Gen-Z sees the Gaza protests as their 1968 moment: ‘We built this on their legacy’

Historical comparisons between the mass protests of 1968 and today’s student demonstrations in solidarity with Gaza are both imperfect and hard to avoid.

Just ten days ago Columbia University students pitched the first tent on the campus lawns, and already the protests have galvanised a generation of college students much in the same way the Vietnam War did 56 years ago.

It is not just the scale of the protests that have drawn comparisons, but the tactics. That is no accident: The protesters say they studied that generation-defining movement, methodically, before launching their own.

“We were only able to do this because the student organisers went into the archives of ‘68 and learned from what the older generation wrote about their experiences. A lot of organisers spent time and looked at how they did everything,” Majd, a Columbia undergrad who asked for their full name not to be published, told The Independent at the protest camp on Friday.

“We completely built this on their legacy,” Majd added.

While planning for their encampment, the Columbia protest organisers learned about how the ‘68 protesters dealt with security and how they navigated communications. They invited several participants of the historic protests to visit the encampment and speak.

“Even the idea of a solidarity camp at Columbia was based on the 1968 anti-Vietnam war protests,” said Ava Lyon-Sereno, a fellow Columbia student and protester.  “It really feels like we’re continuing a tradition.”

Even before the sit-ins, student protests over the war in Gaza have been common across college campuses since the war broke out in October, following a surprise Hamas attack that killed 1,200 in Israel. The resulting conflict has killed over 34,000 Palestinians,