Students barricade themselves in anti-war protests at US universities

Students protesting the war between Israel and Hamas at US universities, some of whom clash with riot police He strengthened his position this Saturday and promised to maintain mobilizationWhile a section of the teaching staff criticized the chairpersons of the centers who resorted to law enforcement to expel dissidents.

As Columbia University continues conversations with students attending Pro-Palestine camp on New York campusThe body’s senate on Friday approved a proposal to create a working group that will investigate the leadership, which called in police in an attempt to break up protests last week that led to clashes and the release of more than a hundred detainees .

Protests against the war continue in Gaza It has already been extended to about 60 universities with the united states More than 500 arrested in recent days A movement that increases pressure on the US President, Joe Biden will withdraw his support for Israel.

Although the university has repeatedly set, and then delayed, deadlines for removing the camp, “at this time,” the center said in an email sent to students Friday night. withdrawal of police will be counterproductive And he said he hoped the talks would yield “concrete signs of progress tonight.”

As the war death toll in Gaza continues to rise, protesters across the country are demanding educational centers Break your financial ties with Israel and withdraw your investments Of companies that, according to them, promote conflict. Some Jewish students say the protests have veered toward anti-Semitism and they are afraid to enter campuses.

The decision to inform authorities, which led to hundreds of arrests across the country, has upset some professors at universities California, Georgia, and Texas have initiated or approved no-confidence motions. Against the management of the centres. They are mostly symbolic actions that do not have the power to remove rectors from their posts.

But the tension puts pressure on those responsible at the centres, who even try to crush opposition before the impending celebrations of May graduation.

California Polytechnic State University, Humboldt allowed protesters who had been barricaded in a campus building from Monday until 5 p.m. Friday to leave and were not immediately arrested. When the deadline ended, only a few left, while others went back to their places. Following a police defiance earlier in the week, the campus was closed for the remainder of the semester.

In Colorado, police on Friday cleared a camping site on Denver’s Auraria campus, home to three universities and colleges, and arrested about 40 protesters for trespassing.

Students representing the Columbia camp, which has inspired a wave of protests across the country, said Friday that their contacts with the administration have reached an impasse and that they intend to continue mobilizing.

Following meetings on Thursday and Friday, student negotiators said the university had not met its main demand for divestment, although progress had been made in requesting greater transparency regarding financial information.

“We will not rest until Colombia is divested.”said Ben-Menachem, a fourth-year doctoral student.

“We support the ongoing dialogue with the camp’s student leaders,” Columbia leadership said in a letter sent to students late Friday.

arrests

As a result, About 500 people have already been arrested. Fresh arrests have been made Ohio State University, Where 36 protesters were arrested last night and Arizona State University, Where, according to the local network affiliated with ABC, several arrests were made this Friday.

Meanwhile, 57 students of University of Texas, In Austin, who was arrested this week, he saw how the prosecutor’s office rejected He is accused of illegal entry into the campus.

Even within the premises they have taken Forceful measures to end the protests. For example, the University of Texas itself announced in a statement this Friday that it had “temporarily suspended” the Palestine Solidarity Committee, the organizer of the demonstrations in that faculty.

They also stopped the detained students from entering the university campus.

moreover Private George Washington University, Located in the heart of the US capital, warned students who began camping on Thursday that anyone who remains on campus could be at risk temporarily suspended And get administrative access restrictions.

Similarly, University of Florida (UF) This Friday, he threatened students who demonstrated on campus with suspension and even three years of expulsion.

Despite efforts to suppress them, protests continue on university campuses across the country.

More than 75 students camped this Friday University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, With a large banner that reads: ‘What have you done to end the genocide?’, according to local newspaper photographs The Daily Tar Heel.

In addition, the MLA Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jamal Bowman, who represent New York districts and lead the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, visited the campus of Columbia University To show solidarity with the students.

“Any leader who has used force and violence against people peacefully demonstrating should feel deep shame,” Ocasio-Cortez argued in a statement to the student newspaper Bowlog.

There is a historical precedent for this type of student movements. In the 1980s, students in the United States managed to get some universities to liquidate their investments in apartheid-era South African businesses.

These protests have become more relevant as they are taking place in an election year and at a time when Democratic President Joe Biden is trying to woo the youth vote in his bid to defeat Republicans in the November elections. Donald Trump.