Columbia University students will press ahead with their protests againat the Israeli aggression on Gaza Strip

Columbia University students pledged to defend their tents erected in the main garden of the university’s campus in New York, and to continue their protests denouncing the Israeli aggression on Gaza Strip, despite the university’s authorities’ threat to expel them and take punitive measures against them.

Agence France-Presse quoted the organizers of the student protests at American universities as confirming that their movements are peaceful, targeting the Israeli government and demanding that it be tried for the crimes it committed during the aggression against Gaza.

One student group called on demonstrators to gather to “protect the camp” before a deadline later today to remove the tents.

University representatives indicated the failure of talks they began last week with the protest organizers to evacuate the tents, pointing out that the university offered to accelerate the review of students’ proposals to withdraw investments with the universities of the Zionist entity and improve transparency.

Protesters chant “Free Palestine” at Paris’s Sorbonne University

 In Paris, protesters angry over Gaza war took to Paris’ Sorbonne University on Monday, chanting ‘Free Palestine’ at the university’s gates while some students set up tents in the courtyard.

Days after similar protests at Paris’s Sciences Po elite school, the gathering at the Sorbonne was the latest sign that demonstrations on US campuses were spilling over to Europe as the devastating war is in its seventh month, according to Reuters.

The protests, which lead the university to close the building for the day, were peaceful as students urged the institution – one of the world’s oldest universities – to condemn Israel’s actions.

Police were securing the street with the main entrance, facing a group of around 50 students, a Reuters reporter saw.

The Israeli aggression against Gaza Strip has so far killed at least 34,488 Palestinians.

Several French politicians, including Mathilde Panot who heads the hardleft LFI group of lawmakers in the National Assembly had called supporters to join the Sorbonne protests on social media.

Hamda Mustafa