Pro-Palestinian protests sweep U.S. college campuses
More than 100 demonstrators were arrested at Columbia last week as schools debate where to draw the line between allowing free expression while maintaining safe and inclusive campuses
Columbia cancelled in-person classes, dozens of protesters were arrested at New York University and Yale, and the gates to Harvard Yard were closed to the public on Monday as some of the most prestigious U.S. universities sought to defuse campus tensions over Israel’s war with Hamas.
More than 100 pro-Palestinian demonstrators who had camped out on Columbia’s green were arrested last week, and similar encampments have sprouted up at universities around the country as schools struggle with where to draw the line between allowing free expression while maintaining safe and inclusive campuses.
At New York University, an encampment set up by students swelled to hundreds of protesters throughout the day on Monday. The school said it warned the crowd to leave, then called in the police after the scene became disorderly and the university said it learned of reports of “intimidating chants and several antisemitic incidents.” Shortly after 8:30 p.m., ocers began making arrests.
“It’s a really outrageous crackdown by the university to allow the police to arrest students on our own campus,” New York University law student Byul Yoon said.
“Antisemitism is never OK. That’s absolutely not what we stand for and that’s why there are so many Jewish comrades that are here with us today,” Ms. Yoon said.
The protests have pitted students against one another, with pro-Palestinian students demanding that their schools condemn Israel’s assault on Gaza and divest from companies that sell weapons to Israel. Some Jewish students, meanwhile, say much of the criticism of Israel has veered into antisemitism and made them feel unsafe.
Tensions remained high on Monday at Columbia, where the campus gates were locked to anyone without a school ID and where protests broke out both on campus and outside.
Protests have roiled many college campuses since Hamas’s deadly attack on southern Israel. During the ensuing war, Israel has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
The latest developments came ahead of the Monday evening start of the Jewish holiday of Passover.