And for the thousands of protesters across the country their reasons for demonstrating vary. This is for the people of palestine and were going to draft an agreement that is best that shows them we have not given up. I think its important that students and everyone know that the Jewish Community is not were not going to give into Anti Semitism. Especially as a jewish student with members of my family. Who died in the holocaust, i want to do everything i can to protest against this genocide that is happening against palestinians. We are all here as intelligent people who have autonomy to and we have a lot of privilege in being able to stand up and do what we love and stand up and protect the community we think deserves rejection. Even though i graduate in a week, i dont think this is going to end for me as a story. They dont want it to end for me as a story. This is truly an Intergenerational Movement and that is part of the reason why i think it is time to listen. I think is only a matter of time until they have to. I think the time is now. A central demand among demonstrators is for universities to divest from israel because of the war in gaza. Cornells law school describes divestment as the process through which an organisation sells off its shares, assets or other investments for political, ethical or financial reasons. Other demands include universities stopping business with Military Weapons Manufacturers that supply arms to israel. Not accepting Research Money from israel that helps the countrys military efforts. And more transparency over what Money Universities receives from israel and what its used for. One of those pro palestinian protests is happening right here in dc at George Washington university. Unlike what weve seen in other cities across the us, police In Washington have so far declined to break up that encampment. Conservative House Lawmakers have visited the protest, and threatened to hold a House Hearing over it. Earlier, i spoke to one student whose been at the encampment, moataz salim. Moataz is a Graduate Student at George Washington university and a palestinian american student activist. Moataz, thank you for joining us in our studios. We talked to you earlier on these protests. Tell us, first of all, you still remain processing in this encampment. Tell us what the relationship has been like with the university and police, because dc police have not cleared this encampment. We are on day nine today, i have been there from day one. In terms of the relationship with the university and the police, i mean, the students so ijust want to clarify, i am just a grad student at gw, i am in the encampmentjust in solidarity, but the Student Demands are to divest from any sort of funds that go to companies that are aiding the genocide, and a lot of it is to protect pro palestine students and black and brown students and the organisers. What has the universitys response been to that . I say those things to just make it clear those other demands and the university has so far responded in a mostly negative way. They, like you said, they called in the npd to arrest us the first night and the npd declined. Since then we have had seven students that were suspended, that were initially part of the encampment. We also had some intimidation, some threats from the gw police, which continue to surveil us every day and i, as faras i know, negotiations have begun with University Admin but all we know is they have begun. Can you tell us what things are like in the encampment right now, how determined are you and your fellow protesters to stay there . I think very determined. The mood is quite good. Honestly, morale is high. We have been very peaceful, have had no arrests whatsoever. I think everyone there is committed wholeheartedly and unwaveringly for palestinian liberation, especially after seven months of genocide that they have witnessed. So everyone that there is really, really Holding Strong and its actually we are growing in numbers for Community Members. I have to ask, this process is very personal to you. Tell us more about that. My father is from gaza, so i have a lot of family who are still there cousins, aunts, uncles. So far, 161 of them have been killed by the Israeli Regime and so, yeah, its very heavy, it is a very large number, i will admit i did not know all of them, palestinians tend to have pretty big families. But i did know a lot of them who died, some of them i was very close to. So, i think you dont need to have Family Members to really feel it, but i have filtered extra hard because to me these were real human beings who had day to day activities, day to day lives and had already been under siege and under occupation by the israeli state under siege for over 15 years, under occupation for over 75, and now they are gone and i cant ever see them again. So sorry for the loss of yourFamily Members. I think there are many people in the protests and encampments across the country who share similar stories. I just want to ask you one more question about how you see some of the disagreements that have come out of these protests between some students who say they feel harassed or threatened on campus, between those who say they are exercising their right to free speech, how do you see that playing out at gw . I will say what i said the last time, is i would content with the feeling of unsafe, i would understand a little more having discomfort, because, you know, the Israeli Regime uses its propaganda to sort of co opt thejewish faith as a central part of its identity, but from what i understand everything that it is doing in gaza it has been doing for seven months now and is occupation go against the central tenants about giving service, providing services to the world and love for all. Those things go against what the Israeli Regime is doing and thats what i understand thejewish faith be centred in and i would also say if people want to come in and actually talk to as they would understand there is really nothing like whatsoever against the jewish faith, it is just a lot of people who have seen the settler colonialism, this Apartheid System for a long, long time and above that seven months of genocide and theyjust want a free palestine and palestine were palestinians can have justice, freedom, and dignity. Moataz, we have to live the conversation there. But thank you for coming in. Thank you for having me. As we mentioned, these protests started at Columbia University in new york. Earlier this week, police in riot gear cleared out the encampment there and cleared protesters from a university hall. The Department Of Education is now investigating the university about allegations of discriminatory treatment of palestinian students. The university is also facing criticism for its handling of allegations of Anti Semitism on campus before and during these protests. Columbias president minouche shafik, was called to testify before congress about those accusations one day after the House Of Representatives passed the antisemitism awareness act on tuesday. Earlier, i spoke to maya platek, student body president elect, Columbia School of general studies who has also been outspoken about the need to ensure all students, including jewish students, are safe and can access campus. Thank you forjoining us. Columbias encampment has been cleared. Tensions are high. Can you give us a sense of what things are like on campus now . Currently campus is effectively shut down. This is affecting every single student on campus, even barring some students from their ability to eat, study, and learn effectively, despite the fact that students are spending thousands of dollars on these resources. This is not a long Term Solution and nor should ever be normalised. Columbia should find a way to bring back students during this divisive period to ensure this shutdown can never happen again. I will talk to you about the communication with columbia in a moment, you have talked about not feeling yourself particularly comfortable on campus in recent weeks. Do you feel safe on campus now . Im unable to attend campus. Campus is effectively under lockdown. Its really unfortunate that it got to this stage and im really disappointed that this is the current state. I would say that manyjewish students returned home even before the final shutdown of campus during the final week of classes. Even though there have been many instances of physical assault and intimidation over the last six months, over the last few weeks this has been an especially heightened escalation. Can i ask you, maya, but what we heard from our previous guest who has said that for pro Palestinian Protesters they believe, some of them at least, that it is not a question of safety forjewish students but rather a question of some jewish students perhaps feeling uncomfortable with their message. What did you make of that . I really fundamentally disagree. I think that there have been at least at columbia instances of physical and verbal assault on campus, very much documented and many students have repeatedly rung the ballot this specific and is very much clearly anti semitic indiscriminate story and completely unacceptable. Moreover, i think every student has to be able to feel safe on campus and colombia has to do something to make sure every single student feel safe. I should make clear you are speaking from Columbia University and student we spoke to previously was part of the endowment at gw here In Washington, dc, different circumstances, to we have said colombia must pursue communication and dialogue and the future, Going Forward with these types of incidents. What you think should look like . Absolutely. I think colombia has to find a solution that encourages dialogue across campus. Columbia has an opportunity to click a Restart Button here, going into the new academic year, and there is genuine interest on campus for dialogue and i would say that my election actually proves it as they ran on a campaign of encouraging dialogue, communication, and unity. Moreover, i would say that up until now dialogue and communication have been effectively shut down. We have seen it through many Different Levels on campus, within academic departments, for example, we have seen singular narratives being propagated, which is an example unacceptable when it is concerning regions are goblets, have also seen as the students were completely good faith attempted to encourage and engage with conversation with members of the encampment to encourage dialogue and more effectively pushed out by faculty members. An encampment that shows to advocate against multifaceted conversation. I think this is absolutely unacceptable colombia must do whatever it can to ensure and encourage conversations like that in the future. Moreover, although colombia attempted to encourage dialogue on campus once and failed to do so in our case you do outside russia to discourage dialogue, colombia is an Academic Institution encompassing a myriad of perspectives and ideas through faculty and administration and it has an obligation to facilitate efforts to discuss this topic in a respectful manner. It is sad conversation and communication as being so condemned right now on campus. Maya, one more question on this, do you have the sense on campus, with things as heated as it has been, that since both sides of this discussion are ready and able to sit down and have a dialogue . I think it might not be that every student is ready to have that dialogue. I think there are a lot of students ready to have that dialogue. I think that this Current Situation and specifically to do with the fact that our campus has shut down as lead to a new opportunity for people to recognise our serious this divisive culture has become on campus. And, again, as i said, there were enough people who voted for me, specifically, as president to indicate this is likely a Majority Perspective on campus and i think its really important that colombia tries to advocate for it, even if it takes many attacks. 0k, maya platek, thanks very much forjoining us tonight on bbc news. Thank you. Some protests have now ended, including at Brown University in rhode island where they were able to successfully negotiate with protesters. Administrators and the brown divest coalition, a pro palestinian Student Led Group reached a deal on tuesday. Demonstrators agreed to end the encampment on campus in exchange for the university to hold a board vote in october on whether or not to divest from israel linked companies. It is the second such deal between universities and protesters following northwestern university, which struck a deal on monday. Since then, administrators at rutgers and the University Of Minnesota have also agreed to come to the table and discuss protesters� demands. To understand how Brown University successfully negotiated with organisers, i spoke to aiyahjosiah faeduwor, who sits on the universitys Community Council. Thank you so much forjoining us on bbc news tonight. I want to start with what Brown University has done here, this different approach and experience with a resolution that ended the encampment there. Can you tell us what that process was like and how it led to a resolution . Yeah, just first on that, what brown has done, this has been student power, this is been people power, this has been students across the nation that have stood up that has put the pressure on round to respond the way they did. As a member of the Community Council i have sat on for two years as a Community Member someone who graduated from brown in 2013 and lives on rhode island, i was invited to council and sat on it for two years, we have never voted on anything, any counsellors just been there to placate community and what eventually came to realise is when we were being brought an opportunity to engage with the students to respond to a community asked, this was the first thing we were brought and we had to really me and other members of the council had to push the administration, pusher leadership to take their concerns seriously and force them to go to a vote. And it seems to have worked, is i could justjump in, and this led to a resolution. Do you think it is little more open dialogue between students as well on how they see the war in gaza . I think for students they really are sceptical about howserious the institution is about delivering on the vote. Its so clear that the presence of the encampment with Commencement Reunion coming up was a threat for what the institution was hoping this time would look like and so i think the students the conversation has been about how are we preparing for when and if they likely will try and not bring something substantive to the table or vote seriously, so i think students are talking about what the sustained engagement would look like and how we keep the pressure there. You are very much saying this is not over, youre waiting to see what university does. Where do you see the universitys role, this difficult battle we have seen across the country between protecting the right to free speech to protest, but also the safety of students and the ability to access campus. How do you see the university, where you are, and its role in striking that balance . I am maybe being pollyannaish about it, i have felt that way, ive had a large level of optimism throughout my life and career, so i want to say i hope the makes the right decision, looks at this context, looks at what the students are saying and seriously, look at what is happening in gaza and understands the responsibility it should play as an institution that is measured on impacting the world and the way it intends to do. I think being realistic and the scepticism from watching how this process has since you, i think the university is really trying to protect its interests and it is more interested in making sure that the Brown Corporation continues to support financially anyway does, allows the institution to grow, you know, its real estate footprint, i think the real concern is the institution will adhere to what the corporation wants, rather than what the student is asking for and rather than what the world needs right now. Just 30 seconds left, can you tell us how you anticipate being able to engage your fellow students and dialogue Going Forward . Ijust believe in them. I will continue to be a resource for them, they will continue to listen to what they have to say, i will watch what they have gone through and this is just this moment we have now, the Student Heavy Fighting for three years and ensure that brown doesnt use this as an opportunity for good optics and actually delivers on this. So im just hopeful that i can remain a speaker for these students and uplift their voices and make sure they are heard and taken seriously. All right, aiyah, thank you forjoining us on bbc news tonight. Really appreciate it. Thank you. Now for a look at cove