Escalating Campus Unrest Signals Growing Civil Resistance
Executive Summary
Protests on U.S. college campuses in support of Palestine are entering a new and increasingly confrontational phase, fueled by the Trump administration’s hardline stance, the collapse of the Gaza ceasefire, and open calls from militant groups to escalate action. Student demonstrators at institutions like UCLA and Columbia have engaged in increasingly bold acts of defiance—occupying buildings, withstanding violent repression, and articulating revolutionary demands. The environment suggests that civil unrest is not only intensifying but is likely to become a sustained feature of American political life in the coming months.
Analysis
At UCLA, the Gaza Solidarity Encampment became a symbol of resistance as students physically occupied campus grounds and issued demands for divestment. A zine published by the protestors outlines a militant political framework, accusing the University of California of being “founded in genocide” and maintained through militarized surveillance and police brutality. Protestors documented being physically assaulted by “Zionist” counter-demonstrators, followed by a crackdown by LAPD and UC Police that allegedly left over 100 people injured. Despite the violence, the zine portrays the encampment as a site of radical learning and strategy, where student organizers forged deeper commitments to revolutionary struggle.
The situation at Columbia has become a national flashpoint after Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate student and key organizer, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Khalil, a legal U.S. resident with no criminal record, was arrested in a pre-dawn raid now revealed to have been directly coordinated with the Trump White House. He is being targeted under a rarely-used statute for allegedly posing “adverse foreign policy consequences.” The Department of Justice has confirmed it is investigating Columbia for possible violations of anti-terrorism laws and whether the university harbored undocumented immigrants. At the same time, the Department of Education has threatened to strip Columbia of hundreds of millions in federal funding unless it submits to a sweeping list of demands, including changes to its disciplinary process and admissions policies.
These incidents are unfolding alongside major geopolitical shifts. On March 18, Israel launched one of its deadliest strikes since the start of the Gaza war, marking the official collapse of a fragile ceasefire that had held since January. Prime Minister Netanyahu, under pressure from far-right coalition partners, abandoned ongoing negotiations, with the full backing of the Trump administration. The same day, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine issued a global call to escalate confrontations with the United States, labeling Trump a war criminal and accusing the U.S. of direct participation in genocide. The convergence of this call with the suppression of student protest inside the U.S. adds a transnational dimension to domestic unrest.
The administration’s strategy appears to be one of criminalization and deterrence. The arrest of Khalil and the detention of a second Columbia student, coupled with threats to revoke student visas, suggests a new phase of repression where political speech—particularly pro-Palestinian organizing—is treated as a threat to national security. DHS agents have already served warrants on Columbia students and are using surveillance to build immigration cases against demonstrators. Trump’s executive order mandating “monitoring” of international students for antisemitism is being operationalized through aggressive legal and intelligence tactics.
Despite this pressure, students are escalating. At both UCLA and Columbia, protestors have broken into restricted buildings, caused property damage, and openly defied police orders. While university administrations are caught between appeasing federal authorities and preventing campus-wide uprisings, student organizers have become more radicalized, invoking a tradition of anti-war resistance that stretches back to the Vietnam era. The UCLA zine captures this evolution, calling for the abolition of the university system as a colonial and capitalist structure and urging protestors to view encampments not just as actions, but as strategic frontlines in a broader revolutionary movement.
With protests, arrests, and violent confrontations spreading—and with political and militant actors both encouraging escalation—the conditions for a prolonged phase of student-led civil unrest are increasingly in place. The question is no longer whether disruption will continue, but how far institutions and the state will go in their response.
