Skip to main content
Peaceful student encampments opposing Israel’s genocide have become a political football
Biden tries to look tough by condemning campus violence. But the violent attacks are coming from police and zionist mobs, leading a university workers' union to threaten strike action while faculty members act to defend their students, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER
A pro-Palestinian protester yells ‘Free Palestine’ as she is handcuffed by University of Texas at Austin police on the campus, April 29, 2024, in Austin, Texas

NESTLED in the heart of Washington, DC, a short distance from the White House, sits an oasis of calm. For now. It is the encampment at George Washington University (GWU) where, as at other college campuses across the country, students are protesting against Israel’s genocidal assault on Palestinians in Gaza and calling on their universities to divest from Israel and from the companies that profit there. The GWU encampment also includes students from six other universities in the region.

Scattered among the brightly coloured pup tents are a library, an arts supply table and a large medical tent. In the centre of the occupation is a white board advertising the day’s events.

The statue of George Washington has been draped with a keffiyeh, covered in pro-Palestine stickers and daubed with slogans decrying imperialism, genocide and warmongering. Television crews are parked permanently under shady trees waiting for something to happen. 

Take out shares in the People's Press
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
Angie Zelter
Features / 16 April 2025
16 April 2025
Activist Angie Zelter has been arrested more than a hundred times. She’s not stopping now, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER
LABOUR’S LOST HERO: Tony Benn in Grosvenor Square, London,
Features / 14 April 2025
14 April 2025
Yanis Varoufakis and Jeremy Corbyn laid out a roadmap for peace, justice and equality as they celebrated the legacy of inspirational socialist Tony Benn, reports LINDA PENTZ GUNTER
Pro-Palestinian protesters demanding the release of Columbia
Features / 3 April 2025
3 April 2025
Such betrayals to the authorities are strikingly at odds with the history of Jewish persecution, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER
Us President Donald Trump waves to supporters from his limou
Features / 1 April 2025
1 April 2025
Bizarrely, Trump’s latest attacks now include the National Zoo, but his real and racist agenda is to strip everything black from the country’s cultural institutions, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER