Gaza – Student protests in American universities against the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip are escalating, to include dozens of universities and educational institutions in various states, including the arrest of dozens of demonstrators.
For days, hundreds of students have continued their protest at several American universities to demand “a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, the cessation of American military aid to Israel, and the withdrawal of university investments from companies that profit from the Israeli invasion.”
American institutions and members of Congress leveled accusations of “anti-Semitism” against participants in the protests, against the backdrop of their demands that Israel stop killing Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
American security forces also invaded several university campuses, harassed hundreds of students, researchers, and faculty members, and arrested dozens of them.
The student protests expanded to include several universities, including Columbia, Texas, Ohio, Harvard, and other prominent universities in the United States.
The following is a framework prepared by Anatolia of the most important protests on American universities, as of Thursday evening.
Note that the student protests are expanding on a daily basis to cover a larger number of American universities.
Columbia University
On April 18, students in solidarity with Palestine at Columbia University in New York City began a sit-in in the campus garden to protest the university’s continued financial investments in companies that support the occupation of Palestine and the “genocide” in Gaza.
Last Friday, police arrested 108 students during the demonstrations, after university president Nemat Shafik allowed the New York Police to evacuate the protest camp.
In a later statement, the university said that dialogues with protesters had achieved “important progress,” as students committed to “dismantling and removing a large number of tents and leaving those who do not belong to the university.”
University of Texas
On Thursday, police arrested more than 20 student demonstrators at the University of Texas in Austin, after university officials and the city governor requested the authorities to intervene.
Demonstrators said they planned to strike and head to the main campus lawn, where they would hold events throughout the afternoon against the Israeli war on Gaza, but the university said in a statement that it “will not tolerate disturbances” such as those occurring at other universities.
Travis County Police reported that 57 people were jailed and charged with criminal trespass following the university protests.
University of Southern California
On Wednesday, American police arrested 93 students at the University of Southern California, who participated in protests against Israel that began at the university a few days ago.
The Los Angeles Police did not allow students to set up tents in certain parts of the campus, and began issuing warnings to demonstrators to disperse.
The police closed the main campus to the public, and took extensive security measures in the surrounding area.
Ohio University
On Tuesday, university security forces arrested two students participating in protests on the Ohio University campus in Columbus, and charged them with “criminal assault.”
About 50 demonstrators gathered in the campus amphitheater to exchange their stories about their relationships with the Palestinian people before starting a march. University security forces intervened and arrested two demonstrators and referred them to the university’s Student Conduct Office.
Harvard university
In an attempt to prevent student protests, Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, closed most of its gates before classes began last Monday, and posted signs warning against setting up tents on campus “without permission.”
However, on Wednesday, demonstrators were able to set up 14 tents, following a protest march against the university’s suspension of the work of the “Harvard University Student Committee for Solidarity with Palestine.”
University of California Applied Sciences
Protesters at California Polytechnic University in San Luis Obispo used furniture, tents and chains to block the entrance to an academic and administrative building at the university on Monday.
During the protest, the demonstrators chanted, “We are not afraid of you!”, before university security forces stormed the entrance to the building.
University officials closed the campus until the end of this week, saying that “studying will take place remotely.”
In a statement on Tuesday, the university said that students occupied another building, and three of them were arrested.
Emerson College
Boston Police announced, on Thursday, that 4 officers were injured while arresting 108 students who participated in a pro-Palestine protest organized by students at Emerson College in the US state of Massachusetts.
Police said that four officers were slightly injured while working, on Wednesday evening, to control the situation at a pro-Palestine camp set up by Emerson College students.
The police explained that they arrested 108 students participating in the camp, without any injuries among the protesters.
On Wednesday, the Boston Police and City Fire Commissioners informed the Emerson College administration that “some of the demonstrators’ actions directly violate city laws, which may lead to imminent law enforcement actions,” and dozens of demonstrators were arrested in the evening.
New york university
At New York University, hundreds of students joined the protest camp on campus.
The city police said on Wednesday that they arrested 133 demonstrators, all of whom were released under an obligation to appear in court on charges of “disorderly behavior.”
Emory University
On Thursday, Atlanta police and Georgia state troopers dismantled a student protest camp in Emory University Square, arresting at least 17 people.
University police ordered dozens of demonstrators who had set up about 30 tents on campus early Thursday morning to leave.
A university spokeswoman said, “A group of activists is trying to disrupt our university while our students are finishing classes and preparing for final exams.”
University of Michigan
The size of the student protest camp on the University of Michigan campus in Detroit expanded to about 40 tents on Tuesday.
The students participated in the camp wearing masks for fear of punitive measures against them by the university.
One of the students at the camp distributed small flags of Israel, saying that he “did not want Jewish students to walk across the campus just to see the demonstrators,” according to American media.
University of Minnesota
US Representative Ilhan Omar attended a protest at the University of Minnesota in St. Paul on Tuesday, hours after nine demonstrators were arrested while police removed an encampment in front of the university library.
Hundreds gathered to demand the release of the detainees, as more than 80 academics at the university signed, on Wednesday, a letter demanding that the university president drop any charges against the detainees, lift any ban against the presence of detainees on campus, and allow the establishment of camps in the future.
Yale University
On Monday, police arrested 48 demonstrators, including 4 who were not students, after they refused to leave a camp in a square in the middle of the university campus in New Haven, Connecticut.
University of California Berkeley
As of Tuesday, demonstrators at the University of California, Berkeley, had set up about 30 tents to protest the ongoing Israeli war on the Gaza Strip.
Brown University
Student protests denouncing the Israeli war on Gaza extended, on Wednesday, to Brown University in Rhode Island (east), where protesters in the camp demanded that “the university withdraw its suspension from all companies that aid and benefit from the genocide in Gaza and the broader Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.”
Georgetown University in Washington
A number of pro-Palestine demonstrators gathered in front of the main administrative building on the campus of Georgetown University in Washington, DC.
The protesters chanted slogans such as “Free Palestine” and “From the river to the sea,” then headed towards the university camp, with the participation of a number of university professors who wore graduation clothes.
Dozens of tents filled about a quarter of the university’s main square.
George Washington University
In continuation of the student movement in American universities, students from eight universities spread across the capital organized a protest camp at the prestigious George Washington University, in the latest indications of the expanding circle of solidarity with the Gaza Strip in the United States.
According to observers, the pace of new universities joining the protests is expected to accelerate, in a way that will be difficult to control as long as the security solution remains prevalent in the American police forces.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza that has left about 112,000 people dead and wounded, most of them children and women, and massive destruction and famine that has claimed the lives of children and the elderly, according to Palestinian and UN data.
Israel continues its war despite the issuance of an immediate ceasefire resolution by the Security Council, and despite its appearance before the International Court of Justice on charges of committing “genocide.”
Anatolia
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2024-04-27 08:52:35