Israel-Gaza war:- What began last week at Columbia University, where students refused to end their protests against Israel’s war in Gaza despite pushback from the New York school and arrests by police, has spread across the country. Students at various college campuses are staging similar demonstrations that are also being met with police response.
In one of the latest incidents, on Thursday police responded as student protesters at Princeton University in New Jersey began setting up an encampment, according to media reports.
In a video posted on X, an officer said, "You all are in violation of university policy. These tents must come down now." Protesters were also shown chanting, "Free, free Palestine."
A couple states away in Massachusetts, police forcibly removed an encampment set up by students at Emerson College in Boston and arrested more than 100 people, according to media and police reports. The tents were removed shortly after 1 a.m. on Thursday, police said. Emerson canceled classes Thursday.
Students at Harvard University, Tufts University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology set up similar encampments.
Meanwhile, Atlanta police and Georgia state troopers removed a camp on Emory University's quadrangle Thursday morning.
And in Washington on Thursday, hundreds of demonstrators gathered at George Washington University to call for universities to divest from companies linked to Israel and to drop disciplinary charges against pro-Palestinian student protesters. The protest was organized by students from George Washington, Georgetown University and others in the region.
Last week, tensions escalated on Columbia’s Manhattan campus when city police arrested more than 100 pro-Palestinian protesters.
University officials decided to switch to hybrid learning for the remainder of the semester, which will conclude by the end of next week. The university has again extended the deadline, this time until early Friday morning, for students to dismantle tents.
“I condemn the antisemitic protests,” U.S. President Joe Biden told reporters Monday. “I also condemn those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians.”
Palestine Legal, a U.S. pro-Palestinian group, filed a federal civil rights complaint against Columbia in the wake of last week's mass arrest of anti-war protesters after the school called police to clear demonstrator encampments, the group said Thursday.
Similar scenes have been playing out this week from Connecticut and Illinois to Texas and California.
In New Haven, Connecticut, on Monday, police arrested 48 protesters, four of whom were not students, at Yale University after they refused to leave an encampment on a plaza at the center of campus.
Two days later at the University of Texas at Austin, hundreds of protesters were met with university officers as Texas state troopers responded in riot gear. Dozens of students who did not leave the area were arrested.
“Arrests being made right now & will continue until the crowd disperses,” Texas Governor Greg Abbott posted on X. “These protesters belong in jail. Antisemitism will not be tolerated in Texas. Period. Students joining in hate-filled, antisemitic protests at any public college or university in Texas should be expelled.”
A photojournalist covering the protest for Fox 7 Austin was arrested after being caught in the tumult between students and law enforcement, the station said. Footage on social media shows the journalist being knocked down by officers.
Hours later on Wednesday, in contrast to the police response in Texas, police peacefully arrested student protesters at the University of Southern California. That evening, a few dozen demonstrators standing in a circle with locked arms were detained one by one without incident. More than 90 protesters were arrested on campus.
A day later, USC announced it would cancel its main graduation ceremony, scheduled for May 10. The university had already canceled a commencement speech by the school's pro-Palestinian valedictorian, citing safety concerns. VOA/SP
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