900 people detained at pro-Palestinian protests at US universities

Over the past ten days, at least 900 protesters against the war in Gaza have been detained at US universities.

A wave of student protests erupted after city police detained more than a hundred protesters on the Columbia University campus on April 18. Four days later, the university called police again to break up the camp on campus. Water bottles were thrown at the police and clashes broke out. 120 people were arrested writes The Washington Post.

At Emerson College in Boston, there were also clashes with the police – four police officers were injured and 108 people were arrested. In Georgia, police reported using “chemical irritants” and a stun gun to break up a camp at a local university.

At Washington University in St. Louis, police detained more than a hundred participants in a pro-Palestinian rally, including US presidential candidate Jill Stein from the Green Party, according to Stein’s page on the social network X. Several photos and videos of Stein were also published there calls what is happening in Gaza “genocide.”

Dozens of people were detained at the University of Southern California. After this, the university, for security reasons, canceled the graduation ceremony, which was supposed to take place in May and attract 65 thousand people.

At the same time, not everywhere the city police agrees to come when called by universities. Thus, the District of Columbia police considered that “taking action against a small number of peaceful demonstrators is not in the interests of the department” and did not come to George Washington University, writes The Washington Post.

Los Angeles police also said they were not involved in quelling the riots on the University of California campus. There, on Sunday, April 28, clashes broke out between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli demonstrators. writes Reuters.

University officials reported that protesters broke through a barrier set up to separate two groups of protesters. Representatives of both groups pushed each other, shouted slogans and insults – the campus police intervened in the conflict with batons. There are no reports of detentions or arrests.

What the parties say

Pro-Palestinian protesters are demanding a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, an end to investments in defense companies that do business with Israel, and an end to US military aid to Israel. Jewish students say criticism of Israel often veers into anti-Semitism and makes them feel unsafe. They also recall that the Hamas group, designated terrorist by the United States and the European Union, still holds hostages captured in Israel last fall.

University leaders say unsanctioned protests break rules, interfere with learning and promote harassment and anti-Semitism. Student leaders acknowledge isolated incidents of anti-Semitism and harassment but blame it on “outsiders” who they say are trying to take over the student movement.

US President Joe Biden is aware of what is happening on university campuses. White House national security spokesman John Kirby says protesters should have the right to publicly express their opinions, but it must be done peacefully. At the same time, the White House condemns anti-Semitism and hate speech.

• Protests have spread across many college campuses since the Hamas attack in southern Israel on October 7 last year. Then the jihadists killed more than 1,200 people and took about 250 hostage. Israel launched a military operation in the Gaza Strip, which is under Hamas control, to destroy the group.
• According to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Ministry of Health, more than 34 thousand Palestinians, mostly women and children, were killed as a result of Israeli shelling. There is no independent confirmation of these data.