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US police arrests dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters in universities
Live video images showed police in riot gear marching on the campus in upper Manhattan, the focal point of nationwide student protests opposing Israel’s war in Gaza.
Before long, officers were seen leading protesters handcuffed with zip ties to a line of police buses waiting outside campus gates.
One protester at Columbia, who only gave their name as Sophie, told the Guardian that police had barricaded protesters inside buildings before making arrests. “It will not be forgotten,” she said. “This is no longer an Israel-Palestine issue. It’s a human rights and free speech and a Columbia student issue.”
The police operation follows nearly two weeks of tensions, with pro-Palestinian protesters at the university ignoring an ultimatum on Monday to abandon their encampment or risk suspension. On Tuesday, Columbia University officials threatened academic expulsion of the students who had seized Hamilton Hall, an eight-story neo-classical building blocked by protesters who linked arms to form a barricade and chanted pro-Palestinian slogans.
New York congressman Jamaal Bowman said he was “outraged” by the level of police presence at Columbia and other New York universities.
Separately, the New York Times reported dozens of arrests at City College of New York, part of the City University of New York system (CUNY), when some students left Columbia and moved north to the campus where a protest sit-in was still in effect.
One protester who offered their name as OS, told the Guardian: “We need to keep protesting peacefully and the truth needs to come out. This is a genocide happening in front of us, and the people in power are allowing this to happen.
Meanwhile, clashes broke out on Wednesday at pro-Palestinian demonstrations on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles.
Protesters and counter-protesters were seen clashing with sticks, and tearing down metal barricades, TV footage showed.
The weeks of demonstrations – the most sweeping and prolonged unrest to rock US college campuses since the Vietnam war protests of the 1960s and 70s – have already led to more than 1,000 arrests of students and other activists.
In another of the newest clashes, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, police moved in Tuesday to clear one encampment, detaining some protesters in a tense showdown.
UN human rights chief Volker Turk voiced concern at the heavy-handed steps taken to disperse the campus protests, saying “freedom of expression and the right to peaceful assembly are fundamental to society.”
Pro-Palestinian students are calling for a cease-fire in Gaza and an end to college ties with companies supplying weapons to Israel.
The United States has been providing Israel with unrestrained military, intelligence, and financial support since October 7, when the regime unleashed the war against the besieged Palestinian territory.
Washington has also vetoed several United Nations Security Council resolutions calling for a cease-fire in Gaza.