Israel and Hamas have a ceasefire deal. But college protesters say activism won’t stop

At California universities on Monday, the ceasefire in Gaza and the accompanying exchange of hostages and prisoners emerged as a turning point for the future of the student-led protest movement that has roiled campuses for two years.

As pro-Palestinian organizers and Jewish community leaders reckon with the turmoil caused by the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, activism and its controversial consequences continue to resonate.

For months in 2024, college campuses across the United States were rocked by often confrontational protests, shortly after the deadliest and most destructive war in history began between Israelis and Palestinians. In the spring of that year, pro-Palestinian demonstrations escalated, with camps set up where activists demanded campus policy changes, including that U.S. universities withdraw billions of dollars from arms companies.

Their activism on this front has largely foundered. No major university in California has agreed to all of the divestment demands, including boycotting partnerships with Israeli universities. Campus policies have also changed; university officials suppressed the protests and implemented zero-tolerance policies for breaking the rules.

But UCLA Jewish history professor David N. Myers said student protesters helped change America’s views on Palestinians and Israel.

“Has the protest movement failed? If the measure is university suppression, perhaps,” said Myers. “But I’m not so sure if the yardstick is the general trend lines in American public opinion. And this should be a wake-up call for the pro-Israel movement.”

Amid the protests, allegations of anti-Semitism rose on campuses and Jewish students and faculty protested violations of their civil rights. Their complaints led to the Trump administration’s aggressive investigations, which are central to its goal of overhauling higher education while adhering to a sweeping conservative agenda that goes well beyond protections for Jewish communities.

Pro-Palestinian activists vow to continue

Pro-Palestinian students who participated in last year’s camps and protests this year said in interviews that the ceasefire was welcome news but fulfilled only part of what had driven them to go to campus green spaces.

“While news of the ceasefire is welcome, nothing is fundamentally changing at UCLA or universities in general,” said Dylan Kupsh, a doctoral student in computer science at UCLA who was part of a camp that was attacked by pro-Israel vigilantes last year.

“Our university is still invested in the oppression of Palestine. Students will not rest until the university is liquidated,” said Kupsh, who faces student disciplinary procedures for participating in actions that the university claims violated campus policies.

Student activists in California said the ceasefire would inject new energy into their activism, which has been accused of minimizing the plight of Israeli hostages and being anti-Semitic.

“We can feel some happiness for a moment, at least a momentary end to the genocide,” said Ryan Witt, president of Students for Justice in Palestine at Cal State Channel Islands, which organized a campus protest and vigil in support of the Palestinians last week.

“There are photos of children celebrating in Gaza. I don’t ignore that. But I also recognize that we have to keep fighting,” said Witt, who is Jewish.

Amanda, a student at USC who attended pro-Palestinian camps, said concerns remain on her campus.

“We find that our school, like other schools, is very concerned about being viewed by the government as anti-Semitic, so they are much stricter than they used to be about protests and statements,” he said.

Graeme Blair, a professor of political science at UCLA, said the climate for pro-Palestinian activism on campuses has worsened and the government now views pro-Palestinian rhetoric as aggressively antisemitic.

“The Trump administration is using every federal tool, from the Justice Department to the Education Department to the State Department, to crack down on anti-Semitism,” Blair said. “Universities like UCLA continue to arrest, discipline, and fire people who speak out on their own and because of pressure from Trump.”

‘An era is coming to an end’ for Jews on campus

Myers, who is Jewish, said the release of the Israeli hostages felt “like the door of a very dark room had opened and the light started coming out.” “At the same time, I can’t help but think of the next frame, which is a frame of images of Gaza in complete and utter destruction.”

There is also a sense of relief among pro-Israel Jewish communities on campuses across the country.

Jewish student groups have regularly gathered on campuses, including last week, for candlelight vigils, songs and prayer ceremonies to honor Gaza’s dead and living hostages and their families two years after the Oct. 7 attack.

Many Jewish students have ties to Israel, both through their visits and through family members who live there and know the victims of the Hamas attack that killed nearly 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took nearly 250 hostage. About 20 live hostages returned to Israel this week, while Israel released nearly 1,900 Palestinian detainees. More than 67,000 Palestinians have been killed during Israel’s war, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.

Sophia Toubian, a graduate student in information studies at UCLA, said she hoped the hostages’ release would “essentially be the end of a chapter.”

“I hope this will be a long-lasting peace and not a relapse, which will be reflected in our experiences both at school and in the world.”

Toubian, who is Jewish and pro-Israel, said the pro-Palestinian protest movement had achieved at least some of its goals.

“In every building I enter on campus, I always see something on the wall that is related to Palestine and supports Palestine,” he said.

“It wasn’t there before and… it was kind of there, ‘Yes, of course we all agree that this is the way it should be, and so we’re going to show support for this thing.’ In that sense, it feels like a success.”

But still pro-Israel UCLA senior Gal Cohavy said the situation in Westwood has improved in recent months.

Cohavy said he hopes the release of hostages and a halt to hostilities will allow people across the ideological spectrum to find common ground.

“I wouldn’t be surprised to see more real conversations taking place and perhaps a bridge being built between the two sides and cultural progress,” he said.

Ha’Am, a publication run by Jewish students at UCLA, said in a statement that now “the atmosphere has changed.”

“Since October 7, 2023, Jewish spaces have been places of grief, silence, and emotional support for a community in turmoil. When we enter those same spaces today, the atmosphere has changed. There is a real sense of relief in the air, a collective exhale, and the comforting knowledge that our brothers and sisters on the other side of the world are finally safe once again,” the statement said.

Lasting results among students

While pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel students endorsed events in the Middle East, both faced lasting consequences from divisions on campus.

Reports of antisemitism and anti-Muslim and anti-Arab incidents at universities have increased since 2023. Arrests, suspensions, and deportations of pro-Palestinian students and groups have also increased, but the vast majority of Los Angeles students detained by police during last year’s protests did not face criminal charges.

At UCLA, two groups called Students for Justice in Palestine were banned this year after they vandalized the Brentwood home of a UC Board of Trustees member who is Jewish with images that Jewish community leaders said used antisemitic tropes.

Among California universities, Stanford experienced one of the most challenging periods.

A group of pro-Palestinian students there faced felony vandalism and trespassing charges after being accused of breaking into and vandalizing the university president’s office during a protest in 2024. This month, a Santa Clara County grand jury indicted the remaining 11 students, pushing the case toward trial.

Staff writer Karen Garcia contributed to this report.