of Manitoba (cpam). Ramsey was born in Canada, but raised in Palestine, where he started kindergarten. His parents moved to Jordan after the 1948 Nakba which destroyed their village Bayt Nabala. All Out for Palestine protest rallies started just after October 7 and have been held every week except for the weekend after the ceasefire agreement in January 2025. Ramsey is worried that several local Zionist lawyers are working to charge him with antisemitism although it has no legal standing. Meanwhile, Ramsey continues to encourage people to protest actual genocide. Harold, Rubin, and Ramsey argue that “antisemitism is necessary for the Zionist project.”
Although for now the Canadian authorities have responded with a crackdown on dissent, “community protestors in Winnipeg are a diverse group united in their advocacy of Palestinian rights, asking the Canadian government to uphold human rights and international law against military occupation, illegal settlements, genocide, ethnic cleansing, and torture of Palestinians.”
In the next article, “Student Protests from Vietnam to Palestine,” Dr. Alice Rothchild (2026), Jewish Voice for Peace Health Advisor, provides an overview of student protests. After noting the history of opposition to the Vietnam war and anti-apartheid campaigns against South Africa; Rothchild turns to the Colombia Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace actions. Colombia Jews for a Ceasefire condemned the university crackdown on student dissent. Meanwhile, Dr. Katherine Franke resigned from Columbia Law School due to “institutional harassment and scrutiny for noting that Israeli students who complete their military service and come to Colombia have `been known to harass Palestinians and other students’ on campus.” After Colombia suspended and expelled students and revoked earned degrees, 19 Israel students, alumni, and post-doctoral students published an open letter claiming the government executive order weaponized antisemitism and not only “undermines free speech but also fails to protect Jewish people.” Following the Columbia Alumni for Israel campaign to “identify Columbia student-Hamas-sympathizers” for arrest and deportation, the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee criticized the “across-the-board attempt to silence and take away the First Amendment right of people simply because they don’t agree. It’s a very dangerous precedent.”
The Colombia encampments soon spread to 174 US universities and others around the world—prompting nine universities to suspend their Students for Justice in Palestine chapters, while Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is trying to ban the organization from all campuses. Simultaneously, Meta (Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp), censored pro-Palestine content and was biased towards Israel. In the midst of this burgeoning turmoil, Rothchild ends with a call to action: “This is the time to mobilize!”
The final essay in this special issue returns to Palestine. Mazin Qumsiyeh and Ariel Guevara (2026) from the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability, at Bethlehem University Palestine provide the essay, “Challenging the Ecocide of Colonization: Case Study of Palestine.” Qumsiyeh and Guevara offer insights into forms of resistance that go beyond protest and appeal, emphasizing the importance of agriculture and traditional methods for sustenance of the environment. They suggest that resistance includes cultural and economic forms such as the Alternative Tourism Group which “challenges the Israeli tourism industry’s appropriation of land and narrative by promoting ethical, community-based tourism that centers the realities of living under occupation.” They note that individuals also resist, “especially young people who take initiatives to protect their environment and educate others.” Additionally, several non-governmental organizations now deal with environment and sustainability issues as a form of sumud in the occupied territories. The Arab Group for the Protection of Nature was founded in Jordan by Palestinians with strong connections to the land and has planted over 3 million trees in Lebanon, Jordan, and Palestine. The authors note that ‘the most effective community resistance works bottom-up to resist environmental injustice”—echoing the experience of the uaw 4811 strike in California. Since 1989, the Maan Development Center has published educational material and established projects like a permaculture farm that makes a huge difference for local resistance to the colonial project.
The authors cite Jennifer Pedersen’s “environmentalism of the occupied,” which can be observed in the West Bank, where environmentalism is understood as a struggle to sustain current and future livelihoods, which includes “securing self-determination and sovereignty over land and resources. In a climate-changed future, with agriculture increasingly under threat across the globe, the strategies and especially the perseverance of Palestinians in their agro-resistance serves as an example for all of us.” In Palestine, farmers lose crops to settler and soldier attacks. Yet they continue.
The Palestinian environment is suffering from loss of natural resources, neglect of the environment, environmental pollution, low water quality, depletion of water resources, and other human impacts leading to habitat loss and decline in biodiversity. This “environmental Nakba is possible to reverse with diligent resistance work and thinking outside the box … we must also challenge the corrupting neoliberal agenda focused on short-term `aid’ that perpetuate the occupation.” The Rome Statute includes environmental destruction as a war crime, “if it causes widespread and severe damage.” Qumsiyeh and Guevara conclude that “activism for environmental justice is central to peace and sustainability.” The examples provided in their essay demonstrate that “indigenous people are a critical component of ecological decolonization—requiring concerted efforts of individuals, organizations, local authorities, and the international community.”
This special issue on Palestine by Protest provides a useful and important contribution to our understanding of the Zionist genocide and ethnic cleansing. A contribution by Dalal Bajes (2026) from Ibn Hadlun University in Turkey, closes off the issue in the Pedagogy Primary section of Protest. In her contribution, “Teaching Resistance,” Bajes discusses how teaching resistance includes opening a space for political and critical thinking and ethical discussions. You are invited to read her essay, along with an interview with Professor Kevin Clements, and Wael Abdelal’s book review on a new edited volume on Gaza.
I leave readers with one final observation about the recurring mention of Israel as an apartheid regime. I suggest that Zionism is not interested in exploiting Palestinian labor, as capitalists in South Africa profited from black African labor. I see the ultimate Zionist goal as not subjugation or exploitation of Palestine, but the total expulsion or extermination of Palestinians.
