The anarchist website CrimethInc.com has been urging anti-Israel student protesters to intensify their demonstrations by hijacking buildings, arming themselves, and using the protests as a “movement against the police.” The website provides guidance on how protesters can escalate and up the ante in the demonstrations, encouraging dynamic and confrontational approaches rather than remaining peaceful. It refers to the police as “militants” and advises students to arm themselves with materials like plywood, insulation board, and scrap wood sourced from campus dumpsters.
The site also discourages negotiating with college administrators, asserting that negotiations delay police raids and diminish the protesters’ ability to fend off intervention. Instead, it advises engaging with administrators only when reinforcements are available and when buying time is advantageous. In one analysis, CrimethInc.com recommends that students should occupy buildings to sow chaos, noting that campus buildings often have supplies that can be used to barricade against police intervention. It emphasizes that the pro-Palestinian movement must be a movement against the police and that police forces are seen as foot soldiers of empire.
One analysis specifically mentions the protests at Cal Poly Humboldt, where students were advised to take buildings, occupy spaces where classes are held, and administrators’ offices. The write-up underscores the power students hold by occupying strategic areas and recommends that protesters be equipped with goggles, gas masks, laser pointers, and shields at demonstrations. The website calls on demonstrators to force out the police, recognizing that police have shown willingness to brutalize those calling for an end to genocide in Palestine.
The reports on protests at various universities follow a series of police actions and arrests at campus anti-Israel encampments, including the NYPD’s raid of Hamilton Hall at Columbia University. Over 300 people were arrested between Columbia’s Morningside Heights campus and the City College campus in Harlem, with the Mayor Eric Adams labeling some of those taken into custody as “outside agitators.” Adams has demanded that universities like Columbia help cover the costs of massive law enforcement operations undertaken after administrators failed to quell weeks of strife on their grounds.
Adams has suggested a zero-tolerance approach to prevent spiraling costs by dismantling tents as soon as they are set up to prevent the protests from expanding. The intensification and radicalization of the protests, as encouraged by CrimethInc.com, highlight the growing tension and polarized views surrounding the Israel-Palestine conflict. The call for more confrontational measures, armed resistance, and occupation of buildings has raised concerns about the potential for increased violence and conflict on college campuses and the broader implications of trying to link anti-Israel sentiments with anti-police activism.
