As the death toll from Israeli military attacks in the Gaza Strip rises, encampments led by pro-Palestinian students are spreading on American university campuses. Despite disciplinary action and police intervention, the demonstrations show no signs of stopping. Camps have begun on at least a dozen campuses as student demonstrators demand that universities divest from companies profiting from the Israeli occupation.
New York police arrested an unspecified number of pro-Palestinian protesters at New York University on Monday night. After about 50 protesters held a demonstration on campus earlier in the day and more attempted to join, a school spokesperson said: statement as “disorderly, disruptive, and hostile conduct.”
On Monday morning, police arrested 60 protesters at Yale University, including 47 students, on charges of trespassing. A similar scene unfolded last week at Columbia University, where school officials called on police to arrest more than 100 protesters. Columbia University and Barnard College subsequently suspended dozens of students over safety concerns. New York City police maintained that the protesters were acting peacefully when they arrested them. Barnard College students, including Ilhan Omar’s daughter Isra Hirsi, lost access to on-campus housing and meal plans.
“I’m really at a loss. I don’t know when I’ll be allowed back in,” Hirschi said. She said she was overwhelmed and saddened that she was “stuck on the outside” but was aware of her risks. “I felt I had to take a stand,” she says. Hirschi also feels inspired by many universities starting camps. “This isn’t a Columbia moment. It’s a moment for everyone,” she says. “It’s important for all of us, as students at prestigious universities, to really find out what’s going on.”
The White House condemned anti-Semitism on college campuses in a statement on Passover Sunday, but did not elaborate on specific institutions or incidents. “Even in recent days, we’ve seen harassment and calls for violence against Jews,” President Joe Biden said. “This blatant anti-Semitism is reprehensible and dangerous, and has no place on college campuses or anywhere else in our country.”
Columbia University Apartheid Divest, the coalition of student organizations leading the protests, pushed back against the anti-Semitism allegations. “We are frustrated by media distractions that focus on inflammatory individuals who do not represent us,” they said. “We categorically reject any form of hatred or bigotry, and we strongly reject any form of hatred or bigotry, and we strongly reject any form of hatred or bigotry, and those who seek to destroy the unity that has been built among our students, including Palestinians, Muslims, Arabs, Jews, and blacks. And we continue to be wary of our pro-Palestinian classmates and colleagues, who represent all kinds of diversity.
The encampment is the latest in a wave of destructive pro-Palestinian protests calling attention to what Palestinians consider a genocide. Previous demonstrations have seen the temporary closure of bridges, train stations and airports in protest of Israel’s continued offensive on Gaza following the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas. (According to the Gaza Health Ministry, Israel has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians. Last weekend, authorities announced that 22 people, including 18 children, were killed in an airstrike on Rafah. Gaza civil defense personnel. (Recently reported that nearly 300 bodies were buried in hospitals) In southern Gaza, Hamas attacks have killed around 1,200 people and taken 240 hostages, more than 100 of whom have been freed. )
columbia university
Dozens of Columbia University faculty members walked out on Monday to protest the arrest and suspension of students. “As faculty, we differ on relevant political issues and do not express an opinion on the pros and cons of protests, but we do want to demand respect for the fundamental rule of law values that should govern the university. We are writing a letter,” they said in the letter. .
The encampment inside Columbia University’s campus gates was relatively peaceful. On Friday, Jewish students led Shabbat services. The protesters then surrounded their fellow Muslims with blankets and prayed for privacy. They held teach-ins, including a teach-in on anti-Semitism. Students chanted protest slogans, danced and watched movies. Some people brought their pets.
Omar’s daughter Hirsi said organizers were “very clear” they were focused on “genocide and the actions of the Israeli government.” Generalizing the protests as anti-Semitic is also “disrespectful” to the many Jewish activists involved in the movement, she says. “There are people who try to tie their identity to the government, and there’s not much we can do about it,” she says. “All I saw at that camp was a beautiful act of solidarity.”
Shiri Gil, a 25-year-old Jewish Columbia University student from Israel who moved to New York as part of the university’s dual degree program with Tel Aviv, said she feels unsafe in the encampment. She doesn’t care about protesters voicing her concerns about Israel’s actions in Gaza, but she blames Hamas for the violence. “She has not confirmed the identity of the hostage,” she says.
She says the chants calling for the intifada were jarring to her because she had lost relatives to some of the violence. (More than 5,000 Palestinians and about 1,400 Israelis died in the two intifadas.) For many pro-Palestinian protesters, intifada broadly refers to Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation.
Tensions were sometimes high outside the university gates. Videos on social media show individuals making anti-Semitic remarks, but their identities and connections to student protesters remain unclear.
On-campus Jewish institutions are divided on their messages to students. Rabbi Elie Buechler, an Orthodox rabbi at Columbia/Barnard College, encouraged students to return home until things calm down on campus. “It is not our job as Jews to ensure our safety on campus,” he wrote in a Whatsapp group chat with many Jewish students. The Columbia and Barnard branches of Hillel, the university’s largest Jewish organization, issued statements Sunday saying their branches would remain open. “For many of us on campus, this is a truly uncomfortable and even frightening time,” said Brian Cohen, executive director of the Jewish organization. “Columbia University and New York City must do more to protect their students.”
Columbia University announced Monday that all courses at its main Morningside campus will be hybrid through the end of the semester. This comes as Shafiq said in a memo to students that all classes across the university will be held virtually on Monday to “quell resentment and give everyone an opportunity to consider next steps.” It was announced later.
yale university
At Yale University, police arrested about 45 students just before 7 a.m. Protest organizers said more than 600 people gathered Sunday night to protect more than 40 tents. They said law enforcement only gave protesters one warning for arrest, even though they had been told they would receive three warnings.
Craig Birkhead Morton, a pro-Palestinian Yale University undergraduate student who was arrested, says the Colombian encampment was a catalyst for escalating their activities. “I had the idea (for the camp) before Friday… but I think Columbia was an encouraging event,” he says. They set up their tents late that evening.
Birkhead Morton, a Black Muslim, said protesters sang chants and songs as he was arrested. “We don’t know what school discipline is like, but we expect it,” he says.
Protests resumed around 8 a.m. According to New Haven Police. Law enforcement officials said there are “no current plans to arrest non-violent protesters.”
The Yale Daily News campus newspaper reported that students performed traditional Filipino dances amid counter-protests and jeers.
Yale University President Peter Salovey said in a statement on Sunday that while many students protested peacefully, “there have been egregious incidents of intimidation, harassment, shoving of students in the crowd, and the removal of flags from the square.” “We are aware of reports of conduct.” Harmful behavior. ”
Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University’s camp is the longest running. It began more than three weeks ago with a sit-in near the entrance to the prime minister’s official residence in one of the main administrative buildings.
Twenty-seven students participated in the sit-in, which lasted nearly 24 hours and ultimately resulted in three students being expelled. The university accused the students of forcing their way into the building and injuring a social services worker. Jack Petox, one of the expelled students, said he had nothing to do with the altercation and that Vanderbilt Universitycreated a completely inaccurate representation About the one-minute exchange (he) had with the prime minister’s staff upstairs. ”
“You can arrest students under false pretenses, suspend them from campus, and try to silence a movement, but you will never succeed. For more than 500 hours, an encampment has flourished outside Kirkland Hall. Because there are,” Petock said. He is known for organizing on LGBTQ issues. “This is the 26th day of the protests.”
Vanderbilt University did not respond to a request for comment, but previously said in a statement: We fully understand that students’ choices and decisions can have serious and costly consequences. ”
The demonstrators are pushing back against Diermeier’s assertion in the New York Times that he is “not interested in dialogue.” they say He has been avoiding talking to them.
new york university
Pro-Palestinian students at New York University began camping on Monday morning. “In solidarity with the Palestinians, who have faced over 75 years of occupation and 198 days of genocide, we at New York University refuse to remain complicit,” they said in a statement posted on Instagram. Ta. In addition to the sale, protesters are demanding that New York University terminate its relationship with Tel Aviv University and close its Tel Aviv campus.
On Monday afternoon, New York University officials told students and faculty to leave Gould Plaza by 2:45 p.m., or students would face “serious consequences,” according to protest organizers. “Everything is on the table,” he said.
New York University did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Other universities
Camps have also expanded to UNC-Chapel Hill, Washington University in St. Louis, the University of Michigan, The New School, MIT, Emerson College, Tufts University and the University of Maryland.
Harvard University closed its grounds until Friday in anticipation of pro-Palestinian protests and suspended the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee for the remainder of the semester, according to the Harvard Crimson. The announcement comes after more than 200 Harvard University officials staged a protest in Harvard Yard last week.
