Standoffs between pro-Palestinian student protestors and universities grew increasingly tense on both coasts Wednesday night. Hundreds of protesters at an encampment at Columbia University faced a deadline from the administration to clear out, while dozens barricaded themselves inside two buildings on a Northern California college campus for the second night. Both are part of intensifying demonstrations over Israel\u2019s war with Hamas by university students across the country, leading to dozens of arrests on charges of trespassing or disorderly conduct.<\/p>\n
Columbia\u2019s President Minouche Shafik in a statement Wednesday set a midnight deadline to reach an agreement with students to clear the encampment, or \u201cwe will consider alternative options.\u201d That deadline passed without news of an agreement. Videos show some protestors taking down their tents while others doubled down in speeches. The heightened tension arrived the night before U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson\u2019s trip to Columbia to visit with Jewish students and address antisemitism on college campuses.<\/p>\n
Across the country, protestors at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, started using furniture, tents, chains and zip ties to block the building\u2019s entrances Monday evening. The defiance was less expected in the conservative region of California, some 300 miles (480 kilometers) north of San Francisco. \u201cWe are not afraid of you!\u201d the protestors chanted before officers in riot gear pushed into them at the building\u2019s entrance, video shows. Student Peyton McKinzie said she was walking on campus Monday when she saw police grabbing one woman by the hair, and another student having their head bandaged for an injury.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think a lot of students are in shock about it,\u201d she told The Associated Press. Three students have been arrested, according to a statement from Cal Poly Humboldt, which shutdown the campus until Wednesday. An unknown number of students had occupied a second campus building Tuesday. The upwelling of demonstrations has left universities struggling to balance campus safety with free speech rights. Many long tolerated the protests, which largely demanded that schools condemn Israel\u2019s assault on Gaza and divest from companies that sell weapons to Israel.<\/p>\n
Now, universities are doling out more heavy-handed discipline, citing safety concerns as some Jewish students say criticism of Israel has veered into antisemitism. Protests had been bubbling for months but kicked into a higher gear after more than 100 pro-Palestinian demonstrators who had camped out on Columbia\u2019s upper Manhattan campus were arrested Thursday. By late Monday at New York University, police said 133 protesters were taken into custody and all had been released with summonses to appear in court on disorderly conduct charges.<\/p>\n
In Connecticut, police arrested 60 protesters \u2013 including 47 students \u2013 at Yale, after they refused to leave an encampment on a plaza at the center of campus. Yale President Peter Salovey said protesters had declined an offer to end the demonstration and meet with trustees. After several warnings, school officials determined \u201cthe situation was no longer safe,\u201d so police cleared the encampment and made arrests.<\/p>\n
In the Midwest on Tuesday, a demonstration at the center of the University of Michigan campus had grown to nearly 40 tents, and nine anti-war protesters at the University of Minnesota were arrested after police took down an encampment in front of the library. Hundreds rallied to the Minnesota campus in the afternoon to demand their release. Harvard University in Massachusetts has tried to stay a step ahead of protests by locking most gates into its famed Harvard Yard and limiting access to those with school identification. The school has also posted signs that warn against setting up tents or tables on campus without permission.<\/p>\n
Literature Ph.D. student Christian Deleon said he understood why the Harvard administration may be trying to avoid protests but said there still has to be a place for students to express what they think. \u201cWe should all be able to use these kinds of spaces to protest, to make our voices heard,\u201d he said. Ben Wizner, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union, said college leaders face extremely tough decisions because they have a responsibility to ensure people can express their views, even when others find them offensive, while protecting students from threats and intimidation.<\/p>\n
The New York Civil Liberties Union cautioned universities against being too quick to call in law enforcement in a statement Tuesday. \u201cOfficials should not conflate criticism of Israel with antisemitism or use hate incidents as a pretext to silence political views they oppose,\u201d said Donna Lieberman, the group\u2019s executive director. Leo Auerbach, a student at the University of Michigan, said the differing stances on the war hadn\u2019t led to his feeling unsafe on campus but he has been fearful of the \u201chateful rhetoric and antisemitic sentiment being echoed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we\u2019re trying to create an inclusive community on campus, there needs to be constructive dialogue between groups,\u201d Auerbach said. \u201cAnd right now, there\u2019s no dialogue that is occurring.\u201d At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, physics senior Hannah Didehbani said protesters were inspired by those at Columbia. \u201cRight now there are several professors on campus who are getting direct research funding from Israel\u2019s ministry of defense,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been calling for MIT to cut those research ties.\u201d<\/p>\n
Protesters at the University of California, Berkeley, which had an encampment of about 30 tents Tuesday, were also inspired by Columbia\u2019s demonstrators, \u201cwho we consider to be the heart of the student movement,\u201d said law student Malak Afaneh. Campus protests began after Hamas\u2019 deadly attack on southern Israel, when militants killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took roughly 250 hostages. During the ensuing war, Israel has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the local health ministry, which doesn\u2019t distinguish between combatants and noncombatants but says at least two-thirds of the dead are children and women.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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