College protests live: Dozens of pro-Palestinian activists arrested as NYPD under fire for crackdown
Police officers in riot gear seen moving on an encampment on University of Virginia lawn
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Police have arrested dozens of pro-Palestinian students as protests against Israel’s war in Gaza continued across universities over the weekend.
At least 25 protesters were arrested as police cleared an encampment at the University of Virginia, the university said in a statement.
Dozens of people were arrested for criminal trespass outside the Art Institute of Chicago at a demonstration after the institute called in police to remove protesters.
Meanwhile, students carried flags and banners during the University of Michigan’s commencement ceremony after the NYPD revealed on Friday morning that a police officer with the department’s Emergency Service Unit “unintentionally” fired his gun while trying to access a locked office at Columbia University.
The bullet hit a wall inside the office. No one was injured.
On Thursday morning, hundreds of police officers dismantled a pro-Palestinian protest camp at the University of California at Los Angeles and arrested more than 130 demonstrators.
Live TV footage showed protesters under arrest, kneeling on the ground, their hands bound behind their backs with zip ties. Loud explosions were heard during the clash from flash-bang charges, or stun grenades, fired by police.
President Joe Biden also denounced protests that turned violent on college campuses on Thursday.
Jewish students grapple with how to respond to pro-Palestinian campus protests
As strident pro-Palestinian protests dominated U.S. colleges in recent weeks, few Jewish students responded with rallies in support of Israel or against perceived displays of antisemitism.
That reticence may be starting to change.
Like many Americans, Jewish students’ views on the war in Gaza and the broader Israeli-Palestinian conflict are wide-ranging and often nuanced. It wasn’t for a lack of passion about the war, empathy for its victims, or the backlash the fighting has aroused on their campuses, that they shied away from demonstrating.
READ MORE:
Jewish students grapple with how to respond to pro-Palestinian campus protests
As pro-Palestinian student protests dominated college campuses across the country in recent weeks, Jewish students had fervent debates over how to respond
ICYMI: Officer ‘unintentionally’ fired gun while breaching locked office at Columbia, NYPD says
Biden condemns unrest following Gaza protests after police storm campuses: ‘Violent protest is not protected’
President Biden on Thursday condemned the unrest and violence that has disrupted college campuses over the last week while stressing the importance of Americans’ right to protest peacefully in support of the Palestinian people’s treatment during Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza.
Mr Biden, speaking from the East Room of the White House, said peaceful protest is “in the best tradition of how Americans respond to consequential issues” because the US is “not an authoritarian nation where we silence people or squash dissent”.
He said the images of police clashing with protesters put the “fundamental American principles” of free speech and the rule of law “to the test” as he pointed out the importance of maintaining the latter to allow the former.
The Independent’s White House Correspondent Andrew Feinberg has the story:
Biden condemns unrest after Gaza demonstrations: ‘Violent protest is not protected’
President’s remarks come after police were met with violence while clearing Gaza protest encampments from college campuses nationwide
ICYMI: US House passes bipartisan antisemitism bill
The US House of Representatives passed an antisemitism bill on Wednesday evening as pro-Palestinian campus protests surge across the country.
The bill would create “a clear definition of antisemitism” if passed by the US Senate and signed by the president. In turn, this bill would then allow the US Department of Education to cut funding to schools found tolerating behaviour that falls under the definition.
The bill passed with bipartisan support, 320-91.
Free speech advocates, however, oppose the bill. The American Civil Liberties Union argues the bill “would likely chill free speech of students on college campuses by incorrectly equating criticism of the Israeli government with antisemitism.”
PEN America, a non-profit that advocates for free expression, also condemned the bill, noting that it would adopt the definition of antisemitism as laid out by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA).
“This definition, and its illustrative examples, is overbroad; its enshrinement into law could lead to significant impairment of academic freedom, free speech and legitimate political expression,” the organisation wrote this week.
“Codifying the IHRA definition, which was never intended to be legally binding or otherwise codified into law, is not the right way to attack antisemitic speech and bigotry,” the organisation continued. “Its vague nature is ill-suited to serve as a legal standard, much less form a basis for punitive action.”
Representative Michael Lawler, a Republican from New York who sponsored the bill, said enshrining the IHRA definition in law will instead protect Jewish students on college campuses.
“By requiring the Department of Education to adopt the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism and its contemporary examples, the Antisemitism Awareness Act gives teeth to federal anti-discrimination laws to go after those who attack their Jewish peers,” Mr Lawler said. “Politics should never get in the way of the safety of students. The strong bipartisan support for and passage of this legislation will ensure that it won’t.”
Troops fired on Kent State students in 1970. Survivors see echoes in today's campus protest movement
Dean Kahler flung himself to the ground and covered his head when the bullets started flying. The Ohio National Guard had opened fire on unarmed war protesters at Kent State University, and Kahler, a freshman, was among them.
M1 rifle rounds hit the ground all around him. “And then I got hit,” Kahler recalled, more than 50 years later. “It felt like a bee sting.” But it was far worse than that — a bullet had gone through his lung, shattered three vertebrae and damaged his spinal cord. He was paralyzed.
Four Kent State students were killed and Kahler and eight others were injured when National Guard members fired into a crowd on May 4, 1970, following a tense exchange in which troops used tear gas to break up an anti-war demonstration and protesters hurled rocks at the guardsmen. It was a watershed moment in U.S. history — a violent bookend to the turbulent 1960s — that galvanized campus protests nationwide and forced the temporary shutdown of hundreds of colleges and universities.
READ MORE:
Troops fired on Kent State students in 1970. Survivors see echoes in today's campus protest movement
Kent State University is marking another solemn anniversary of the National Guard shootings that killed four unarmed students and wounded nine others on May 4, 1970
ICYMI: Police arrest 56 between NYU, New School encampment raids
Police cleared out a pair of Gaza protest encampments on Friday at New York University and the New School.
The NYPD said 56 people were arrested, 13 protesters at NYU and another 43 at the New School.
The New School announced on Friday it would move to remote learning to ensure safety on campus.
Demonstrators at the New School spent the last week sleeping inside tents at a campus building and on sidewalks at NYU. Officials at both schools eventually asked the NYPD to intervene to “disperse the illegal encampments.”
Columbia Law Review calls for university to cancel finals
The Columbia Law Review, one of the country’s most prestigious law journals, has called on Columbia Law School to cancel its final exams following the police raid on Tuesday that broke up weeks-long Gaza protests on campus.
The CLR’s Administrative Board Student Editors issued the statement on Wednesday, saying that students should be given passing grades for their “work throughout the semester” rather than their performance on a year-end test.
“The violence we witnessed last night has irrevocably shaken many of us on the Review,” the statement said. “We know this to be the same for a majority of our classmates. Videos have circulated of police clad in riot gear mocking and brutalizing our students.”
“The events of last night left us, and many of our peers, unable to focus and highly emotional during this tumultuous time. This only follows the growing distress that many of us have felt for months as the humanitarian crisis abroad continues to unfold, and as the blatant antisemitism, islamophobia, and racism on campus have escalated.”
French police peacefully remove pro-Palestinian students occupying a university building in Paris
French police on Friday peacefully removed dozens of students from a building at the Paris Institute of Political Studies, known as Sciences Po, who had gathered in support of Palestinians, echoing similar encampments and solidarity demonstrations across the United States.
Students waved Palestinian flags and chanted slogans in support of residents of Gaza, as Israel continues its offensive following the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack that triggered the Israeli-Hamas war.
The Sciences Po building had been occupied since Thursday evening. The university administration had closed the main buildings and moved classes online.
READ MORE:
French police peacefully remove pro-Palestinian students occupying a university building in Paris
French police have peacefully removed dozens of students from a building at the Paris Institute of Political Studies, known as Sciences Po
WATCH: Police break through door of Portland State University library occupied by Gaza protesters
Jewish students grapple with how to respond to pro-Palestinian campus protests
As strident pro-Palestinian protests dominated U.S. colleges in recent weeks, few Jewish students responded with rallies in support of Israel or against perceived displays of antisemitism.
That reticence may be starting to change.
Like many Americans, Jewish students’ views on the war in Gaza and the broader Israeli-Palestinian conflict are wide-ranging and often nuanced. It wasn’t for a lack of passion about the war, empathy for its victims, or the backlash the fighting has aroused on their campuses, that they shied away from demonstrating.
READ MORE:
Jewish students grapple with how to respond to pro-Palestinian campus protests
As pro-Palestinian student protests dominated college campuses across the country in recent weeks, Jewish students had fervent debates over how to respond
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