Global attention is focused on universities in the United States, where students have set up camps to demand action to end Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip.

The growing protests have taken root on the campuses of some of the country’s top academic institutions, including Columbia and Harvard.

And in recent weeks they have fueled heated debates over issues including freedom of expression, Palestinian solidarity activism in the US and the use of violence to disperse student protesters.

But the students at the heart of the movement say the reason they started their demonstrations — the urgent need to end Israel’s deadly bombardment of Gaza — is in danger of being lost amid a cacophony of voices and distractions.

“Gaza is the reason we are here. Gaza is why we do this,” said Rue, a student at The New School in New York City who asked to be identified only by her first name for fear of reprisal.

“The New School encampment is happening because we want to make sure we do what we can to end this genocide,” Rue told Al Jazeera.

List of requirements

Encampments popped up at US universities and colleges this month as the Palestinian death toll in Gaza surpassed 34,300, amid reports that mass graves were uncovered in the coastal enclave.

The students sent a list of demands to their respective universities, including divesting companies that may profit from the Gaza war or providing weapons and other support to the Israeli army.

They have that too insisted an end to reprisals against students who have spoken out in support of the Palestinians and to administrators who pledge not to send police or other law enforcement agencies to campuses to break up their protests.

Images of throngs of New York Police Department (NYPD) officers marching on the Columbia University campus earlier this week to disperse a protest camp in Gaza prompted students in other parts of the US to also set up their own protest sites to put.

Since the camps began, hundreds of students have been arrested across the country.

A first-year doctoral student at New York University (NYU), who spoke to Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, said students act “based on the ideals and the history (them) are taught.”

“As students who are taught in the classroom about colonialism, about indigenous rights, about the impact of nonviolent protest throughout history, it would be extremely hypocritical – or it would completely undermine the meaning of our education – if we did nothing. ,” said the 25-year-old.

“We can at least show that there was resistance” to what is happening in the Gaza Strip, the student added.

“The horrors in Gaza are truly unimaginable. These small acts of resistance, these are small sacrifices – (they) are nothing compared to what is happening on the ground in Palestine.”

‘Scholasticicide’ in Gaza

Like other protesters in the US, many American students have said they felt an impulse to take action given the US government’s longstanding support for Israel.

The US provides Israel with $3.8 billion in military aid annually, and President Joe Biden has remained staunchly supportive of the country during the Gaza war. On Wednesday, Biden signed a massive financing package that will provide Israel with an additional $17 billion.

The Israeli army’s attacks on Palestinian students, teachers and academic institutions across Gaza during the war also served as a catalyst for the protests at universities, the students said.

Last week, a group of United Nations experts noted that 80 percent of schools in the Palestinian enclave have been damaged or destroyed since the war began in early October. Nearly 5,500 students have been killed, along with 261 teachers and 95 university professors.

“It may be reasonable to wonder whether there is a deliberate attempt to completely destroy the Palestinian education system, an action known as ‘scholasticide,’” the experts said in a statement on April 18.

“These attacks are not isolated incidents. They present a systematic pattern of violence aimed at dismantling the foundations of Palestinian society.”

Etta, a senior at NYU who also asked to be identified only by her first name for fear of reprisals, told Al Jazeera it was “appalling” to see her university’s failure to acknowledge the destruction of Palestinian academic institutions .

“As an institution that should have a function of education, of mind formation, of academic freedom, they cannot even take the time to acknowledge, mourn and discuss the destruction of those institutions in Palestine,” Etta said.

“There is a refusal to even acknowledge that this is happening when we are all witnessing it.”

‘Bigger than us’

While uncertainty surrounds the future of U.S. university camps amid threats that they will be dismantled, students say they remain committed to continuing their protests — and keeping the focus on what’s happening in Gaza happens.

“Palestine is the center, liberation is the center of this conversation,” Etta said.

This was echoed by Rue, the student from The New School.

“I feel like it’s a moral imperative that everyone do everything they can and protest and fight against this genocide and end it as best they can,” Rue told Al Jazeera.

“We are part of something bigger than us,” she added.

“We are part of a global movement right now and we are truly inspired and heartened by the incredible solidarity we are seeing in the United States, on various college campuses, around the world.”