Last week, news spread across the county that Columbia University students had established a liberated zone on the college’s main campus. The scholars mimicked the efforts of their alumni who protested the school’s complicity in the Vietnam War, among other issues. After mass detainment by the New York City Police Department, pro-Palestinian protests began popping up at universities across the country. 

New York University, UC Berkley and the University of Michigan (to name a few) have all seen sit-ins following the incident at Columbia. Students and faculty at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) established their own liberated zone to protest funding the school has received from the Israeli Ministry of Defense. 

“MIT has received over $11 million in research funding from the Ministry of Defense of Israel since 2015,” one PhD student wrote on X (Twitter). “Mulitple labs on this campus are performing sponsored research for material benefit of the Israeli Occupation Forces.”

Federal Denouncement of Pro-Palestinian Efforts

The federal government has already taken an interest in pro-Palestinian protests at some of the nation’s top universities. In Dec., the presidents of Harvard, MIT and the University of Pennsylvania testified before Congress over allegations of campus antisemitism. The next month, Claudine Gay stepped down as Harvard’s president. 

Last week, a Congressional committee hearing summoned Columbia President Nemat “Minouche” Shafik to address similar claims. After pledging to combat antisemitism, Shafik directed the NYPD to arrest protestors who refused to abandon their efforts.

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President Biden has also addressed the recent surge in pro-Palestine demonstrations across the nation. “I condemn the antisemitic protests, that’s why I’ve set up a program to deal with that,” said Biden to press on Monday. “I also condemn those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians.” 

The death toll in Gaza has surpassed 34,000, including more than 14,500 children. According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine (UNRWA), 75% of Gaza’s population has been displaced. 

Over the last several months, Congress has been working to pass a foreign aid package. It would allocate over $95 billion to Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan collectively. Of the 435 members in the House of Representatives, only 58 voted against it. If successfully passed, the package would send $26.4 billion to the Israel-Palestine War. The majority of it, $15 billion, would go towards Israeli military aid. An additional $9 billion earmarked for “worldwide humanitarian aid” is expected to be delivered to Gazans.