Campus protests: Metro Atlanta students plan walkouts after arrests at Columbia
ATLANTA - Students at colleges across metro Atlanta are planning demonstrations on Wednesday in support of an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and to speak out against arrests during previous protests.
Activist groups at Emory University and SCAD in Atlanta, the University of Georgia in Athens, and Kennesaw State University say they are planning walkouts to put pressure on their colleges to divest from Israel.
The protest comes hours after police in New York burst into a building on Columbia University's campus that demonstrators took over the previous night. Violence also broke out at UCLA overnight between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli protesters. Police wearing face shields formed a line but did not immediately intervene.
In Georgia, dozens of protesters at Emory and UGA have been arrested over the last few days during pro-Palestine protests at encampments on campus.
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Here are the protests expected to take place on Wednesday.
Emory University students plan walkout
A group at Emory University has planned a walkout and rally at Emory Village Plaza after days of protests on campus.
The group, known as Students for Socialism at Emory, says it wants to "keep the pressure on Emory administration to disclose and divest from Israel" as well as any military initiatives or companies supporting Israel.
Last Thursday, police arrested dozens of people, including 20 Emory students and staff members following a pro-Palestine protest in the school's quadrangle. Emory officials said the protesters who had set up an encampment were trespassing on private property and refused to leave, leading the school to ask the Atlanta Police Department and Georgia State Patrol for assistance.
Videos of the university's response quickly spread nationwide on social media. The university has since announced it is reviewing how it uses external law enforcement agencies.
MORE: Emory protests: Faculty holding no-confidence vote against president after arrests
On Sunday, Emory police said six people who were not students were arrested on campus. One of those arrested was reportedly a convicted felon from North Carolina who was found to have knives and pepper spray on his person during the arrest.
Kennesaw State University protest
SCAD students protesting in Midtown
Students at SCAD plan to meet at 11 a.m. in front of the university's main building on Peachtree Street in Midtown Atlanta to have their own protest.
In a statement, the group SCAD Students for Justice in Palestine claimed they are protesting a "blatant disregard from the institution regarding the Palestinian people’s suffering in Gaza at the hands of Israel."
"We as students refuse to see our tuitions contribute to the oppression and suffering of the Palestinian people to fuel Zionism and university presidents’ bank accounts," the group wrote. "We can do better together."
Protests continue at the University of Georgia
In Athens, University of Georgia students will have a walkout and rally at 2 p.m. Wednesday at the college's famous Arch.
Included in the protesters' demands is the call to drop charges against more than a dozen people who were arrested on campus on Monday morning at an encampment on the Old College Front Lawn.
According to a statement from University of Georgia spokesman Greg Trevor, the protesters "were advised repeatedly, for more than an hour, that the tents and barricades they had put in place had to be removed and that they must comply with applicable policies."
After the group refused to leave, UGA police arrested multiple people and dismantled the camp.
Protesters say multiple students arrested at that time have been suspended and banned from UGA's campus.
Kennesaw State University pro-Palestine protests
Activists at Kennesaw State University in Cobb County will have their own walkout at 11:30 a.m. on the Green as part of the day of protests.
While protests on the campus of KSU have remained peaceful, students told members of the Cobb County Sheriff's Office during a forum on Tuesday that they believe encounters at other universities may be fueled by other students not feeling heard by their school leaders.
"We listened," Cobb County Sheriff Craig Owens told FOX 5. "That’s the main thing our kids want us to do is listen to what we have to say and then respond in the appropriate manner which we will do if we have an incident here in Cobb County."
Heightened tensions at college campuses
The nationwide campus protests began at Columbia in response to Israel’s offensive in Gaza after Hamas launched a deadly attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7. Militants killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took roughly 250 hostages. Vowing to stamp out Hamas, Israel has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the local health ministry.
As cease-fire negotiations appeared to gain steam, it wasn’t clear whether those talks would inspire an easing of protests.
Israel and its supporters have branded the university protests as antisemitic, while Israel’s critics say it uses those allegations to silence opposition. Although some protesters have been caught on camera making antisemitic remarks or violent threats, organizers of the protests, some of whom are Jewish, say it is a peaceful movement aimed at defending Palestinian rights and protesting the war.
The protests have even spread to Europe, with French police removing dozens of students from the Sorbonne university after pro-Palestinian protesters occupied the main courtyard. In Canada, student protest camps have popped up at the University of Ottawa, McGill University in Montreal and the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, The Canadian Press reported.
The plight of students who have been arrested has become a central part of protests, with the students and a growing number of faculty demanding amnesty for protesters. At issue is whether the suspensions and legal records will follow students through their adult lives.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.