Police Disperse Anti-War Protests in Gaza on US Campus, Leading to Arrests and Controversy

After the operation in New York, violent clashes broke out in Los Angeles between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel groups.

For many days, the protests against Palestine and against the war in the Gaza Strip have not decreased, and an increase has also been seen in some places. In several days, a total of several hundred students were held at the university.

At Columbia University in New York, where this wave of protests began, protesters had set up a tent city. The administration ordered the increasingly aggressive protesters to leave the campus, but instead they vandalized the area and barricaded themselves in one of the university’s buildings on Monday night.

The President of Columbia University, Minush Shafiq, sent a letter to the New York Police Department, saying that the property of the building was managed by people not related to the university, and asked the police to help clean up the building and the entire campus of the activists.

Several officials also pointed to the involvement of other people in the protests, including Rebecca Ulam Weiner, a spokeswoman for the NYPD’s Intelligence and Terrorism Bureau: “We have been told by several university partners in New York and around the country that there is an important issue. some of these activists are not connected to the specific schools.

Because of the concerns, the police decided to take steps to clear the campus. Even before the police work, the mayor of New York, Eric Adams, called on the protesters to leave the area, warning that various charges could be brought against them. He also called on parents of young people to prevent their children from participating in the protests.

The mayor said, “This is basically organized by outside professional activists. They are actively creating serious public safety issues in these protests. Some of the students involved may not understand what they are involved with. We call on them and anyone else defying Columbia’s order to leave the area and do it now.”

Late Tuesday night, police entered the building using a ladder through a second-floor window, beginning to disperse and detain students. As a result of the three-hour campaign, the police arrested dozens of students and also dispersed those who had gathered outside the campus. The tent city, which was built by students almost two weeks ago, was also demolished.

The Columbia University administration has asked the police to remain on campus until at least May 17 to prevent the protesters from returning. Although the White House has previously stated that President Joe Biden supports freedom of speech, including on campuses, this time the administration strongly criticized the seizure of a building at Columbia University, which they said was a completely wrong approach. At the same time, the former president Donald Trump has already attacked Biden for the lack of action in solving the issue of the complaint.

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