Naledi Ushe
While celebrities are putting on their best for the Met Gala, protestors are hitting the picket lines.
Protesters in support of Palestinians amid Israel’s war in Gaza made their voices heard outside of the Met Gala.
Students from Hunter College, roughly a mile from the Met Gala, marched with signs calling for their university to “divest” funding. “We will not stop, we will not rest,” the students chanted, per videos shared by reporter Katie Smith on X.
In another video they chanted, “There is only one solution.”
The protests come a week after hundreds of students attending universities in New York City such as Columbia University, New York University and SUNY’s Fashion Institute of Technology have ramped up organization efforts to get their institutions to cut financial ties to Israel and Israeli companies, especially those benefiting from the ongoing war in Gaza.
While the demonstrations have not led to any divestments, the week of protests have had broad impacts, including forcing classes to move online, limited access to campuses, arrests of students and disrupting graduation plans.
The dayslong demonstrations have centered on the war in Gaza that was triggered by Hamas’ incursion into southern Israel on Oct. 7, when about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and more than 240 people were taken hostage.
Israel then launched a massive military campaign against Hamas and the resulting bombardment and ground assault has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, leveled large swaths of Gaza and caused a humanitarian crisis that’s left the population on the brink of starvation.
Contributing: Christopher Cann, Clare Mulroy, Eduardo Cuevas, Minnah Arshad and Jeanine Santucci, USA TODAY
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