Gaza war protesters barricade themselves as they evacuate university camps

New York –

Students protesting Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip on college campuses across the United States barricaded themselves Saturday and vowed to continue their demonstrations, with some universities clearing their camps after reports of anti-Semitic activity among protesters. Given.

As the death toll from the war in Gaza rises, protesters across the country are demanding that educational institutions sever their financial ties with Israel and withdraw investments from companies they say are involved in the conflict. Are promoting. Some Jewish students say the protests have veered toward anti-Semitism and they are afraid to enter campuses.

Early Saturday, riot police cleared an encampment on the campus of Northeastern University in Boston. Massachusetts State Police reported that approximately 102 protesters were arrested and will be charged with trespassing and disorderly conduct. The protesters claimed that they were given about 15 minutes to disperse before being arrested.

As workers removed tents and picked up debris from the camp, dozens of people standing in front shouted, “Let the kids go!” And raised slogans against the war in Gaza. When a police patrol passed by, they also made noise and mocked the officials guarding the camp.

The school said in a statement that the demonstration, which began two days earlier, had been “infiltrated by professional organizers” with no connection to the school and that anti-Semitic insults such as “Kill the Jews” were chanted.

“We cannot tolerate this kind of hatred on our campus,” it said in a statement published on the social network X.

The student group Huskies for a Free Palestine refuted the university’s version, saying in a statement that those responsible for the insults were counter-protesters and that no students at the protest “repeated the blatant hate speech.”

Students taking part in the protest claimed that one protester attempted to incite hate speech, but insisted that their demonstration was peaceful and, like many others across the country, their goal was to draw attention to what They spoke about their university’s involvement in what they called “genocide” in the Gaza Strip and the war.

The president of the nearby Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) issued a statement on Saturday saying the camp had become a “potential magnet for disruptive outside protesters” and that it was taking hundreds of staff hours to keep it safe.

“We have a responsibility to the entire MIT community and it is simply not possible to sustain this level of effort safely,” said MIT President Sally Kornbluth. “We are ready for further discussions on ways to dismantle the camp. But this particular form of expression must soon end.”

Indiana University campus police and state police officers arrested 23 people Saturday at a camp on the school’s campus in Bloomington. University police detailed in a statement that a tent and awning were set up in Dunn Meadow on Friday night in violation of school policy. Police said members of the group were detained after they refused to remove the structures. The charges ranged from trespassing to resisting law enforcement.

For its part, the University of Pennsylvania took similar action to Northeastern University on Friday, when interim President J. Larry Jameson called for the disbandment of a protest camp on the West Philadelphia campus, saying it violated university facilities policies, although about 40 tents remained there Saturday morning.

Jameson said the “disturbing and intimidating comments and activities” of some protesters “violated the school’s open speech guidelines as well as state and federal laws, and the vandalism of a statue with anti-Semitic graffiti” in particular. It is condemnable and will be investigated. As a hate crime.”

A group of faculty said Saturday they were “deeply troubled” by the university president’s email, saying it contained “preposterous allegations” that were “refuted to us by faculty and students who participated in and observed the demonstration.” Has been done.”

The university’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors said Jameson’s statement “mischaracterizes the general nature of anti-war protests, which necessarily involves strong feelings on both sides, but as far as we can You know, there’s no actual violence or violence involved.” “Threats of violence against people on our campus.”

The protests on campus began after Hamas’ deadly attack in southern Israel, in which fighters killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took about 250 hostage. During the latter war, Israel killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the local health ministry.

Israel and its supporters have described the protests as anti-Semitic, while critics say Israel uses such allegations to silence its opponents. Although some protesters have been recorded making anti-Semitic comments or making violent threats, protest organizers, some of whom are Jewish, say it is a peaceful movement aimed at protecting Palestinian rights and opposing the war .

At Columbia University, where protesters have inspired pro-Palestinian protests across the country, students representing the camp said Friday they have reached an impasse with administrators and intend to continue their protest.

The University Senate on Friday approved a resolution creating a working group to investigate the leadership of the administration, which called in police in an effort to break up protests last week that led to scuffles and more than 100 arrests.

Although the university has repeatedly set and delayed deadlines for removing the encroachment, it sent an email to students Friday night saying it would be counterproductive to call the police again “at this time.”

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Perry reported from Meredith, New Hampshire. Associated Press journalists at various locations contributed to this report, including Jacques Billeaud, Aaron Morrison, Stephanie Dezio, Kathy McCormack, Jim Vertuno, Acacia Coronado, Sudhin Thanawala, Jeff Amy, Jeff Martin, Mike Stewart, Collin Binkley, Caroline Thompson , Jake Offenhartz. , Jessie Bedayan and Sophia Tareen.