2024-05-06 00:22:52
Twenty-five people were arrested for trespassing at the University of Virginia on Saturday after police clashed with pro-Palestinian protesters who refused to remove tents from the campus.
Meanwhile, protesters at the University of Michigan shouted anti-war slogans and waved flags during end-of-course ceremonies.
In Virginia, protesters began their demonstrations on a lawn in front of the school chapel on Tuesday. On Saturday, video from WVAW-TV showed police in riot gear and shields lined up in front of the Charlottesville campus.
Protesters chanted “Free Palestine” and University Police said on social media site X that an “illegal assembly” had been declared in the area.
When they entered, police knocked the students to the ground, pulled them by the arms and sprayed them with a chemical irritant, Laura Goldblatt, an associate professor of English and global studies who helped the protesting students, told the Washington Post said.
“Since this started, our concern has been the safety of our students. Students are not safe right now,” Goldblatt said.
The University administration said in a statement that it informed protesters that the tents and canopies they had erected were prohibited by school policy and asked them to remove them.
Virginia State Police were requested to assist in restoring order, the University said.
It was the latest clash in several tense and sometimes violent weeks at universities across the country, which have seen dozens of protests and hundreds of arrests in demonstrations over the war between Israel and Hamas.
Protests calling on universities to distance themselves from Israel or companies that support the war in the Gaza Strip have spread to campuses across the country in recent weeks, in a student movement not seen before this century .
Some universities have reached agreements with protesters to end the protests and reduce the possibility of them disrupting final exams and graduation ceremonies.
The Associated Press has recorded at least 61 incidents of arrests at protests on college campuses across the United States since April 18.
More than 2,400 people were detained on 47 university campuses.
The figures are based on AP reporting and statements from universities and law enforcement agencies.
Many of the camps have been demolished.
Michigan was among the schools preparing for protests during its end-of-term ceremonies over the weekend, along with Indiana University, Ohio State University and Northeastern University in Boston. Many more protests are scheduled in the coming weeks.
In Ann Arbor, protests took place at the start of the event at Michigan Stadium. About 75 people, many of them wearing the traditional Arabic kufiya with their graduation gowns, marched down the main aisle to the stage.
They chanted “Members of the Governing Council, you can’t hide! They are financing a genocide!” while holding banners, one of which included the legend: “There are no more universities in Gaza.”
In the sky, several planes displayed mixed messages. One of them said: “Now remove from Israel! “Free Palestine!” The other reads: “We are with Israel. “Jewish Lives Matter.”
No arrests were reported and the demonstration did not seriously disrupt the nearly two-hour event, which was attended by tens of thousands of people, some of whom waved Israeli flags.
State police prevented protesters from reaching the podium, and university spokesman Collen Mastony said security personnel led the protesters to the back of the stadium, where they remained until the end of the event.
“Peaceful protests like this have been happening at UM commencement ceremonies for decades,” he added.
The university allowed protesters to set up camp on campus, but police helped break up a large gathering Friday night, and one person was detained.
At Indiana University, protesters urged attendees to wear their kefiyas and leave during President Pamela Whitten’s speech Saturday afternoon.
On the Bloomington, Indiana, campus, a protest zone has been designated outside Memorial Stadium, where the ceremony will take place.
In Princeton, New Jersey, 18 students began a hunger strike in an effort to pressure the University to divest from companies linked to Israel.
David Chmeliewski, a senior and hunger strike participant, said in an email sent Saturday that the protest began Friday morning and participants are only consuming water.
He noted that the strike will continue until University administrators meet with students to discuss their demands, including amnesty for criminal and disciplinary charges imposed on protesters.
Other protesters are participating in 24-hour “solidarity fasts,” he said.
Princeton students set up a protest camp, and some held a sit-in at an administration building this week, in which about 15 people were arrested.
Students at other universities, including Brown and Yale, began similar hunger strikes earlier this year, before the most recent wave of protest camps.
Meanwhile, Tufts University students in Medford, Massachusetts, peacefully dismantled their camp Friday night without police intervention.
The university authorities were satisfied with the fact, which was not the result of any agreement with the protesters. Protest organizers said in a statement they were “deeply angry and disappointed” at the failure of negotiations with the university.
The protests have their origins in the conflict between Israel and Hamas, which began on October 7 when Hamas fighters attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking about 250 hostages.
In response, Israel launched an offensive in the Gaza Strip that killed more than 34,500 Palestinians, about two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Hamas-controlled territory’s health ministry.
Israeli attacks have devastated the area and displaced most of Gaza’s residents.
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