Crackdown on US universities

PRO-PALESTINIAN: HUNDREDS IN JAIL OVER PROTESTS

Activists who set up camps detained for ‘anti-Semitic slurs’.

Police detained nearly 200 people at three US universities on Saturday as they cleared pro-Palestinian encampments, in the latest campus clashes triggered by protests over Israel’s war against Hamas.

Police in Boston detained about 100 people while clearing a protest camp at Northeastern University (NU), with social media posts showing security forces in riot gear and officers loading tents onto the back of a truck.

The action was taken after some protesters resorted to “virulent anti-Semitic slurs”, including “Kill the Jews”, Northeastern University said in a statement on X.

At Arizona State University (ASU) police arrested 69 people for trespassing after the group set up an “unauthorised encampment” on campus.

Arizona State officials said a protest group – “most of whom were not ASU students, faculty or staff” – had set up a camp on Friday and then ignored repeated orders to disperse.

And in the US heartland, police at Indiana University arrested 23 people as they cleared a campus protest camp, the Indiana Daily Student newspaper reported.

Police with shields, batons and other riot gear broke through a line of protesters who had linked arms, tackling those who did not move, the newspaper said.

The campus activists are calling for a ceasefire in Israel’s war with Hamas, as well as for colleges to sever ties with the country and with companies they say profit from the conflict.

The protests have posed a major challenge to university administrators who are trying to balance commitments to free expression with complaints that the rallies have veered into anti-Semitism and hate speech.

Police have carried out largescale arrests in recent days, at times using chemical irritants and tasers to disperse protesters.

In a statement on X, Northeastern said the area on campus where the protests were held was now “fully secured” and “all campus operations have returned to normal”.

The institution said it made the move after “what began as a student demonstration two days ago was infiltrated by professional organisers with no affiliation to Northeastern”. –