Students Speak Out From Free Gaza Encampment - YES! Magazine Solutions Journalism

May 1, 2024

An led by college students around the United States is demanding an end to Israel鈥檚 genocide in Gaza, the ongoing occupation of Palestine, and U.S. arms shipments to Israel. Also central to the demands are calls for universities to from Israel.

In an approach reminiscent of Occupy Wall Street and other movements for social justice, students have set up encampments on their campuses and have been met by and . They also face accusations of antisemitism, in spite of the fact that there are significant numbers of participating in the protests.

The movement鈥檚 include Columbia University, New York University, and the University of Texas at Austin. But the list of campus encampments is growing and expanding into smaller campuses as well.

On April 29, students at set up a Free Gaza encampment鈥攁nd two student organizers named Jacob and Rithik (who used their first names only to protect against official reprisal) spoke with YES! Senior Editor Sonali Kolhatkar on YES! Presents: Rising Up With Sonali from their tent. They explained why they were protesting and gave a visual tour of the encampment.

Sonali Kolhatkar joined YES! in summer 2021, building on a long and decorated career in broadcast and print journalism. She is an award-winning multimedia journalist, and host and creator of聽YES! Presents: Rising Up with Sonali, a nationally syndicated television and radio program airing on Free Speech TV and dozens of independent and community radio stations. She is also Senior Correspondent with the Independent 麻豆社事件 Institute鈥檚 Economy for All project where she writes a weekly column. She is the author of聽Rising Up: The Power of Narrative in Pursuing Racial Justice聽(2023) and聽Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence聽(2005). Her forthcoming book is called聽Talking About Abolition聽(Seven Stories Press, 2025). Sonali is co-director of the nonprofit group, Afghan Women鈥檚 Mission which she helped to co-found in 2000. She has a Master鈥檚 in Astronomy from the University of Hawai鈥檌, and two undergraduate degrees in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin. Sonali reflects on 鈥淢y Journey From Astrophysicist to Radio Host鈥� in her 2014聽聽of the same name.