Protests Against Israel’s War on Gaza Escalate in US Universities, with Mass Arrests and Violence

Demonstrations against Israel war against Gaza have continued to raid universities across the United States, in a night marked by mass arrests in New York and an attack by anti-California protesters.

In New York, the NYPD said it had arrested 282 people at Columbia University and the City College of New York from Tuesday night to Wednesday morning. That came when the police evicted students who had been living in Hamilton Hall at Columbia University since April 30.

The building was called “Mandela Hall” when students took a similar action to support the liberation of South Africa in 1985. This time, activists called it “Hind’s Hall ” on the building in honor of a six-year-old boy. Rajab Hindwho was killed along with her family by Israeli forces in Gaza.

Columbia University student journalist Meghnad Bose told Al Jazeera that he was inside the university’s gates when he saw police “arresting pro-Palestinian protesters who were on the right line . [in front of] the gates to prevent the NYPD from entering”.

“I saw firsthand how the police dispersed these protests, arrested them and sometimes became very aggressive in making sure the protesters left,” he said.

In a post on X, Kaz Daughtry, deputy commissioner of operations at the New York Police Department (NYPD), said that Columbia University had asked the police to “take back their campus”.

He said that the police were “dispersing the illegal camp and people who are banned inside the university buildings and restoring order”.

Meanwhile, at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), anti-Israel protesters were trying to demolish a camp outside Palestine, with witnesses saying the attackers threw objects on those who participated in the show.

Sergio Olmos, an investigative journalist reporting from the UCLA campus, told Al Jazeera that he was a witness hundreds of activists while they were trying to demolish the walls of the camp that was in front of Palestine.

He described protesters trying to beat the pro-Palestinian protesters with sticks and in some cases throwing glass bottles.

Witnesses said the incident went on for about two hours. In a post on X, the Los Angeles Police Department said they had responded to the scene “at the request of UCLA, due to several acts of violence within the large campus on their campus”.

Reporting from Los Angeles, Al Jazeera’s Rob Reynolds said that despite the violence “the camp is still there, and the student activists, despite this attack, have stood their ground.” They haven’t escaped.”

“This has happened before, albeit on a smaller scale; for example, over the weekend, especially Sunday night, the camp was attacked in the same way,” he said.

Persistent complaints

Protests have been common across US campuses since Hamas’ October 7 attack on southern Israel, and throughout Israel’s nearly eight-month war in Gaza, which has killed 34,568 Palestinians and left on the brink of famine.

However, the latest surge in demonstrations began nearly two weeks ago amid an uproar over Columbia University president Minouche Shafik. witness to the US congressional committee, in which critics claimed she had distracted lawmakers while dismissing students at the university.

The latest bout of arrests also included 14 protesters at Tulane University in New Orleans, as well as arrests at the University of South Florida and the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

The protests have gone far beyond US borders.

On Wednesday, Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories, said she was “horrified by violent police actions at US universities breaking up protests against the ongoing genocide committed by a country foreign”.

In a post on X, she said: “Such a dystopian reality. Students and faculty members be safe. The genocide will end. May justice and reason prevail.”

But the White House appeared to back the crackdown on the protesters on Wednesday, linking the demonstrations to anti-Semitism.

“They should not be able to disrupt or disrupt the academic experience that students are having,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.

“It is important that students and communities feel safe here. And at the same time, we are going to be very strong here and we will continue to affirm that anti-Semitism is hate speech.”

Asking about the attack by anti-Israel activists on the student camp at UCLA, Jean-Pierre declined to comment on the details. She said the White House rejects all forms of violence “by and large”.

In Los Angeles, Mayor Karen Bass called the UCLA violence “absolutely despicable and unavoidable”.

For his part, New York City Mayor Eric Adams defended the police crackdown, saying the protest in Columbia was “led by people not affiliated with the university”, a claim that the police did not still back.

“There is a movement to radicalize young people. And I’m not waiting until it’s done to admit it’s there,” Adams said.

Meanwhile, the Jewish group Voice for Peace (JVP) condemned the actions of the NYPD and Columbia University.

Stefanie Fox, the group’s executive director, said the school was on the wrong side of history once again because it was “violent of the student anti-war movement in 1968, and wrong again with its violence.” on the student movement against South Africa. apartheid in 1985”.