Mass arrests at university campuses as pro-Palestine protests escalate in US

New York: Police have arrested dozens of people at pro-Palestine demonstrations at Yale University in Connecticut and New York University in Manhattan, as the war in Gaza continued to reverberate through American universities.

Crackdowns by police came after Columbia University cancelled in-person classes on Monday (local time) in response to protesters setting up tent encampments at its New York City campus last week, when more arrests were made.

Pro-Palestine supporters rally at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.Credit: AP

Demonstrators blocked traffic around Yale’s campus, demanding the university divest from military weapons manufacturers. Police arrested more than 45 protesters, according to the student-run Yale Daily News.

In New York, officers moved on the NYU crowd shortly after nightfall as hundreds of demonstrators for hours defied university warnings that they faced consequences if they failed to vacate a plaza where they had gathered. Video on social media showed police taking down tents in the protesters’ encampment.

As demonstrators tussled with officers they chanted: “We will not stop, we will not rest. Disclose. Divest.”

A New York police spokesperson said arrests were made after NYU asked police to enforce trespassing violations, but the total number of arrests and citations would remain unknown until much later. No injuries were reported.

Tents at a pro-Palestine demonstration encampment at Columbia University in New York.Credit: AP

Protests at Yale, Columbia, NYU and other university campuses across the nation began in response to the escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, after the deadly cross-border raid by Hamas militants on October 7 and Israel’s fierce response in Hamas-controlled Gaza.

In an email to Columbia staff and students on Monday, Columbia University president Minouche Shafik said the university was cancelling in-person classes and moving to online teaching to “de-escalate the rancour and give us all a chance to consider next steps”.

Last week, Shafik called in police to clear a tent encampment that protesters had set up on Columbia’s main lawn to demand the school divest from Israel-related investments.

Columbia said the encampment violated rules. Police arrested more than 100 students from the university on Thursday on charges of trespassing. Columbia and the affiliated Barnard College have suspended dozens of students involved in the protests.

“These tensions have been exploited and amplified b]y individuals who are not affiliated with Columbia, who have come to campus to pursue their own agendas,” said Shafik, who last week testified before a US House of Representatives committee, defending the school’s response to alleged antisemitism by protesters.

Republicans in the House and the Senate, as well as at least one Democratic senator, demanded Shafik resign.

Donor threatens cut-off

Major university donor Robert Kraft was also unsatisfied that Columbia was doing enough to protect Jewish students. Kraft, who is Jewish and the owner of the New England Patriots, has donated millions of dollars to Columbia and threatened to cut off further funding.

“I am not comfortable supporting the university until corrective action is taken,” he said.

Amid angry confrontations at Columbia between pro-Palestine and pro-Israel groups, police received reports of Israeli students having flags snatched from their hands, but no reports “of any physical harm against any student”, deputy police commissioner Tarik Sheppard said.

US President Joe Biden, who has been criticised by the protesters for supplying funding and weapons to Israel, said his administration had put the full force of the government behind protecting the Jewish community.

“Even in recent days, we’ve seen harassment and calls for violence against Jews,” Biden said. “This blatant antisemitism is reprehensible and dangerous – and it has absolutely no place on college campuses, or anywhere in our country.”

Student organisers from the Columbia encampment criticised Biden’s statement, noting that some of the organisers are Jewish and that news outlets had focused on “inflammatory individuals who do not represent us”.

“We firmly reject any form of hate or bigotry and stand vigilant against non-students attempting to disrupt the solidarity being forged among students – Palestinian, Muslim, Arab, Jewish, Black and pro-Palestinian classmates and colleagues,” organisers said in a statement.

“It’s very clear to us that people on the outside do not understand what this encampment is about,” said Lea Salim, a Barnard College sophomore. She said she was one of 15 Jewish students arrested on the Columbia lawn last week.

Salim said it was not antisemitic to criticise the state of Israel.

Reuters, AP

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