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A2 UP FRONT
Tuesday 23 april 2024

Pro-Palestinian protests sweep U.S. college campuses following

mass arrests at Columbia

From Front bia and its sister school, Bar-
nard College, said they were
By NICK PERRY, MICHELLE L. suspended for taking part in
PRICE and DAVE COLLINS last week's protests, including
Associated Press Barnard student Isra Hirsi, the
NEW YORK (AP) — Columbia daughter of Democratic U.S.
canceled in-person classes, Rep. Ilhan Omar.
dozens of protesters were ar- At Yale, police officers ar-
rested at Yale and the gates rested about 45 protesters
to Harvard Yard were closed and charged them with mis-
to the public on Monday as demeanor trespassing, said
some of the most prestigious Officer Christian Bruckhart, a
U.S. universities sought to dif- New Haven police spokesper-
fuse campus tensions over son. All were being released
Israel's war with Hamas. on promises to appear in court
The various actions followed later, he said.
the arrest last week of more Protesters set up tents on Bei-
than 100 pro-Palestinian dem- necke Plaza on Friday and
onstrators who had camped demonstrated over the week-
out on Columbia's green, as end, calling on Yale to end
schools struggle with where any investments in defense
to draw the line between al- companies that do business
lowing free expression while with Israel.
maintaining a safe and in- Columbia University professors rally in solidarity with their students rights to protest free from arrest Nadine Cubeisy, a Yale stu-
clusive campus. at the Columbia University campus in New York on Monday April 22, 2024. Associated Press dent and one of the protest's
In addition to the demon- organizers, said it was disturb-
strations at the Ivy League she said after leaving the are children and women. ers over the weekend were ing that "this university that
schools, pro-Palestinian en- Morningside Heights campus. Prahlad Iyengar, an MIT "calling for Hamas to blow I'm going to, that I contribute
campments have sprouted A woman inside the campus graduate student studying away Tel Aviv and Israel." He to and that my friends give
up on other campuses, includ- gates led about two-dozen electrical engineering, was said some of the protesters money to is using that money
ing the University of Michigan, protesters on the street outside among about two dozen shouting antisemitic slurs were to fund violence."
New York University, and the in a chant of, " From the river students who set up a tent not students. In a statement to the campus
Massachusetts Institute of to the sea, Palestine will be encampment on the school's "Jews are scared at Columbia. community on Sunday, Yale
Technology. free! " — a charged phrase Cambridge, Massachusetts, It's as simple as that. There's President Peter Salovey said
The protests have pitted stu- that can mean vastly differ- campus Sunday evening. They been so much vilification of university officials had spoken
dents against one another, ent things to different groups. are calling for a cease-fire Zionism, and it has spilled over to the student protesters mul-
with pro-Palestinian students Meanwhile, a small group of and are protesting what they into the vilification of Juda- tiple times about the school's
demanding that their schools pro-Israel counter demonstra- describe as MIT's "complicity ism," he said. policies and guidelines, includ-
condemn Israel's assault on tors protested nearby. in the ongoing genocide in The protest encampment ing those regarding speech
Gaza and divest from com- University President Minouche Gaza," he said. sprung up at Columbia on and allowing access to cam-
panies that sell weapons to Shafik said in a message to the "MIT has not even called for Wednesday, the same day pus spaces.
Israel. Some Jewish students, school community Monday a cease-fire, and that's a that Shafik faced bruising School officials said they spoke
meanwhile, say much of the that she was "deeply sad- demand we have for sure," criticism at a congressional with protesters over several
criticism of Israel has veered dened" by what was hap- Iyengar said. hearing from Republicans hours and gave them until
into antisemitism and made pening on campus. He also said MIT has been who said she hadn't done the end of the weekend to
them feel unsafe, and point "To deescalate the rancor sending out confusing rules enough to fight antisemi- leave Beinecke Plaza. The said
out that Hamas is still hold- and give us all a chance about protests. tism. Two other Ivy League they again warned protesters
ing hostages taken during to consider next steps, I am "We're out here to demon- presidents resigned months Monday morning and told
the group's Oct. 7 invasion. announcing that all classes strate that we reserve the right ago following widely criticized them that they could face
Tensions remained high Mon- will be held virtually on Mon- to protest. It's an essential part testimony they gave to the arrest and discipline, includ-
day at Columbia in New York day," Shafik wrote, noting that of living on a college campus," same committee. ing suspension, before police
City, where the campus gates faculty and staff should work Iyengar said. In her statement Monday, moved in. A large group of
were locked to anyone with- remotely when possible and On Sunday, Elie Buechler, a Shafik said the Middle East demonstrators regathered
out a school ID and where that students who don't live rabbi for the Orthodox Union's conflict is terrible and that after Monday's arrests at
protests broke out both on on campus should stay away. Jewish Learning Initiative at she understands that many Yale and blocked a street
campus and outside. Protests have roiled many col- Columbia, sent a WhatsApp are experiencing deep moral near campus, said Bruckhart.
U.S. Rep. Kathy Manning, a lege campuses since Hamas' message to nearly 300 Jewish distress. "But we cannot have There were no reports of any
Democrat from North Carolina deadly attack on southern students recommending they one group dictate terms and violence or injuries.
who was visiting Columbia Israel, when militants killed go home until it's more safe attempt to disrupt important Last week, the University of
with three other Jewish mem- about 1,200 people, most for them on campus. milestones like graduation to Southern California took the
bers of Congress to view the of them civilians, and took The latest developments advance their point of view," unusual step of canceling a
encampment, told reporters roughly 250 hostages. In re- came ahead of the Monday Shafik wrote. planned commencement
after meeting with students sponse, Israel has killed more evening start of the Jewish Over the coming days, a work- speech by its 2024 valedic-
from the Jewish Law Students than 34,000 Palestinians in holiday of Passover. ing group of deans, school torian, who had publicly
Association that there was "an the Gaza Strip, according Nicholas Baum, a 19-year- administrators and faculty will supported Palestinians. The
enormous encampment of to the local health ministry, old Jewish freshman who try to find a resolution to the university cited security con-
people" who had taken up which doesn't distinguish lives in a Jewish theological university crisis, noted Shafik, cerns in a decision that was
about a third of the green. between combatants and seminary building two blocks who didn't say when in-person praised by some pro-Israel
"We saw signs indicating that non-combatants but says at from Columbia's Morningside classes would resume. groups but criticized by free-
Israel should be destroyed," least two-thirds of the dead Heights campus, said protest- Several students at Colum- speech advocates.q