PROTEST. Japanese students rally at the Waseda University in Tokyo on Friday (May 3, 2024). Pro-Palestine student rallies spread across other countries after it began at Columbia University in April. (Anadolu)
ANKARA – Pro-Palestine student demonstrations spread to Japan on Friday, with a protest held at the Waseda University in Tokyo against Israel's ongoing offensive in the Gaza Strip.
Footage on social media shows dozens of students gathering in support of Palestinians, chanting "Free Palestine, free Palestine, and Palestine will be free."
They were also carrying banners and placards with slogans against Israel and "Free Palestine, Save Gaza."
Students and activists also set up encampments at major universities in Australia, including in Sydney, as demands for divestment from Israel grow louder.
The pro-Palestine demonstrations on Australian campuses came as the US saw more than 150 Gaza solidarity encampments propped up throughout the country.
More than 2,000 people, including students, have been arrested by US authorities during the pro-Palestine demonstrations.
Student protests have also been held in Canada and France.
In London, students of the University College London (UCL) also set up an encampment in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
Roughly a dozen tents have been pitched outside the main building in Bloomsbury, where entry has been restricted as only students are allowed to enter the campus.
The student demonstrations began on April 17 at Columbia University to protest Israel's offensive in Gaza, where more than 34,600 Palestinians have been killed and 77,700 injured since an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.
The protests have served as a flashpoint for the wider movement to protest Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.
Israel continues its onslaught on the Gaza Strip where at least 34,622 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and 77,867 injured since Oct. 7, according to Palestinian health authorities.
Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by Hamas, which Tel Aviv says killed nearly 1,200 people.
The Israeli war on Gaza has pushed 85 percent of the territory's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60 percent of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.
Hostilities have continued unabated, however, and aid deliveries remain woefully insufficient to address the humanitarian catastrophe. (Anadolu)
