NEW YORK (AP) — What began last week when Columbia University students refused to end their protest against Israel’s war against Hamas On Tuesday, the movement grew into a much larger movement as students across the country set up encampments, occupied buildings and ignored demands to leave.
The protests had been simmering for months, but kicked into high gear after more than 100 pro-Palestinian demonstrators camped out on Columbia’s upper Manhattan campus. were arrested on Thursday. Since then, dozens of other protesters have been arrested on other campuses, and many now face charges of trespassing or disorderly conduct.
As tensions at Columbia remain high and some students fear setting foot on campus, officials said the Ivy League school will move to hybrid learning for the school year. rest of semesterwhich will be completed by the end of next week.
At nearby New York University, police said 133 protesters were arrested Monday evening and all were released with summons to appear in court for disturbing the peace. New York City Mayor Eric Adams said police officers were hit with bottles and other objects during some protests this week.
In Connecticut, police arrested 60 protesters, including 47 students, at Yale University on Monday after they refused to leave an encampment located in a square in the center of the campus.
Yale President Peter Salovey said protesters declined an offer to end the protest and meet with administrators. After several warnings, school officials determined that “the situation was no longer safe,” so police cleared the encampment and made arrests.
In the Midwest on Tuesday, a protest at the University of Michigan campus center grew to nearly 40 tents, and nine anti-war protesters at the University of Minnesota were arrested after police destroyed a camp in front of the library. Hundreds of people gathered on the Minnesota campus in the afternoon to demand their release.
On the West Coast, California State Polytechnic University Humboldt announced its campus would be closed until Wednesday after protesters occupied a building Monday evening. Three demonstrators were arrested. Classes were to be taught remotely, the school said on its website.
Pro-Palestinian protesters gather in front of Sproul Hall on the University of California, Berkeley campus in Berkeley, California, April 23. (AP Photo/Haven Daley)
Since the start of the war in Gaza, colleges and universities have struggled to balance security with the right to freedom of expression. Many have long tolerated the protests, but are now imposing harsher discipline.
Harvard University in Massachusetts has tried to stay ahead of the protests by locking most gates to its famous Harvard Yard and limiting access to people with school ID. The school also posted signs warning against setting up tents or tables on campus without permission.
Doctorate in literature. Student Christian Deleon said he understands why Harvard’s administration may be trying to avoid protests, but said there still needs to be a place where students can express what they think.
“We should all be able to use these kinds of spaces to protest, to make our voices heard,” he said.
Ben Wizner, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, said university leaders face extremely difficult decisions because they have a responsibility to ensure people can express their views, even when others find them offensive .
“But they must also protect students from targeted harassment, threats and intimidation,” he said. “And sometimes that line can seem gray.”
Students protest at an encampment outside Kresge Auditorium on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on April 23 in Cambridge, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
In a statement Tuesday, the New York Civil Liberties Union warned universities against calling in law enforcement too quickly.
“Officials should not confuse criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism or use hate incidents as an excuse to silence political views they oppose,” said Donna Lieberman, the group’s executive director.
Leo Auerbach, a student at the University of Michigan, said that divergent positions on the war did not lead him to feel unsafe on campus, but that he feared that “hateful rhetoric and anti-Semitic sentiment would echo each other.”
“If we are trying to create an inclusive community on campus, there must be constructive dialogue between groups,” Auerbach said. “And at the moment, no dialogue is taking place.”
At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, physics chair Hannah Didehbani said the protesters were inspired by those at Columbia.
“Currently, several professors on campus receive direct research funding from the Israeli Ministry of Defense,” she said. “We have asked MIT to sever these ties to research.”
Protesters at the University of California at Berkeley, which had an encampment of about 30 tents on Tuesday, were also inspired by demonstrators in Columbia, “whom we consider to be the heart of the student movement,” the president said. law student Malak Afaneh.
Columbia President Minouche Shafik said in a message to the school community Monday that she was “deeply saddened” by what was happening on campus, where some Jewish students say criticism of Israel has veered towards anti-Semitism.
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson planned a trip Wednesday to visit Jewish university students and address anti-Semitism on college campuses at a news conference.
New York City Police officers arrest pro-Palestinian protesters outside a student-led encampment at New York University on April 22 in New York. (AP Photo/Noreen Nasir)
Colombia has a history of protest, notably in 1968, when hundreds of students angry over racism and the Vietnam War occupied five buildings on campus. After a week, a thousand police arrived and evacuated them, making 700 arrests. The Associated Press reported at the time that 100 students and 15 police officers were injured.
The campus protests began after Hamas’ deadly attack on southern Israel, when militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took about 250 hostages. During the ensuing war, Israel killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the local Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants but says that at least two thirds of the dead are children and women.
AP correspondent Jackie Quinn reports on growing anti-Israel protests at U.S. colleges and universities as the Jewish holiday of Passover begins.
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Perry reported from Meredith, New Hampshire. Associated Press writer Will Weissert in Triangle, Virginia; Larry Lage in Ann Arbor, Michigan; Steve LeBlanc in Cambridge, Massachusetts; Dave Collins in Hartford, Conn.; Jim Salter in OFallon, Missouri; Haven Daley in San Francisco; and John Antczak in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
