The Israel-Hamas war ignited protests on many U.S. college campuses. Some students were elated, others concerned after the announcement of a ceasefire.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
News of a ceasefire and hostage-release deal between Israel and Hamas spread quickly through U.S. college campuses, which have been bitterly divided over the conflict in Gaza since October 7, 2023. NPR’s Tovia Smith checked in with several students.
TOVIA SMITH, BYLINE: When Mayah Goel, a sophomore at Wayne State University in Detroit, first heard about the deal, she headed straight for Hillel, the Jewish student organization, both nervous and excited.
MAYAH GOEL: And we just talked about all the hostages, and how happy their families will be to have them back.
SMITH: But Goel also worries about the price Israel may pay to get back the 33 promised hostages. It would free about a thousand Palestinian detainees and prisoners, including some convicted of killing Israelis. That’s especially hard to accept, Goel says, knowing that the October 7 mastermind, Yahya Sinwar, was one of the prisoners released in a hostage swap years ago.
GOEL: It is a high price to pay. Like, who knows who these prisoners that are going to be released, and who knows what they’re going to do in the future? I feel like it’s a no-win situation.
SMITH: Several other students expressed similar dismay, but they’re somewhat more optimistic about implications on campuses where tensions have been roiling. Boston University senior Akiva Zeff says he hopes the deal could shift focus away from some of the most incendiary accusations, like genocide and war crimes.
AKIVA ZEFF: I can only hope that this simmers down, because it’s very charged, and that removes a lot of nuance from what is an exceptionally nuanced situation.
SMITH: That sentiment was shared by MIT senior Alex Edwards, walking past the spot he recalls was packed last year with encampments, protesters and police.
ALEX EDWARDS: We were just like, whoa, what the hell’s going on? This is insane (laughter).
SMITH: I’m just here to learn, Edwards says, and the protests are a distraction.
EDWARDS: I don’t think demanding that MIT cuts ties with Israel is going to change Israel’s policies.
SMITH: But many of those leading campus protests say they have no intention of letting up. Mahmoud Muheisen cofounded the Muslim Coalition at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. If anything, he says, he’s now fired up by a deal he sees as a big win.
MAHMOUD MUHEISEN: When it happened, I went with a couple of friends, and we drove around honking with the Palestinian flag and went and got sweets for all my coworkers and enjoyed the moment.
SMITH: Now, Muheisen says, the student movement must and will continue.
MUHEISEN: The message is that this didn’t start on October 7, and the fight for justice doesn’t end on January 15.
SMITH: Muheisen says more than two dozen students are planning to run for positions within Michigan’s state Democratic Party since he says national Democrats betrayed them. The fight is ramping up, he says, not winding down.
MUHEISEN: It would be a shame for all the sacrifice and all the martyrdom that happened inside of Gaza to go in vain.
SMITH: Barnard College junior Marie Adele Grosso agrees. She says a ceasefire has been top priority for pro-Palestinian activists like her. Once that’s achieved, she says, they can focus on the rest of their agenda.
MARIE ADELE GROSSO: For divestment, and keep pushing for the U.S. government to stop funding Israel. And we will be working hard on explaining more complex settler colonial violence, and hopefully people will keep showing up.
SMITH: As a rallying cry, that may not resonate quite like calls for a ceasefire did, but it may end up spurring more serious and productive conversations about complex and nuanced issues that many students agree is sorely needed.
Tovia Smith, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF COMMON SONG, “THEY SAY (FEAT. KANYE WEST AND JOHN LEGEND)”)
Copyright © 2025 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
