On Thursday, May 2, Georgia Southern University’s Statesboro and Savannah campuses became the latest sites for the Pro-Palestinian student protests erupting on university land at schools all across the country. Law enforcement officers were present at each of the Thursday events, termed by student organizers as “rallies” and not “protests,” but neither site’s event resulted in any arrests, or any legal incidents of significance.

Students at universities all over the country are rallying to condemn rising death tolls stemming from the ongoing Israel-Hamas War.

Many student demonstrations have produced demands from the protesters calling for universities to separate themselves from companies who pro-Palestine protesters view as accomplices in aiding and advancing Israel’s Gaza goals.

The Israel-Hamas War has already produced more than 34,000 Palestinian deaths in the Gaza Strip, according to Health Ministry officials there.

While each on-campus protest or rally has its own unique demands, goals, and agendas based on a number of factors including location and enrollment size, most of the campus demonstrations have been linked by their desire to bring attention (and societal debate) to the issues surrounding the Israel-Hamas War.
If this was indeed a desire of the protests as a whole, they have seemingly achieved it by capturing a nation’s interest.
GSU, on Thursday, joined a long list of campuses nationwide to see protests, but the lack of violence or arrests at either GSU rally made it different from many other demonstrations of its kind. Since student demonstrators were first detained at Columbia University in New York City on April 17, more than 2,100 people involved with protests on campuses had been arrested by the end of Thursday.

According to The Associated Press, arrests on campuses due to protests from April 17 – May 2 occurred at least 46 different times, at more than 35 different schools, and in at least 24 different states.

In Georgia, students were arrested during pro-Palestine protests at Emory University in Atlanta on April 25 and at the University of Georgia in Athens on April 29.

This article appears in Connect Savannah I April 2024.