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The discontent of protesters against the university authorities and the police increased tensions on several campuses this Tuesday (04/23/2024). USAafter several days of protests in favor of the Palestinians and against the war in Gazawhich caused arrests and suspension of classes.
Anti-war protests had been brewing for months on American universities, but picked up speed a few days ago, after more than 100 pro-Palestinian protesters who had camped on the Columbia University campus in upper Manhattan were arrested on Thursday.
Dozens more protesters have been arrested on other campuses since then, and many now face trespassing or disorderly conduct charges.
During the night of Monday, 120 people were arrested in a pro-Palestinian student demonstration at New York University (NYU), according to an updated report from the Police Department of that city.
However, all of them have already been released, according to a police spokesperson.
On the West Coast, California Polytechnic State University announced it will close until Wednesday after pro-Palestinian protesters took over an administrative building.
Police later arrested and released more than 100 New York University (NYU) students who were demonstrating on campus in solidarity with Columbia University students and to oppose Israel’s attacks on Gaza. (22.04.2024)Image: Fatih Aktas/AA/picture alliance
At the University of California at Berkeley, students set up a Gaza solidarity camp in Sproul Plaza, the historic ground zero of the free speech movement of the 1960s, the local newspaper Los Angeles Times reported.
Politicians allege “anti-Semitic hatred”, professors reject accusation
The US Secretary of Education, Miguel Cardona, wrote on Tuesday in X that “anti-Semitic hatred on university campuses is unacceptable” and expressed concern about the disorders.
NYU’s decision to call the police came after protesters, many of them apparently with no ties to the university, broke the barriers surrounding the protest camp, a university spokesperson said on the institution’s website.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams said police officers were hit with bottles and other objects at some of the protests this week. Adams blamed outside agitators for joining genuine protesters.
Stanford students and pro-Palestinian protesters gather at Stanford University to protest Israeli attacks on Gaza, in Stanford, California.Image: Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu/picture alliance
Students are demanding an end to Israel’s war in Gaza, a Palestinian territory mired in a humanitarian crisis, but several politicians have accused protesters of stoking anti-Semitism.
An NYU faculty association strongly denounced the institution’s “unjustified” decision to ask the police for help. “No one was, at any time, violent or anti-Semitic,” they alleged.
Arrests in Yale and Minnesota
In Connecticut, police arrested 60 protesters, including 47 students, at Yale University after they refused to leave a camp in Beinecke Square.
In the Midwest, protesters set up more than 30 tents in the central area of the University of Michigan’s Ann Arbor campus. While nine anti-war protesters at the University of Minnesota were arrested Tuesday morning after police broke down an encampment a couple of hours after it was set up in front of the library.
On the West Coast, California Polytechnic State University, Humboldt, announced that its campus will be closed until Wednesday after protesters occupied a building Monday night. Three protesters were
detained. Classes would be held remotely, the school said on its website.
jc (afp, reuters, ap, Los Angeles Times, Telemundo 48)
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