Nearly 2,300 young people have been arrested in protests across the US, echoing the anti-Vietnam War protests of the late 1960s.

Students in countries from Canada to Australia to Europe have joined the demonstrations.

United States

Since April 17, a wave of pro-Gaza protests has swept through about 40 college campuses, from the Atlantic coast to California.

In recent days, police have moved to dismantle several pro-Palestinian encampments.

Protesters occupying the prestigious Columbia University, a focal point of the student movement, were evicted Tuesday night.

At the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), dozens of students were arrested.

Unlike other schools, Brown University in Rhode Island agreed with protesters to dismantle their encampment in exchange for a vote on whether to “divest” from “corporations that enable and profit from the genocide in Gaza.”

On Tuesday, the United Nations expressed “concern” about police actions on US campuses. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said he was “disturbed by a number of heavy-handed measures taken to disperse and shut down demonstrations,” stressing that “freedom of expression and the right to peaceful assembly are fundamental.”

Israeli officials have denounced the protests as anti-Semitic, a charge critics say Israel uses to silence criticism. While some demonstrators have been caught on camera making anti-Semitic remarks or threats of violence, organizers of the protests — some of whom are Jewish — say the movement is a peaceful one standing up for Palestinian rights and against the war.

US President Joe Biden has defended the students’ right to protest peacefully, but he has also decried violence and disruption on campuses.

France

The main site of the prestigious Sciences Po university in Paris, which hosts between 5,000 and 6,000 students in the capital, remained closed Wednesday as French police moved in to remove several dozen pro-Palestinian activists who had occupied the school since the previous day.

Student action in support of Gaza has taken place mostly at Sciences Po campuses around France, with little action inside universities.

On Thursday, Higher Education Minister Sylvie Retailleau asked university presidents to ensure “public order” using “all the powers” at their disposal, including disciplinary sanctions in cases of disruption or by calling in police.

Germany

Police moved Wednesday to remove pro-Palestinian protesters gathered in front of the Humboldt University in central Berlin. Police said about 300 people had gathered for the demonstration, with a few dozen trying to sit down in the university courtyard.

Some protesters were forcibly carried away after they refused to move to an alternative location, Berlin police said on Twitter.

Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner criticized the demonstration, writing on Twitter that the city did not want “conditions like in the US or France.”

Canada

The pro-Palestinian student movement has taken root in several cities, including Vancouver, Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal. The first and largest encampment, at the prestigious McGill University in Montreal, began on April 27 and has grown in size.

The several hundred protesters have reinforced their camp in recent days amid threats of police action.

They say they are determined to occupy the site for as long as it takes until McGill severs all financial and academic ties with Israel.

On Wednesday, the school’s administration said it wanted the encampment dismantled “without delay,” calling it a “non-negotiable” demand. It said “a certain number of protesters are not part of the student community.”

Montreal police, who say they favor a “peaceful” resolution to the situation, have not yet moved to dismantle the camp.

Earlier this week, a Quebec court rejected a request by two McGill students seeking an injunction to force the protesters off campus.

Australia

Pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel demonstrators faced off Wednesday at the University of Sydney, with hundreds of people from each side gathering on campus. Despite some tense exchanges, both rallies remained peaceful, and police did not intervene.

The pro-Palestinian activists have been camped out for the past 10 days on a grassy area in front of the University of Sydney’s sprawling gothic main building, a bastion of Australian academia.

Like their counterparts in the US, the protesters want the University of Sydney to cut its ties to Israeli institutions and reject donations from weapons manufacturers.

The university’s vice-chancellor, Mark Scott, has written to students and staff to express his “commitment to freedom of speech” and has not asked police to remove the encampment.

Mexico

In Mexico City, dozens of pro-Palestinian students from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), the country’s largest, set up an encampment in the capital Thursday, chanting “Long live free Palestine!” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will win!”

The protesters called on the Mexican government to break off diplomatic and commercial relations with Israel.

Switzerland

Around 100 pro-Palestinian students occupied the entrance hall of the University of Lausanne’s Geopolis building late Thursday afternoon, demanding an academic boycott of Israeli institutions and an immediate and permanent ceasefire, the Keystone-ATS news agency reported.

See Also: Several British universities are setting up pro-Palestine camps (Portuguese version)