Police arrested dozens of people at pro-Palestinian demonstrations at Yale University in Connecticut and New York University in Manhattan, as student protests over Israel’s war in Gaza continue to disrupt US campuses.
Authorities arrested at least 47 protesters on Yale University’s campus in New Haven, Connecticut, on Monday night, the university announced. statement. Students who are arrested will be subject to disciplinary action.
The police crackdown began after Columbia University canceled in-person classes on Monday in response to protesters who set up tents on its New York City campus last week.
Hundreds of people were protesting on Yale University’s campus, demanding that the university divest from munitions manufacturers. Yale said it repeatedly asked the students to leave and warned them that they could face law enforcement and disciplinary action if they did not comply.
In New York, police moved into an encampment at Gould Plaza near New York University shortly after nightfall. There, too, hundreds of demonstrators defied the university’s warnings that they would face serious consequences if they did not leave the square.
Videos on social media showed police removing tents from the protesters’ encampment in a tense and sometimes chaotic scene. Some police threw tents, while others struggled with demonstrators.
The protesters got into an altercation with the police, saying, “We will not stop, we will not rest. We will disclose. We will divest.”
A NYPD spokesperson said the arrests were made after the university asked police to crack down on trespassing violations, but the total number of arrests and citations would not be known until much later.
of washington square newsThe student newspaper reported that the NYPD announced in a loudspeaker announcement that a student had been arrested for “disorderly conduct” and that protesters were illegally blocking traffic.
The enforcement actions at Yale University and New York University came after several days of tense conditions on campuses across the United States.
Last week, Columbia University President Nemat Minoush Shafik called in the New York Police Department to remove a tent encampment on the main lawn of students demanding the university’s divestment from companies with ties to Israel.
More than 100 students were arrested Thursday on trespassing charges, and the university and affiliated Barnard College suspended dozens of students who participated in the protests.
Columbia University announced Monday that it would suspend in-person classes at its New York City campus in an effort to “reset” the situation and “de-escalate hatred.”
A new camp has emerged, with hundreds of teachers holding a large-scale walkout to protest the president’s handling of the situation.
Bassam Khawaja, an adjunct lecturer at Columbia University Law School and supervising attorney for the school’s human rights clinic, told the Guardian that he was “shocked and appalled that the president immediately called in the New York Police Department.” Ta.
“This was a non-violent protest by all accounts,” she said. “It was a group of students camping on the lawn in the middle of campus. It was no different from everyday life on campus.”
After the Columbia crackdown, students across the U.S. launched their own protests in solidarity, many calling on universities to support the Gaza ceasefire and divest from businesses with ties to Israel.
Students at Brown University, Princeton University, and Northwestern University protested Friday and over the weekend.
Students at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Emerson College in the Boston area have started their own protest camps.
Other institutions where protests were held include Boston University, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
