The International League of Peoples’ Struggle – US Country Chapter stood with the Gaza Solidarity Encampment of Columbia University students, after the camp was violently dispersed by the police on April 25.

“(We) stand with…the students…as they courageously hold down their Gaza solidarity encampment to call for the university to divest from Israel in the face of state repression,” the group said in a statement on April 29. The violent dismantling of the campus, and the students’ firm stand on it, became a spark in the spread of the protest to other universities in the US and other countries.

“Columbia University cannot simply brush the encampment away like a blemish on its campus,” according to ILPS-US. “[It] must reckon with the just demands of its students and the community that it exploits and profits from.”

The group has also joined forces with students at Yale University and other campuses in the US to set up their own Gaza Solidarity Encampment and continuously march for justice in Palestine.

“Militant struggle for the liberation of Palestine is intensifying and it will not be stopped,” according to the group.