Hundreds of students were arrested in the last day during demonstrations at several universities and colleges in the United States, in protest of the war in Gaza. Student protests have been expanding over the past week, after encampments were set up at Columbia, Yale and New York University, and demonstrations have also spread to other campuses in California, Texas and other states.
Speaker of the US House of Representatives Mike Johnson called on Columbia University President Minosh Shafik to resign “if she fails to bring order to this chaos”, adding that “if these threats and intimidation do not end, it may be time for the National Guard”, this after last week Over 100 students were arrested at the university during violent clashes with the police, and it was reported that the university administration considered asking to call in the National Guard, but the administration denied this.
The students demand that the colleges and universities sever economic ties with Israel and stop contracting with companies that work with Israel. Jewish students testify that the demonstrations have turned anti-Semitic and that they are afraid to come to the campuses, which has led the universities to try to prevent the demonstrations from escalating.
“I see all the people behind me advocating for human rights,” said Omar Loubton Garnot, a Columbia University graduate who came to the camp with pictures of the abductees. “I don’t think they have a single word to say about the fact that people their age, who were kidnapped from their homes or from a music festival in Israel, are being held by a terrorist organization.”
At New York University, the police reported the arrests of 133 protesters who violated public order, and at Yale University, more than 40 protesters were arrested earlier this week. At Columbia University, the administration is trying to reach agreements with the protesters on the evacuation of the encampment and the prevention of disturbances, with the aim of preventing widespread arrests as there were at it and at many other universities during the week.
At the University of Texas, 34 students and protesters were arrested, after extensive disturbances there. The news agencies reported violent arrests on the spot, including two journalists who were injured during the arrests, after the university management demanded that the protesters evacuate, and when they did not evacuate, they called the police who arrived in large forces.
“Our rules are important and they will be enforced,” said the president of the University of Texas, Jay Hartzel, “we will not allow a siege of our university.” Students present at the scene testified that the arrests were violent, and in their opinion would lead to more protests.
At the University of Southern California (USC), dozens of protesters were relatively quietly arrested after they created a human wall and prevented access to areas around the campus, which could not continue with the academic routine and was closed for activity yesterday. At California Polytechnic University, students were besieged on campus following the protests, and classes moved to distance learning.
At Harvard University, they tried to prevent the pro-Palestinian protests from taking place, when they banned access to the parks within the university’s boundaries, but demonstrators managed to set up a camp of 14 tents in protest of the suspension of the activity of a student cell “in solidarity with Palestine”.
