Pro-Palestine US Student protests nearly triple in April | ACLED Insight

Note: For the most updated information on the US campus demonstrations, see this Brief updated on 10 May and Special Focus in the April Regional Overview.

Pro-Palestine demonstrations involving students in the United States have nearly tripled from 1 to 26 April compared with all of March, ACLED data show (see graph below).¹ New York has been one of the main student protest battlegrounds since the Israel-Palestine conflict flared up in and around Gaza last October, and the arrest of more than 100 students at Columbia University in New York around 18 April heralded a new wave of campus demonstrations.²

Student protests on university campuses around the US are the latest sign of public discontent with the Israel-Gaza conflict. While some notable violent clashes have recently taken place, such as on the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) campus, where demonstrators and counter-demonstrators fought at a student encampment overnight on 30 April, the overwhelming majority of student protests since October — 99% — have remained peaceful.³ Demonstrations involving students make up roughly one-third of all US demonstrations related to the conflict since it reignited in October 2023. Between 7 October 2023 and 26 April 2024, over 90% have shown support for Palestine.

New York has also seen the largest amount of both pro-Israel and pro-Palestine demonstrations overall, closely followed by California. Additionally, ACLED records the highest number of counter-demonstrations staged against pro-Palestine or pro-Israel demonstrations in New York. New York accounts for 28% of Israel/Gaza conflict-related demonstrations with police intervention (see map below).

Police intervention against conflict-related student demonstrations more than quadrupled in April. They arrested demonstrators and physically dispersed crowds much more frequently at demonstrations with counter-demonstrators. However, in cases where student demonstrators have gathered unopposed, police have intervened against pro-Palestine demonstrations more than four times as often as pro-Israel demonstrations.

For more on ACLED’s US coverage:

• US Crisis Monitor
• Beyond the Blue Wall: Exploring the Risks of Political Unrest in the 2024 Presidential Election
• Will Past US Election Turbulence Strike Again in 2024?

For global demonstration trends related to the Israel-Gaza conflict, see this infographic on the first 20 days since fighting erupted.

Visuals produced by Ciro Murillo.