“Are hum kya chahate, azadi…Palestine ki azadi…Are chin ke lenge, azadi…hai haq hamara, azadi…(What do we want…azadi…freedom of Palestine… We will take away this freedom which is our right…), chanted a woman protester standing in the center of a group of students.
The video of the slogan of Azadi is not from India, but from Columbia University It comes as a firestorm of pro-Palestinian protests engulfs top American universities in New York.
The fire has actually spread to five states and a dozen top American universities where students pitched tents and set up “free zones” on campus.
These pro-Palestinian students are protesting Israel’s war on Gaza after the Hamas massacre on October 7.
The protest began at Columbia University and spread to other campuses as students began protesting in solidarity after the university called the police.
The New York Police Department cracked down on student protesters on April 18 and arrested more than 100 students.
On April 22, Yale University also called the police and about 40 people were arrested.
As tensions and security concerns escalated, Columbia University was forced to shift classes online.
How student protests were caught at MIT, Harvard
the following NYPD action at Columbia and Barnard College And the arrests at Yale University in Connecticut saw protests on several campuses, including Ivy League colleges.
Incidents of violence and anti-Semitic comments at protest sites on several East Coast campuses escalated tensions.
Protesters blamed US President Joe Biden for the war in Gaza, which has killed nearly 33,000 Palestinians so far. The US government has supported Israel’s offensive against Hamas in Gaza, killing large numbers of civilians.
About 108 demonstrators were arrested at Columbia University. Including Isra Hirsi, daughter of Democrat Congresswoman Ilhan Omar.
Universities in New York, California, Connecticut, Michigan and Massachusetts are seeing pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel protests by students on campus.
A dozen top universities where protests are taking place include NYU, Stanford, Yale, Tufts, MIT and Harvard.
Massachusetts Harvard University Protests were led by the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee, which was later suspended by the university administration for “violating school policy”.
“Harvard has shown us time and time again that Palestine is an exception to free speech,” said one protester.
The university administration closed off Harvard Yard to the public to discourage protesters from camping on the lawn in a ‘Columbia liberation zone’.
dignified Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Sunday evening also saw the establishment of a tent camp on the school’s Cambridge, Massachusetts, campus in solidarity with Palestine.
Protesters called for a ceasefire and criticized what they described as MIT’s “participation in the ongoing genocide in Gaza”.
“MIT hasn’t even called for a ceasefire, and that’s a demand we have for sure,” MIT electrical engineering student Prahlad Iyengar told The Associated Press.
Yale University, Students also witnessed similar demonstrations, calling for an end to the university’s investment in American defense contractors that do business with Israel.
According to CNN, after warnings and requests to evacuate the occupied area, Yale officials authorized the arrest of about 50 protesters on charges of persuasion.
Hundreds of students had gathered there New York University (NYU)Demanded the university divest from companies that support the Israeli occupation and disclose its financial ties to the Israeli military.
Police moved to make arrests as the situation escalated after reports of anti-Semitic slogans came to light after warnings to disperse were ignored.
Similar protests and vociferous slogans regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and free speech have spread to other organizations, including UC Berkeley, University of Michigan, Emerson CollegeAnd Tufts University.
Freedom slogans like JNU at Columbia University
As protests spread across a dozen top universities in five US states, an undated video chanting ‘freedom’ was shared on X by the handle ‘Documenting Jew-hatred on campus’.
In the video, a woman is seen chanting slogans in Hindi in favor of “free Palestine” as her fellow protesters chant “freedom” in chorus.
IndiaToday.In could not verify the date and authenticity of the video but Columbia University’s Law Memorial Library can be seen in the background with students chanting slogans.
Slogans of “Hum Kya Chahate, Azadi” became popular in India after they were raised by student leader Kanhaiya Kumar and his followers on the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus in 2016.
The students were protesting the death sentence of Afzal Guru, mastermind of the 2001 Parliament attack.
The slogan “Hum Kya Chahate, Azadi”, echoed from JNU, echoed in many other campuses including Jadavpore University.
What started as a slogan of the feminist movement, “Hum Kya Chahate, Azadi” has been adopted by Left organizations.
It is interesting that slogans are chanted by pro-Palestinian students at Columbia University, even as campus protests spread to dozens of top American universities.