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| Tensions rise as police arrest 150 pro-Palestinian protesters at Yale and NYU | Tensions rise as police arrest 150 pro-Palestinian protesters at Yale and NYU |
| (about 4 hours later) | |
| Unrest spreads across US university campuses as Columbia moves to remote teaching for remainder of semester after student arrests | Unrest spreads across US university campuses as Columbia moves to remote teaching for remainder of semester after student arrests |
| Police arrested around 150 protesters at pro-Palestinian demonstrations at Yale and New York University on Monday night, while Columbia University announced that classes would be taught remotely for the rest of the semester, as anger boiled over on leading US campuses. | Police arrested around 150 protesters at pro-Palestinian demonstrations at Yale and New York University on Monday night, while Columbia University announced that classes would be taught remotely for the rest of the semester, as anger boiled over on leading US campuses. |
| On the Yale University campus in New Haven, Connecticut, authorities arrested at least 47 protesters on Monday evening, the university said in a statement. Students who were arrested will be referred for disciplinary action. | On the Yale University campus in New Haven, Connecticut, authorities arrested at least 47 protesters on Monday evening, the university said in a statement. Students who were arrested will be referred for disciplinary action. |
| Several hundred people had been protesting on the Yale university campus, including hunger strikers, demanding the university divest from military weapons manufacturers and other companies with ties to Israel. Yale said it had repeatedly asked students to leave, and warned them they could face law enforcement and disciplinary action if they did not. | Several hundred people had been protesting on the Yale university campus, including hunger strikers, demanding the university divest from military weapons manufacturers and other companies with ties to Israel. Yale said it had repeatedly asked students to leave, and warned them they could face law enforcement and disciplinary action if they did not. |
| And in downtown Manhattan, police clashed with protesters at New York University. There were reports of officers using pepper spray as demonstrators tried to block a police bus from leaving the scene with detained students, and more than 100 people were arrested. | And in downtown Manhattan, police clashed with protesters at New York University. There were reports of officers using pepper spray as demonstrators tried to block a police bus from leaving the scene with detained students, and more than 100 people were arrested. |
| Officers moved on an encampment near the university shortly after nightfall. There, too, hundreds of demonstrators had defied university warnings that they faced consequences if they failed to vacate the plaza. | Officers moved on an encampment near the university shortly after nightfall. There, too, hundreds of demonstrators had defied university warnings that they faced consequences if they failed to vacate the plaza. |
| NYU spokesperson John Beckman, in a statement said “that there were intimidating chants and several antisemitic incidents reported.” | |
| NYU professors wrote an open letter signed from the executive committee of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) at the university denying that any NYU-affiliated protesters had engaged in antisemitism or intimidation of others via the demonstration. | |
| The letter decried heavy-handed tactics by the police and restrictions on the number of NYU students or faculty that could join the protest encampment after a barrier was set up, while saying that those taking part were loud but peaceful and “at no time was anyone on the plaza [site of the camp] either violent or antisemitic in speech or behavior”. | |
| It said that NYU leadership’s decision to call the New York Police Department (NYPD) was “capricious” and noted particularly that many protesters are people of color and that NYPD has a history of brutality against this demographic and that police unnecessarily arrived en masse, in full riot gear. | |
| The letter said: “The point of the protest was to express support for the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank” and accused NYU of being complicit “in the genocide of the Palestinian people” and “NYU’s investment in the weapons manufacturing that facilitates such genocide”. | |
| On Monday night, video on social media showed police taking down tents in the protesters’ encampment in a tense and at times chaotic scene. Some officers tossed tents, and others grappled with demonstrators. | |
| Protesters tussled with officers and chanted: “We will not stop, we will not rest. Disclose. Divest.” | Protesters tussled with officers and chanted: “We will not stop, we will not rest. Disclose. Divest.” |
| A New York police spokesperson said arrests were made after the university asked police to enforce trespassing violations but the total number of arrests and citations would remain unknown until much later. | A New York police spokesperson said arrests were made after the university asked police to enforce trespassing violations but the total number of arrests and citations would remain unknown until much later. |
| The police crackdowns came after Columbia University witnessed a huge walkout by faculty on Monday in solidarity with students who were arrested last week after setting up a camp protest, with demands for the elite institution to divest from companies tied to Israel. | The police crackdowns came after Columbia University witnessed a huge walkout by faculty on Monday in solidarity with students who were arrested last week after setting up a camp protest, with demands for the elite institution to divest from companies tied to Israel. |
| Bassam Khawaja, a lecturer at Columbia law school and supervising attorney at the school’s human rights clinic, told the Guardian he was “shocked and appalled that the president went immediately to the New York police department”. | Bassam Khawaja, a lecturer at Columbia law school and supervising attorney at the school’s human rights clinic, told the Guardian he was “shocked and appalled that the president went immediately to the New York police department”. |
| “This was by all accounts, a non-violent protest,” he said. “It was a group of students camping out on the lawn in the middle of campus. It’s not any different from everyday life on campus.” | “This was by all accounts, a non-violent protest,” he said. “It was a group of students camping out on the lawn in the middle of campus. It’s not any different from everyday life on campus.” |
| After the crackdown at Columbia, students across the US launched their own protests in solidarity, many of them calling for their universities to back a ceasefire in Gaza and divest from companies with ties to Israel. | After the crackdown at Columbia, students across the US launched their own protests in solidarity, many of them calling for their universities to back a ceasefire in Gaza and divest from companies with ties to Israel. |
| Students at Brown, Princeton and Northwestern held protests on Friday and over the weekend. | Students at Brown, Princeton and Northwestern held protests on Friday and over the weekend. |
| And in an open letter written on Monday in support of the Columbia student protesters, faculty and staff at Princeton University, in New Jersey, wrote: “We call upon the Columbia University administration to reinstate those students who were wrongfully suspended for exercising their constitutionally recognized right to speech and peaceful assembly. We demand that all charges be dismissed and expunged from their student records, and that all rights and privileges be restored to them immediately.” | |
| The letter also called for the removal of NYPD from campus. | |
| Students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Emerson College, both in the Boston area, have started their own protest encampments. | Students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Emerson College, both in the Boston area, have started their own protest encampments. |
| Other institutions that saw protest actions included Boston University, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. | Other institutions that saw protest actions included Boston University, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. |
| Robert Kraft, a major donor to Columbia University and the owner of the Patriots NFL football team who funded the Kraft Center for Jewish Student Life at Columbia, on Monday announced he would pull his support “until corrective action is taken” on campus. | Robert Kraft, a major donor to Columbia University and the owner of the Patriots NFL football team who funded the Kraft Center for Jewish Student Life at Columbia, on Monday announced he would pull his support “until corrective action is taken” on campus. |
| Amid a diversity of views on the New York campus of Columbia, some Jewish students have joined the pro-Palestinian protests, others are staying away and some have said they feel unsafe. | Amid a diversity of views on the New York campus of Columbia, some Jewish students have joined the pro-Palestinian protests, others are staying away and some have said they feel unsafe. |
| The Columbia University president, Nemat Minouche Shafik, called in police last week to clear a tent encampment on its main lawn of students demanding the university divest from companies with ties to Israel. | |
| She has come under fire both for not cracking down on the growing protests and for the manner in which she cracked down, by calling in the city’s police department to arrest students. She is facing calls to resign from some members of Congress, mainly Republican but also Democratic. | She has come under fire both for not cracking down on the growing protests and for the manner in which she cracked down, by calling in the city’s police department to arrest students. She is facing calls to resign from some members of Congress, mainly Republican but also Democratic. |
| Reuters and The Associated Press contributed reporting. |