Pro-Palestinian Demonstrations in Israel and Palestine: The Antisemitism of the U.S.
Despite these four mass arrests on Saturday, pro-Palestinian protests are set continue across the country. A release from NPR says that members of the Rutgers University chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine will hold a rally and demand that the school remove funding to universities that support Palestine.
“While freedom of speech will remain part of the culture of the university, the first priority is to create a safe and secure environment that supports teaching and learning,” the school said.
The last day of class for the semester at George Washington University ended on Monday after a tense weekend when there was a clash between protesters and police.
“It quickly became clear through the words and actions of this group that they did not have good intentions,” the statement read. “When the group started setting up a camp that was in violation of university policy we made the decision to tell all of them that they needed to leave.”
Campus police arrested 80 people, including the Green Party presidential candidate. The Stein campaign wrote a post that confirmed the arrest.
All of the arrested face charges of resisting arrest, as well as charges of assault on a police officer.
According to the statement, the Indiana University Police Department supports peaceful protests that follow the university’s policy.
And another 800 miles east at Northeastern University in Boston, state police arrested more than 100 people at a pro-Palestinian demonstration Saturday morning.
A video circulating on Instagram seems to have caught the moment when someone said “Kill the Jews” at Northeastern, but it’s unclear who said it. The local socialist group posted the video. They claim a pro-Israel counter-protester made the antisemitic call, in what they said appeared to be an attempt to criticize the chants of pro-Palestinian demonstrators.
The movement wants universities to stop doing business with companies that support Israel or profit from the war in Gaza. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu along with prominent U.S. politicians – such as Speaker Mike Johnson and Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman – have criticized these demonstrations, calling them antisemitic.
“Look, antisemitism has always existed. On All Things Considered, he said it exists today. “But to suggest that when you have a significant majority of the American people who, among other things, do not want to support more U.S. military aid to Netanyahu’s war machine, we’re not going to suggest that all of those people are antisemitic.”
Thousands of protesters clashed in the Los Angeles, Maryland, and Virginian unauthorized encampment at the Barnard College campus
Israel says 1,200 Israelis were killed by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, and more than 200 people were taken hostage. Israel then launched a war against Hamas inside Gaza. According Gaza’s health ministry, Israel’s military response has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, a majority of them women and children.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators continue to turn out at schools across the country despite the risk of detention and suspension, with nearly 300 more protesters were arrested over the weekend.
On Sunday, pro-Palestinian protesters and pro-Israeli protesters clashed at the University of California, Los Angeles, leading to what university leaders described as “physical altercations” and prompting them to increase security measures on campus.
The Washington Post is reporting that demonstrators were arrested in the early hours of Monday at Virginia Tech University. NPR has reached out to the university for more information.
The school warned of ” heavy police activity” around the Graduate Life Center, and then announced at 3.30 a.m. that the situation had calmed down. People are being led into white vans by the protesters in social media footage.
Students first set up an encampment on University Yard on Thursday and later launched a second one on nearby H Street after the school put up barricades to restrict access.
The protesters knocked down the barricades before midnight on Sunday and then flooded the lawn, with many staying there overnight in some 85 tents.
GW officials said in a statement early Monday that a group of “approximately 200 protesters from across [D.C., Maryland and Virginia], including professional organizers, activists, and university students, have joined the unauthorized encampment on our campus.”
They wrote that safety and wellbeing of Philadelphia students exercising their rights are among their foremost concerns.
Barnard College officials announced Friday that it will allow most of the 53 students who were arrested and suspended after protesting at Columbia University to return to campus. The New York Times reported that suspended students who reached agreements with the college have their access restored and others are still working to do so.
More than 100 people were arrested at a Boston protest on Thursday, but the college won’t bring charges against them and the district attorney shouldn’t pursue charges related to the violations.
He said it has taken steps to support students who were arrested, including offering housing for students who can’t stay in their dorm after curfew, and posting bail for them.
The College has worked hard to keep members of the community safe but we recognize that we need to do more.
Source: As student protesters get arrested, they risk being banned from campus too
Student protests at a university campus have violated the Texas department of attorney’s office and threatened to punish them for trespassing
In Texas, the Travis County district attorney has dropped misdemeanor trespassing charges against all 57 people arrested during a protest at UT-Austin last week, after a judge found insufficient evidence to proceed.
Some schools are threatening students with expulsion for disobeying directives to leave their campsites.
They are prohibited from using bullhorns or speakers to amplify their voices, possessing weapons and protesting inside campus buildings — but also face more vague prohibitions like “no disruption,” according to a list circulated late Thursday.
The public was not allowed on the Cal Poly Humboldt campus on Saturday due to student protesters occupying two academic buildings. They had previously given protesters until 5 p.m. on Friday to leave with a guarantee of no immediate arrest — but said they would still face consequences.
However, officials said this doesn’t eliminate University conduct related sanctions or legal implications. “In addition, voluntarily departing in this way will be considered as a mitigating factor in University conduct processes and may reduce the severity of sanctions imposed.”
The campus will remain closed until May 10, with work and classes remote through the end of the semester. They are planning for various scenarios.
She said rules have been broken, and those who break them — “including rules around the time, place and manner of protest” — will face disciplinary action.
At the University of Pennsylvania, officials say a campus statue was vandalized with antisemitic graffiti and are calling on demonstrators — from Penn and other area schools — to disband.
A group of Penn faculty and Philadelphia-area elected officials signed a letter last week urging university leaders to “respect students’ rights to engage in nonviolent protest” by refraining from calling in law enforcement to make arrests and from filing disciplinary and criminal charges against peaceful protesters at the encampment.
They say that Yale shouldn’t respond to peaceful protest with threat of sanctions and that it is unconscionable.
Faculty members at three universities in the US have either passed symbolic votes of no confidence in their leadership or initiated them.