The University of Chicago is among the latest American universities to join a nationwide anti-Gaza war movement. Public colleges and private universities alike have seen the rise of a new student movement that’s more militant and assertive than prior calls for justice.
“We’re a generation that says no to these wars, these imperialist interventions, and to colonialism. We say that we deserve an education that is dedicated to human rights and liberation for all, and that if we don’t get it from our elite institutions, we’ll build it ourselves.”
In the United States, ties to Israel exist at the systemic level, everything from student exchange programs to institutions being used for technology that will eventually be used by the Israeli regime, including artificial intelligence technology used for surveillance.
Another student leader in Chicago said that they are demanding that their university pull out of investments in General Dynamics and Raytheon and Boeing, “because they all fund the bombs that are being dropped on Gazan families.”
