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Irish Times
a day ago
- Politics
- Irish Times
The Encampments director Kei Pritsker: ‘The students risked a lot to stand with the people of Gaza. That's tremendous'
The Palestine solidarity encampments at Columbia University , in uptown Manhattan, were not the first such US student protests during the continuing Gaza conflict. But they came to be the most impactful. Beginning in April 2024, the occupation saw tents spreading across the Morningside Heights campus of the Ivy League institution. Flags and banners were unfurled. Chants went up. That first protest, seeking Columbia's financial divestment from Israel, was broken up when Minouche Shafik, the university's president, authorised the New York Police Department to enter the campus and conduct mass arrests. Nothing like this had happened since the 1968 demonstrations against the Vietnam War. 'Columbia wasn't actually the first campus to set up an encampment,' Kei Pritsker, director of a fine new documentary on the protests, confirms. 'Stanford University, Vanderbilt University – they also had encampments going. But the whole world saw how Columbia had called the police on their own students – students who paid tuition to study at that school, only to be arrested by their own faculty, by their own school administration.' Pritsker's The Encampments stands as a lucid, sober examination of a still-developing story. The director, unapologetically on the side of the protesters, reflects that mood in his own conversation. He lays out the case calmly. The anger is implied, not explicit. READ MORE 'People saw this happening in broad daylight,' he says. 'These videos were circulated around the world. There was so much outrage over the treatment of students who weren't bothering anyone, who were protesting peacefully. The hypocrisy of it all. The fact that the students were saying, 'Hey, we're doing this in the spirit of education.'' The protests spread across the United States' universities and then across the world. The students in Manhattan returned and tensions continued to mount. There were disputes about anti-Semitic incidents happening in the vicinity of the encampments. The university ended up cancelling its graduation ceremony in May of 2024. Shafik resigned that August. Future histories will position all the testimonies in proper context, but The Encampments is an invaluable first draft. There is a lot to unpick here about the general condition of American education and, more specifically, about its relationship with the almighty dollar. 'The schools have this false reputation – it's almost a caricature – that's been built up by conservatives, that they are run by Marxists, by leftists,' Pritsker says of the top US universities. 'The reality is the schools are really run like businesses, especially the private institutions. In the United States the average American pays more for education than any person in the world, but we have very low outcomes for education. 'That's because the schools are run like a business. The money is not just being invested in big sports stadiums and huge monuments but also just in inflating the endowment of the school. Inflating the investment portfolio. Buying real-estate investments.' [ Protesting students will not be shamed, badgered or bribed into silence Opens in new window ] The film puts the case that Columbia's vigorous response to the protests was driven more by financial concerns than by any ideological unease. 'It's clear to us that Columbia's main consideration was how their donors would feel about their reaction to the protests, not whether the school was on the moral side of history or if they were actually invested in genocide,' Pritsker says. 'They were concerned with pleasing their donors – who happened to support Israel.' The Encampments further argues that members of Columbia's board of trustees may have direct interest in organisations that would suffer if the university divested as demanded by the students. 'They're titans of industry. They are wealthy. They are influential in politics and in culture,' he says, moving on to discuss a former secretary of homeland security. 'We talk about a few like Jeh Johnson, who is someone who sits on the Columbia board of trustees and also sits on the board of Lockheed Martin, which is a weapons manufacturer that builds weapons that are sold to Israel.' Pritsker, a journalist with BreakThrough News , did not initially set out to make a film about the phenomenon. He went to Columbia first to report on the early protests. Some of his footage from that visit made it into the final project. 'I had been in contact with the Columbia students since then,' he says. 'So when they were setting up the encampment they reached out to me and said, 'Hey, do you want to cover this? You know the administration isn't listening to our demands. They're ignoring us completely. They are banning our student groups. They're looking the other way. So we're setting up this encampment.'' Pritsker went back to the university and began filming. He felt it would be just a straightforward news package, but when rumours emerged of imminent arrests he realised that he might have a larger story to tell. He hung around, and the next morning the first police actions took place. Then information came in that other colleges across the nation were setting up their own encampments. Pritsker found himself monitoring the progress of a mighty wave. 'I asked the students, 'Hey, can I live with you guys?'' he says. 'So I lived in the encampment for the next 12 days – all really as a journalist. I had no intention of making a film out of any of this.' News reports suggest that the encampments temporarily transformed the whole atmosphere in the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Cops were everywhere. The press was hovering. Chants and cheers were audible. Did Pritsker get that sense of the protests bleeding out into the wider community? 'That was a big part of it that we didn't quite get to address in the film,' he says. 'This was a citywide, and a countrywide, and a globalwide encampment at Columbia. Every single night and every single day people were going to the gates of Columbia to chant very loudly – loudly enough that the students in the camp could hear them chanting in support.' He goes on to argue that the issue of the genocide in Gaza is not something 'that stops at the university gates'. This was a concern that, one way or another, energised the whole community. 'It should come as no surprise that people in New York City wanted to express their support for the students,' he says. 'Without that support the encampment wouldn't have survived, but the students inside were receiving tons and tons of food.' [ Irish J1 visa students urged to be informed of potential risks of 'activism' in US Opens in new window ] All well and good. But student protests have, to put it delicately, never been universally popular with the wider public. There was, in the blue-collar US, at least as much outrage at student militancy of the late 1960s as there was support. And Columbia is not just some community college. These are elite students at the most prestigious of universities. 'To a degree, there is an aspect of that,' he says. 'The movement hasn't quite reached blue-collar America. There is a perception that the movement is solely for people who consider themselves progressive or left-wing. When it's really not. I think that is kind of where the movement needs to go. It needs to broaden and approach people who might consider themselves conservative or right-wing.' The Encampments does, at least, push aside the notion that there is nothing at stake for the protesters. Mahmoud Khalil, a student activist at Columbia and one of the lead negotiators during the protest, is interviewed at length. In March this year Khalil was arrested by immigration officials in his university accommodation. 'Mahmoud is still in prison in Jena, Louisiana,' Pritsker says. 'He's still facing potential deportation. Some judges have issued orders slowing down the process, and obviously he has tremendous public support. 'So anything the Trump administration tries to do to Mahmoud will be heavily watched and criticised. They're trying to be really careful, and it's not clear that the administration has a solid case to do this.' Few of the protesters are facing anything like that sort of challenge. But there are risks for even those from more comfortable backgrounds. 'They have all these shiny little objects waved in front of them: lucrative careers, fancy job titles, all this,' Pritsker says, wryly. 'And the fact is they rejected that entirely. They said, 'We don't care about any of these bribes, these little trinkets that you're offering us. We want to stand with the people of Gaza at great detriment to our own safety and our own reputation.' That's tremendous.' The Encampments is in cinemas from Friday, June 6th
The Guardian
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
The Encampments review – account of pro-Palestine student protests overtaken by events
The horror of Gaza is approached in this documentary via a story from the Joe Biden era – and it has arguably been overtaken by events. In 2024, students at New York's Columbia University set up outdoor pro-Palestinian protest encampments, filling East Butler Lawn with tents; this was in the boisterous tradition of the 1960s anti-Vietnam-war campus demonstrations and the Occupy Wall Street movement, demanding an end to Columbia's direct and indirect investment in Israel. The protests were led by the calm and personable figure of student Mahmoud Khalil and protesters were entitled to point out that Columbia had, after all, divested from Russia over Ukraine. The protests carried on and spread to other universities in the US, and Columbia president Minouche Shafik came under immense pressure. The encampment escalated to the occupation of a university building, which gave the university authorities the pretext they needed for sending in the NYPD, and the protest was violently, acrimoniously (but not completely) halted. And what did it achieve? This question is, for me, where the documentary is flawed. The protesters failed to get Columbia to divest, but Shafik quit and pro-Palestinian consciousness was raised. Khalil is smilingly interviewed at the end, stating his belief that this cause is approaching success. But that interview was presumably filmed before the new brutality of the Trump administration and the outrageous arrest of Khalil, who is now held in a Louisiana jail, and was only recently allowed to see his infant son. Was the Trump administration reacting with typical spite and malice to the encampments? Maybe. That is now a very big part of the story which this film can't accommodate, except with some sentences over the final credits. Perhaps the full story of the encampments has yet to be told. The Encampments is in UK and Irish cinemas from 6 June.
Economist
26-05-2025
- Business
- Economist
Meet the boss: Minouche Shafik, former president of Columbia University
At the International Monetary Fund, it was the arrest of her boss. At the Bank of England, it was Brexit. Time and again during her career, Minouche Shafik has been confronted by crises. Her most recent was at Columbia, where protests over the war in Gaza engulfed the campus. To listen to the full series, subscribe to Economist Podcasts+.
Time of India
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Beyond Harvard: Could other US universities face international student bans next?
The Trump administration's dramatic revocation of Harvard University's SEVP (Student and Exchange Visitor Program) certification has lit a fuse under America's academic institutions. What was once unthinkable—targeting one of the world's most prestigious universities over its international student policies—is now a reality. The question echoing across campuses: Who's next? On paper, the action against Harvard stemmed from its refusal to share foreign student conduct records with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). In practice, it appears to signal a broader campaign of scrutiny, particularly aimed at elite institutions with large international populations and visible campus activism. Federal targets : Who's in the crosshairs? Behind closed doors, legal teams at major universities—MIT, Columbia, Yale, and Stanford, among them—are reportedly scrambling to audit compliance procedures, fearing they may be next in line. Several have recently hosted large-scale student protests, including pro-Palestine demonstrations and sit-ins decrying American foreign policy. These expressions of dissent, historically protected under academic freedom, may now be placing institutions at political risk. US universities in danger: Federal eyes on the quad What started in Columbia's manicured lawns has now engulfed campuses from coast to coast. By early May 2024, student protests had erupted in 45 states and the District of Columbia, spanning nearly 140 colleges and universities. What was once considered an isolated campus unrest has crystallised into a nationwide wave of civil disobedience. At the heart of it lies one incendiary issue: US university complicity in global conflicts—and the government's growing intolerance for dissent. The flashpoint was Columbia University. On April 17, 2024, students unfurled the first Gaza Solidarity Encampment on its campus, calling for full divestment from Israel. Within hours of protest tents being pitched, President Minouche Shafik summoned the NYPD. What followed was the first mass arrest on Columbia's grounds since the Vietnam War protests of 1968. The second wave came days later—students occupied Hamilton Hall, another raid ensued, and more than 100 arrests followed. The crackdown was swift, brutal, and set a precedent: campus activism is no longer protected territory. This isn't just about Columbia. Intelligence briefings from federal agencies suggest growing concern over 'ideologically motivated unrest' in higher education. Institutions with substantial international student populations and histories of political activism—Stanford, NYU, Berkeley, and the University of Michigan among them—are reportedly under heightened scrutiny. As the Department of Homeland Security sharpens its gaze, the implications are staggering. Could divestment protests or refusal to comply with federal data demands—like those cited in the case of Harvard—trigger SEVP decertification elsewhere? Legal scholars believe the precedent has been laid. Once a visa pipeline is severed, universities lose their ability to enroll international students, triggering a cascade of academic, financial, and diplomatic fallout. If Harvard's fall from grace is the administration's first strike, universities across the country are now in the crosshairs. The message is unmistakable: Campuses that host dissent may risk their ability to host the world. A fragile future for international students The psychological devastation is already evident. For students on F-1 and J-1 visas, every move now carries immigration risk. Compelled to weigh the repercussions of even peaceful protest, many are self-censoring or avoiding public discourse completely. Lawyers specialising in international education report a rise in consultations from both students and institutions. The fear is not hypothetical, it is etched into the existence of students in the land of opportunities. One misstep, one subpoenaed video clip, one institution-wide policy deemed 'non-compliant,' and an entire academic journey can be derailed. Universities walk a legal tightrope The White House maintains that the crackdown is related to safety and accountability. In its official statement on Harvard, it emphasised that 'enrolling foreign students is a privilege, not a right.' Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's directive cited not only noncompliance but alleged tolerance of antisemitism and pro-Hamas sympathies—claims Harvard vehemently denies. The vagueness of the situation is what scares the universities the most. The Economic Edge of Politics Beyond the reputational wound, the economic repercussions are huge. International students, many of whom pay full tuition, are critical to university budgets. They contribute more than $40 billion annually to the US economy—nearly $8 billion from Indian students alone, according to data presented by the US media reports. Revoking SEVP status doesn't just impact a university's enrollment, it threatens entire funding ecosystems. For schools already grappling with declining domestic applications and a surge in operating costs, letting go of the international students could be calamitous. The fading boundaries of academic freedom Harvard's case is not a standalone incident - it is a bellwether. As scrutiny intensifies, universities are being compelled to choose between protecting students' rights and safeguarding their federal certification. In a climate where dissent is equated with danger, even the most revered campuses are vulnerable. The administration's new posture may result in mass revocations overnight. But the threat is real, and the message unmistakable: America's welcome mat for international students is no longer universal. It is provisional. Political. And increasingly, conditional on silence. As institutions weigh how far they can push back, one truth becomes unavoidable: The future of global education in the US now hangs in the balance, not in faculty lounges, but in federal offices. Invest in Their Tomorrow, Today: Equip your child with the essential AI skills for a future brimming with possibilities | Join Now
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Columbia U threatens to arrest anti-Israel protesters, remove encampments as new demonstrations loom
Columbia University has warned anti-Israel protesting students that the college will tear down any encampments – and potentially arrest agitators – should they try and set up encampments on campus again this year. The stern warning comes after the university said it became aware of secretive plans to repeat last year's protest at the university, which culminated in students taking control of Hamilton Hall and clashing with police in riot gear. The ugly scenes saw more than 200 people arrested as students protested Israel's war in Gaza in response to the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas that left more than 1,200 people dead. "We have been made aware of possible plans to establish encampments on Columbia's campuses," a public safety alert put out by the university reads. "We want to clearly communicate that camping and encampments on Columbia's campuses are prohibited by university policy." Columbia University Yields To Trump Admin Demands Over Revoked $400M In Federal Funding The university said authorities would immediately take steps to remove tents or other structures and tell demonstrators to disperse. "Individuals who refuse to disperse will be identified and sanctions, including potential removal from campus and possible arrest, may be applied." Read On The Fox News App Columbia said it values free expression and the right to protest, but such activities must be conducted in accordance with university rules and policies to ensure safety and allow academic and other campus activities to continue unimpeded. Pro-israel Influencer Says Bibas Memorial In Nyc 'Brought Out The Worst' In Antisemites Last year's on-campus protest started just over 12 months ago and university leaders aim to stamp out any recurrence of the chaos and disorder that unfolded. The Ivy League college was forced to cancel its main graduation ceremony, citing safety concerns amid ongoing protests and a wave of antisemitism gripping the grounds. Columbia University President Minouche Shafik stepped down after months of criticism of her handling of the protests, many of which devolved into clashes between anti-Israel demonstrators and police, and antisemitism on campus. The announcement by Columbia comes after NBC News reported that more than 100 people gathered in Brooklyn on Tuesday to discuss ways to re-ignite on-campus protests later this week. A form being dispersed by organizers and obtained by NBC tells participants to prepare for "prolonged jail time" and how emergency contacts can access their apartments or homes. Organizers cited, in part, the Trump administration's efforts to pull federal funds from the university as a reason for this year's protest as well as what they said was the "abduction of our comrade Mahmoud Khalil." Khalil, a Palestinian green card holder, has been arrested by federal immigration authorities who say he was one of last year's ringleaders and promoted Hamas. Columbia has come under intense scrutiny over the rise in antisemitism on campus with Trump canceling $400 million in grants to the university in March. That led to Columbia caving to certain demands in an attempt to restore funding. The move enraged organizers in Brooklyn. The Ivy League school agreed to ban masks for the purpose of concealing identity, empower 36 campus police officers with new powers to arrest students, and appoint a senior vice provost with broad authority to oversee the department of the Middle East, South Asian and African Studies, as well as the Center for Palestine Studies. Sources familiar with the negotiations told Fox News that meeting the demands doesn't mean that Columbia will get its $400 million in funding back, but that it's just a precondition to opening talks. The reforms were acknowledged positively by Education Secretary Linda McMahon, but the funds have not yet been reinstated. Fox News' Louis Casiano and Alexis McAdams contributed to this report Original article source: Columbia U threatens to arrest anti-Israel protesters, remove encampments as new demonstrations loom
