Knock LA

In the two years since the start of the Palestine solidarity encampments movement, Occidental students have remained wholly committed to reminding the college that divesting from genocide is still their firm demand. The student encampments that sprang up in the spring semester of 2024 reached over 200 campuses around the world, illuminating a powerful shift within student activism and protest in support of Palestinian liberation. Even years later, confronting Zionist institutions and their investments in Israel is still a priority across campuses worldwide. 

On the morning of Friday April 24, 2026, students at Occidental College relaunched their encampment in support of Palestinian liberation and a renewed their call to the board of trustees to divest from genocide. Students planned the relaunching of the encampment to coincide with the board of trustees’ semi-annual on-campus meeting on Monday, April 27.

When the revival of the encampment took place on the quad at Occidental, the area was dubbed the “Rafah to Jenin Liberated Zone.” Participants running the encampment urged other students to join them in solidarity to pressure the board of trustees to finally listen to their students’ demands in divestment. 

A student at the encampment who chose to stay anonymous told Knock LA, “We’re here continuing to show that there is a strong community on this campus that demands that this institution divest from genocide.” 

Occidental College students have been heavily critical of the institution’s investment in Israel, prison industries, and the military industry complex. Last year, on April 21, over 10 students launched a hunger strike at Occidental in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza suffering from man-made starvation and malnutrition. This was after Israel blocked (and continues to block) hundreds of aid trucks from entering the Gaza strip since the start of the genocide. Students demanded that the administration divest from five weapons manufacturer companies, prohibit ICE agents on university grounds, and designate areas of protest as safe spaces on campus where LAPD and security can’t be sicced onto students peacefully protesting. 

One student told Knock LA, “We demand the decision-making power of the institution so that we, the students and we, the community of Occidental College can have our institution free from genocidal investments, from investments in ICE detention centers, from investments in private prison companies, from investments in surveillance technology, and investments in Israel.”

Last year, during the inauguration of Tom Stritikus as the new president of Occidental, students conducted a nonviolent demonstration calling out Stritikus and his investments and complicity in the genocide in Gaza. These students, who were still on hunger strike during the protest, were then met with brutal violence and assault from security officers. Due to the injuries sustained by students, they decided to end their hunger strike. The events that took place were described by witnesses as “violent” and “alarming.” 

Occidental previously had a reputation for fighting injustice, with students and the college itself demonstrating a commitment to amplifying the struggles of and expressing solidarity with oppressed peoples worldwide. After the violence from security at the inauguration, the campus no longer felt like a safe haven for protest or the advocating of liberation for all. Months after the protest, Occidental College then filed conduct charges against students, which resulted in two students being suspended for expressing free speech and solidarity with Palestine. 

When Knock LA asked one student why it was essential to relaunch the Palestine encampment now, they responded, “The board of trustees makes all of our decisions at our university, including the investments of our university’s endowment. Time and time again — every single time the board of trustees have met — they have redoubled their investments in genocidal companies, in ICE detention centers, in the private prison industry, and the military industrial complex.” 

The student then explained the importance of emphasizing to the board of trustees that Occidental students will not allow these investments with Israel to continue and that if the board is willing to divest from Israel, then the students would be able to take back the power from the university, making the university one for the people. He also expressed the importance of students standing in solidarity with the people of Palestine as well as Lebanon and Iran.

On February 26, 2026, Israel and the United States joined in on a carpet bombing effort, attacking a girls’ elementary school in the southern Iranian city of Minab, slaughtering at least 165 school girls and over 180 people. Since the war began, Israel and the United States have slaughtered over 3,000 Iranians. 

Another student told Knock LA, “As Iran is brought into the escalations that Israel has been starting by bombing schools and cities in Iran and then Iran [is] retaliating by raising oil prices, I think it’s a time when there is more attention on the issue of Israel and I think people are connecting the dots more just on how Israel is the global order and is a threat to all of our lives.”`

At the last minute, the board of trustees moved their meeting to Zoom instead of on campus. According to students at a protest outside what would have been the meeting’s in-person location, this change happened minutes before students were supposed to be able to speak with them. The board also cancelled other in-person engagements with students that day. Thus there was no opportunity for students to interact with the board whatsoever on Monday. 

What seemed like a frustrating behavior, turned out to be a victory for the students of Occidental. Four days after the encampments reemergence and once the board of trustees abandoned their meeting on campus, students voluntarily chose to decamp. This decision was made in good faith, as students celebrated the victory of recentering the communal conversation on Palestine and divestment. The relaunching of the encampment achieved one goal for the students at Oxy, which was to send a strong and clear message to the Board of Trustees: students will not stop executing direct actions to continue pressuring the institution of Occidental to divest from genocide.