Some Jewish students say the protests have veered into antisemitism and made them afraid to set foot on campus.
Early Saturday, police in riot gear cleared an encampment on the campus of Northeastern University in Boston.
Massachusetts State Police said about 102 protesters were arrested and will be charged with trespassing and disorderly conduct.
Protesters said they were given about 15 minutes to disperse before being arrested.
“We cannot tolerate this kind of hate on our campus,” the statement posted on the social media platform X said.
But this particular form of expression needs to end soon.” Indiana University campus officers and state police arrested 23 people Saturday at an encampment on the school’s Bloomington campus.
Tents and canopies had been erected Friday night at Dunn Meadow in violation of school policy, university police said in a release.
The school announced the cancellation of its main graduation event Thursday, a day after more than 90 protesters were arrested by police in riot gear.
NEW YORK (AP) — Students nationwide are demonstrating against the Israel-Hamas war on college campuses. s. several universities moved to close encampments in response to reports of antisemitic activity. On Saturday, hundreds of protestors were arrested.
Demonstrators around the country are calling for schools to sever their financial ties to Israel and divest from businesses they claim are supporting the conflict, as the number of people killed in the Gaza War rises. A number of Jewish students claim that the demonstrations have turned antisemitic and have scared them away from campus.
Early on Saturday, riot gear-wearing police removed an encampment from Northeastern University’s Boston campus. Approximately 102 protestors were detained, according to the Massachusetts State Police, and will face charges of trespassing and disorderly conduct. After about fifteen minutes, according to the protesters, they were arrested.
A few dozen people across from the encampment chanted anti-Gaza war slogans and “Let the Kids Go” as workers broke down tents and bagged up the camp’s debris. Additionally, they jeered at the police cars that drove by and made fun of the guards stationed at the encampment.
The demonstration started two days ago, and according to a statement from the school, it was “infiltrated by professional organizers” who had no connection to the institution and had started using antisemitic remarks like “kill the Jews.”.
On the social media site X, a statement read, “We cannot tolerate this kind of hate on our campus.”.
The student organization Huskies for a Free Palestine refuted the university’s account, claiming in a statement that no student protesters “repeated the disgusting hate speech” and that the slurs were the fault of counterprotesters. “.
Students at the demonstration said that a counterprotester tried to incite hate speech, but they maintained that their event was peaceful and that, like many others nationwide, its goal was to raise awareness of what they called the “genocide” in Gaza and their university’s involvement in the conflict.
The president of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which is close by, released a statement on Saturday stating that hundreds of staff hours were needed to maintain the camp’s safety because it had turned into a “potential magnet for disruptive outside protesters.”.
MIT President Sally Kornbluth stated, “It is not possible to safely sustain this level of effort. We have a responsibility to the entire MIT community.”. “More conversation regarding how to disband the encampment is welcome. However, this particular mode of expression must stop quickly. “.
At a camp on the Bloomington campus of Indiana University, 23 people were taken into custody by state police and campus police on Saturday. According to a release from university police, tents and canopies were set up on Friday night at Dunn Meadow in defiance of school regulations. According to authorities, the group members were taken into custody when they declined to take down the structures. The charges varied from resisting law enforcement to criminal trespass.
On Friday at the University of Pennsylvania, acting President J. Though about 40 tents were still up on Saturday morning, Larry Jameson demanded that the protesters’ encampment on the west Philadelphia campus be broken up, citing violations of the university’s facilities policies.
Jameson stated that the vandalism of a statue with antisemitic graffiti was “especially reprehensible and will be investigated as a hate crime,” and that the “harassing and intimidating comments and actions” by some protesters violated both state and federal law as well as the school’s open expression guidelines. “.
The university president’s email, according to a faculty group, “deeply disturbed” them on Saturday. They said the email contained “unsubstantiated allegations” that “have been disputed to us by faculty and students who have attended and observed the demonstration.”. “.
Jameson’s statement, according to the university’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors, “mischaracterizes the overall nature of an antiwar protest that necessarily involves strong emotions on both sides but has not, to our knowledge, involved any actual violence or threats of violence to individuals on our campus.”. “.
After Hamas’ deadly attack on southern Israel, in which the militants killed approximately 1,200 people, the majority of whom were civilians, and kidnapped approximately 250 more, campus protests broke out. As a result of the war, the local health ministry reports that Israel has killed over 34,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
While opponents of Israel claim that Israel uses accusations like these to intimidate opponents, Israel and its supporters have labeled the protests as antisemitic. The protestors, some of whom are Jewish, claim that their movement is nonviolent and aims to oppose the war and defend Palestinian rights, despite the fact that some of them have been seen on camera making violent threats or antisemitic remarks.
Students representing the encampment at Columbia University, where demonstrators have sparked pro-Palestinian rallies across the nation, announced on Friday that they had reached a deadlock with administration and planned to carry on with their protest.
Even though the university has continuously set and then rescheduled deadlines for the encampment’s removal, it stated in an email to students on Friday night that it would be ineffective to bring back police “at this time.”.
Professors at colleges in California, Georgia, and Texas have initiated or passed votes of no confidence in their leadership as a result of decisions to call in law enforcement, which have resulted in hundreds of arrests across the country. They have little ability to overthrow their presidents, so they are mainly symbolic rebukes.
However, as May graduation ceremonies draw near, school administrators are under increasing pressure to put an end to the protests.
The valedictorian of the University of Southern California, who has openly backed Palestinians, was denied the opportunity to give a commencement speech, which drew criticism. The film director Jon M. Chu’s keynote address was subsequently canceled by administrators. Thursday, the day after over ninety protestors were taken into custody by riot police, the school declared that its main graduation ceremony would not take place.
Late on Friday, USC President Carol Folt addressed the controversies in her first public statement, calling them “incredibly difficult for all of us.”. “.
Nobody desires to see arrests take place on their campus. In the past. To safeguard our community, however, we must act quickly when long-standing safety regulations are blatantly broken, buildings are vandalized, Department of Public Safety orders are routinely disregarded, people are attacked, threatening language is yelled, and access to vital academic buildings is barred, according to Folt.
69 people are reportedly being held early on Saturday by Arizona State University on charges of criminal trespassing after establishing an unapproved camp on a lawn on the Tempe campus. Protesters were given opportunities to leave, and those who declined were taken into custody.
ASU stated in a statement that “while the university will continue to be an environment that embraces freedom of speech, ASU’s first priority is to create a safe and secure environment that supports teaching and learning.”
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