A tiny contingent of Duke University graduates opposed pro-Israel comedian Jerry Seinfeld speaking at their commencement in North Carolina on May 12, with about 30 of the 7,000 students leaving their seats and chanting “free Palestine” amid a mix of boos and cheers.

Some waved the red, green, black and white Palestinian flag. Mr. Seinfeld, whose namesake sitcom was one of the most popular in U.S. television history, was there to receive an honorary doctorate from the university.

The stand-up comic turned actor, who stars in the new Netflix movie “Unfrosted,” has publicly supported Israel since it invaded Gaza to dismantle Hamas after the organization attacked the country and killed some 1,200 people in southern Israel on Oct. 7. The ensuing war has killed nearly 35,000 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants.

The small student protest on May 12 at Duke’s graduation in Durham, North Carolina, was emblematic of campus events across the U.S. after weeks of student protests resulted in nearly 2,900 arrests at 57 colleges and universities.

Students at campuses across the U.S. responded this spring by setting up encampments and calling for their schools to cut ties with Israel and businesses that support it. Students and others on campuses whom law enforcement authorities have identified as outside agitators have taken part in the protests from Columbia University in New York City to UCLA.

Police escorted graduates’ families past a few dozen pro-Palestinian protesters who tried to block access to May 12 evening’s commencement for Southern California’s Pomona College.

After demonstrators set up an encampment last week on the campus’ ceremony stage, the small liberal arts school moved the event 48 kilometers from Claremont to the Shrine Auditorium in downtown Los Angeles. Tickets were required to attend the event, which the school said would include additional security measures.

In April, police wearing riot gear arrested 19 protesters who had occupied the president’s office at the college with about 1,700 undergraduates.

Demonstrator Anwar Mohmed, a 21-year-old Pomona senior, said the school has repeatedly ignored calls to consider divesting its endowment funds from corporations tied to Israel in the war in Gaza. , “We’ve been time and time again ignored by the institution,” Mr. Mohmed said outside the Shrine on May 12. “So today we have to say, it’s not business as usual.”

At the University of California, Berkeley, on May 11, a small group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators waved flags and chanted during commencement and were escorted to the back of the stadium, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. There were no major counterprotests, but some attendees voiced frustration.

“I feel like they’re ruining it for those of us who paid for tickets and came to show our pride for our graduates,” said Annie Ramos, whose daughter is a student. “There’s a time and a place, and this is not it.”

This weekend’s commencement events remained largely peaceful.

At Emerson College in Boston, some students took off their graduation robes and left them on stage. Others emblazoned “free Palestine” on their mortar boards. One woman, staring at a camera broadcasting a livestream to the public, unzipped her robe to show a kaffiyeh, the black and white checkered scarf commonly worn by Palestinians, and flashed a watermelon painted on her hand. Both are symbols of solidarity with those living in the occupied territories.

Others displayed messages for a camera situated on stage, but the livestream quickly shifted to a different view, preventing them from being seen for long. Chants during some of the speeches were difficult to decipher.

Protests at Columbia University, where student uprisings inspired others at campuses across the country, led the school to cancel its main graduation ceremony in favor of smaller gatherings.

The University of Southern California told its valedictorian, who publicly backed Palestinians, that she could not deliver her keynote speech at its graduation ceremony because of security concerns. It later canceled its main graduation ceremony.

At DePaul University in Chicago, graduation is more than a month away. But as the academic year closes, school leaders said they had reached an “impasse” with the school’s pro-Palestinian protesters, leaving the future of their encampment on the Chicago campus unclear.

The student-led DePaul Divestment Coalition, which is calling on the university to divest from economic interests tied to Israel, set up the encampment nearly two weeks ago. The group alleged university officials walked away from talks and tried to force students into signing an agreement, according to a student statement late on May 11.

New Delhi:

Student protests against the Israeli military assault on Gaza following the unprecedented October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel have spread to several countries.

Here is a round-up of the main campaigns.

Pro-Palestinian Protests In US

Demonstrators have gathered on at least 40 US university campuses since April 17, often erecting tent camps to protest against the soaring death count in the Gaza Strip. 

Nearly 2,000 people have been detained, according to US media, in demonstrations reminiscent of protests against the Vietnam War.

In recent days, police have forcibly dismantled several student sit-ins, including one at New York University at the request of its administrators. 

Demonstrators barricaded inside Columbia University, the epicentre in New York of the student protests, complained of police brutality when officers cleared the faculty. 

At the University of California, Los Angeles, hundreds of police emptied a camp, tearing down barriers and detaining more than 200 protesters.

Dozens of police in riot gear used chemical sprays to break up a pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of Virginia, student paper The Cavalier Daily reported.

Officers ripped away umbrellas some of the protesters wielded as shields, scuffled with a few, and tore down tents, according to a video posted by the newspaper.

Brown University in Rhode Island reached an agreement with students to remove their camp from the grounds in exchange for it considering divesting from “companies enabling and profiting from the genocide in Gaza”.

President Joe Biden broke his silence on the protests on Thursday, insisting “order must prevail”.

Pro-Palestinian Demonstrators In France

Police on Friday forcibly evacuated protesters from a pro-Gaza sit-in at Sciences Po in Paris, the country’s top political science school. 

Officials said 91 people were arrested. 

Sciences Po interim administrator Jean Basseres rejected a student demand to examine the institution’s links with Israeli universities.

Outside the nearby Sorbonne University, the Union of Jewish Students in France set up a “dialogue table” on Friday. 

“Jewish students have their place in this dialogue,” said Joann Sfar, a comic-book artist invited as a guest speaker. 

He said he understood why students were “outraged by what’s going on in the Middle East”. 

At Paris-Dauphine University, administrators banned a conference involving Rima Hassan, a Franco-Palestinian expert in international law who has been vocal in condemning “genocide” in Gaza. 

The ban, introduced on the grounds there was a risk of public disorder, has been overturned by the judicial authorities.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday condemned the university blockades at Sciences Po and other French universities that “prevented debate”.

Anti-Israel Protests In Germany

Police intervened on Friday to evacuate protesters outside Humboldt University in central Berlin. 

A number of demonstrators were “forcibly” removed after refusing to decamp to another location, police said.

Berlin mayor Kai Wegner criticised the protest, saying on X, formerly Twitter, that the city didn’t want to see events like those in the United States or France.

Students Protest In Canada

Students have protested against the war in Gaza in several cities, including Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, and Vancouver.

Hundreds of demonstrators have joined the first and largest camp, at Montreal’s McGill University, in the face of threats of police clearance.

They have vowed to remain there until McGill cuts all financial and academic ties with Israel. 

University administrators said on Wednesday they wanted the camp removed immediately, alleging that certain protesters were not members of the student body. 

Pro-Gaza Sit-In In Australia

Hundreds of rival supporters of Gaza and Israel faced off at Sydney University on Friday, shouting slogans and waving flags. 

Except for a few heated exchanges, the protest and counter-protest passed off peacefully.  

Pro-ceasefire demonstrators have been camped for 10 days on a green lawn in front of the university. They want it to cut ties with Israeli institutions and reject funding from arms companies. 

Pro-Palestinian Protests In Ireland

Students at Trinity College Dublin University began a sit-in on Friday, describing the protest as a “solidarity encampment with Palestine”.

Students Protest In Mexico

Dozens of students from the country’s largest university, UNAM, set up a camp in the capital on Thursday, chanting “Free Palestine” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will overcome”.

They want the Mexican government to sever all ties with Israel.

Students In Switzerland Demand Gaza Ceasefire

About 100 students have since Thursday been occupying the entrance of a building at Lausanne University, calling for an academic boycott of Israel and an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. 

The peaceful sit-in is due to continue until Monday. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

A brawl erupted at University of California, Los Angeles, (UCLA) after a pro-Palestinian encampment was “forcefully attacked,” the school’s chancellor said on May 1, while activists at the University of Wisconsin in Madison clashed with police officers who destroyed their tents, in a day of escalating violence on some college campuses over the war in Gaza.

Fifteen people were injured during the UCLA confrontation, including one person who was hospitalized, according to the president of the University of California system. The chaotic scenes unfolded on Wednesday after police burst into a building occupied by anti-war protesters at Columbia University on Tuesday night, breaking up a demonstration that had paralyzed the school.

Chancellor Gene Block at UCLA said in a statement that “a group of instigators” came on campus Tuesday to “forcefully attack” the pro-Palestinian encampment, prompting the school to ask for assistance from outside law enforcement.

After a couple of hours of scuffles between dueling demonstrators at the University of California, Los Angeles, police wearing helmets and face shields separated the groups and restored calm. Later Wednesday, pro-Palestinian protesters rebuilt a barricade around their encampment. There were no counter-protesters in sight, and law enforcement officers were deployed throughout the campus.

Also read | Demonstrations roil U.S. campuses ahead of graduations as protesters spar over the war in Gaza

In Madison on Wednesday, police with shields removed all but one tent and shoved protesters, resulting in a scrum. Four officers were injured, including a state trooper who was hit in the head with a skateboard, according to University of Wisconsin police spokesperson Marc Lovicott.

Within hours, protesters had erected more tents at the UW campus.

More than 30 people were arrested, most of them released without charges, but four were charged with battering law enforcement, police said.

Tent encampments of protesters calling on universities to stop doing business with Israel or companies that support the war in Gaza have spread across campuses nationwide in a student movement unlike any other this century. The ensuing police crackdowns echoed actions decades ago against a much larger protest movement protesting the Vietnam War.

This is all playing out in an election year in the U.S., raising questions about whether young voters — who are critical for Democrats — will back President Joe Biden’s reelection effort, given his staunch support of Israel.

There have been confrontations with law enforcement and more than 1,300 arrests. In rare instances, university officials and protest leaders struck agreements to restrict the disruption to campus life and upcoming commencement ceremonies.

The clashes at UCLA erupted when the pro-Palestinian protesters tried to expand their encampment late Tuesday night. Counter-protesters then tried to pull down the parade barricades, plywood and wooden pallets surrounding the encampment. In the chaos, firecrackers exploded.

Police left the scene around 11.30 p.m., and police in riot gear showed up at 1.45 a.m. to establish a perimeter. Pro-Israel protesters threw traffic cones and chairs, released pepper spray, and tore down barriers around the encampment. Some from the pro-Palestinian camp hopped over the barriers and scuffled with the counter-protesters.

No one was arrested. Officials have not clarified whether the demonstrators were all students.

Chancellor Block offered his sympathy to those who were injured and anyone who feels unsafe on campus, and promised the university will conduct a thorough investigation that he said may lead to arrests, expulsions and dismissals. In addition, Mr. Block said the administration is examining its own security response.

“However one feels about the encampment, this attack on our students, faculty and community members was utterly unacceptable,” Mr. Block said. “It has shaken our campus to its core and — adding to other abhorrent incidents that we have witnessed and that have circulated on social media over the past several days — further damaged our community’s sense of security.”

Also read | More than 100 arrested at U.S. university pro-Palestinian protests

UCLA senior Edgar Gomez, who ventured outside his dorm to watch the ruckus unfold, said he saw counter-protesters tearing up Palestinian flags, and pepper spray hung in the air as the two sides fought.

“I’ve never seen this happen before,” said Mr. Gomez, adding that he isn’t with either group. “I’ve never seen people get so heated.”

California Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass both called for accountability of those involved in the melee. A spokesperson for the governor said outside law enforcement was sent to the campus after “unacceptable” delays in the university’s police force response to the clashes.

The nationwide campus demonstrations began at Columbia to protest Israel’s offensive in Gaza after Hamas launched a deadly attack on southern Israel on October 7. Militants killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took roughly 250 hostages. Vowing to stamp out Hamas, Israel has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the Health Ministry there.

Late Tuesday, New York City police officers entered Columbia’s campus and cleared a tent encampment, along with Hamilton Hall where a stream of officers used a ladder to climb through a second-floor window, and police said protesters inside presented no substantial resistance. They had seized the Ivy League school building about 20 hours earlier.

Protesters first set up a tent encampment at Columbia almost two weeks ago. The school sent in police to clear the tents the following day, arresting more than 100 people. But the protesters returned.

Negotiations between the protesters and the college ground to a halt in recent days, and the school set a Monday deadline for the activists to abandon the tent encampment or be suspended.

Instead, protesters took over Hamilton Hall early Tuesday, carrying in furniture and metal barricades.

In a letter to senior police officials, Columbia President Nemat Shafik, who uses the first name Minouche, said the administration asked officers to remove protesters from the occupied building and a tent encampment “with the utmost regret.”

Columbia on Wednesday called Hamilton Hall “an active crime scene” under NYPD investigation and limited campus access to people with Columbia identification and essential personnel, barring the media.

“After the University learned overnight that Hamilton Hall had been occupied, vandalized, and blockaded, we were left with no choice,” the school said in a statement.

Fabien Lugo, a first-year accounting student who said he was not involved in the protests, said he opposed the university’s decision to call in police.

“This is too intense,” he said. “It feels like more of an escalation than a de-escalation.”

Blocks away from Columbia, at The City College of New York, demonstrators were in a standoff with police outside the public college’s main gate. Video posted on social media by reporters late Tuesday showed officers forcing some people to the ground and shoving others as they cleared the street and sidewalks.

Close to 300 protesters were arrested in the crackdowns at Columbia and City College, officials said.

Brown University, another Ivy League school, reached an agreement Tuesday with protesters on its Rhode Island campus. Demonstrators closed their encampment after administrators agreed to consider a vote to divest from Israel in October — apparently the first U.S. college to agree to such a demand.

Meanwhile, protest encampments were cleared or closed up voluntarily at schools from Flagstaff, Arizona, to New Orleans.

At Portland State in Oregon, school officials said some 50 protesters left a library on campus that had been occupied since Monday after administrators offered not to seek criminal charges or other discipline. An unknown number of people remained in the library Wednesday.

Israel and its supporters have branded the university protests antisemitic, while Israel’s critics say it uses those allegations to silence opposition. Although some protesters have been caught on camera making antisemitic remarks or violent threats, organizers of the protests, some of whom are Jewish, say it is a peaceful movement aimed at defending Palestinian rights and protesting the war.

A dramatic scene unfolded late April 30 at 9 P.M. as the New York Police Department brought in a military-grade vehicle with an extendable ramp to gain entry to a window of Hamilton Hall, the campus building occupied by student protestors since April 30 midnight. 
| Photo Credit: Anisha Dutta

A dramatic scene unfolded late April 30 at 9 p.m. as the New York Police Department (NYPD) brought in a military-grade vehicle with an extendable ramp to gain entry to a window of Hamilton Hall, the campus building occupied by student protestors since April 30 midnight. 

Dozens of NYPD officers in riot gear swarmed Columbia University around 9:30 p.m. and encircled key areas of the campus including the ‘Gaza Solidary Encampment’ and the Hamilton Hall that had been occupied by anti-war student protesters. 

Also read: Columbia protests LIVE updates

Additional crowds of officers entered the campus on foot through the main gate. According to police, flash bangs were used to disorient the protesters as officers made their way inside Hamilton Hall. The officers blocked media and student journalists from entering the premises of Hamilton Hall while putting the entire campus on lockdown till the area was cleared of the protesters. 

According to police, at least 48 people were taken into custody on April 30 night, and three encampments were dismantled. At least two New York City Department of Correction buses full of protesters were seen being driven away from the school.

Columbia said it had called the police to campus for the second time in less than two weeks after the building, Hamilton Hall, was “vandalized and blockaded.” President Minouche Shafik has also asked NYPD to maintain a presence on campus through at least May 17 to prevent further encampments or occupations.

The decision to call the NYPD on campus comes days after Ms. Shafik came under heavy criticism for calling them earlier this month to clear the pro-Palestine protest. 

On April 18, Ms. Shafik’s decision to authorise the NYPD’s sweep of the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment,” which led to the mass arrest of over 100 protesters, left many community members stunned. Over 100 faculty members from the University on April 22 gathered on the campus for a walkout to condemn the suspension and arrests of students and call for amnesty and protection of academic freedom.

“We called on the NYPD to clear an encampment once,” Ms. Shafik wrote in a statement to the community last Friday co-signed by the co-chairs of Columbia’s board of trustees. 

“But we all share the view, based on discussions within our community and with outside experts, that to bring back the NYPD at this time would be counterproductive, further inflaming what is happening on campus.”  

According to the NYPD, protesters had barricaded the halls with soda machines, chairs and other furniture. Meanwhile student protestors alleged NYPD officials turned off their body cameras while entering the building. 

Columbia University Apartheid Divest, the coalition organising the encampment protest, said, “Columbia admin and NYPD prevented Columbia’s volunteer student-run EMS service (CUEMS) from treating students injured by police violence on campus. People who called for help on campus were unable to access medical attention.”  

Police had set up barricades all around the university’s perimeter earlier April 30 evening, where more protesters gathered. Protesters outside the campus were heard chanting “shame on you” and “free, free Palestine” as officers made their way inside and led students in handcuffs out.

Before police moved in, Columbia University tonight sent a letter asking the NYPD for assistance.

In her letter to the NYPD, Ms. Shafik wrote, “As we have discussed, in the early morning of April 30, 2024 a group of individuals entered Hamilton Hall for the purpose of occupying the building. The building was closed at the time the students entered. An individual hid in the building until after it closed and let the other individuals in.”

“There were two security guards inside. We were able to secure their release. We believe that while the group who broke into the building includes students, it is led by individuals who are not affiliated with the University.The individuals who have occupied Hamilton Hall have vandalized University property and are trespassing,” she added. 

The move also came shortly after New York Mayor, Eric Adams in a press conference at 6 p.m. that the protest at Columbia University “has basically been co-opted by professional outside agitators” who intend to sow chaos.

Earlier in the day, an alert sent from the school on April 30 night urged students on the Morningside campus to “shelter in place for your safety due to heightened activity” and “avoid the area until further notice.

(Anisha Dutta is a freelance journalist based in New York)

New York:

An esteemed economist, Minouche Shafik was thrilled to become president of one of America’s most prestigious colleges.

But her name will now be tied with dramatic images of New York police arresting pro-Palestinian students at the Columbia University campus.

Less than a year after taking up the role, 61-year-old Shafik finds herself at the heart of a storm over her handling of the protests that spread to other colleges in the United States.

Twice in two weeks, she asked the police to intervene — first to disperse an encampment on the university grounds and then, on Tuesday, to oust students who had barricaded themselves inside a building on campus.

Spectacular images of helmeted police officers encircling the campus and detaining students were making the rounds overnight, prompting criticism for Shafik, particularly from teachers.

Even before Tuesday, Shafik was under fire on two main fronts.

Republicans have demanded Shafik resign, arguing that she failed to protect Jewish students on her campus.

Meanwhile pro-Palestinian students accuse her of muzzling their protests and of escalating the situation by calling police in to manage the demonstrations.

‘Profound effect’

Born in Alexandria in Egypt, Nemat “Minouche” Shafik was four years old when her family fled the country and moved to the United States.

“I was born into a comfortable family in a society marked by severe inequality,” the British-American told the Columbia Magazine in autumn 2023.

But she said “my family’s prospects changed dramatically in the mid-1960s, when most of our land and property was seized by the Egyptian state as part of Nasser’s nationalization program.”

Shafik found herself an immigrant in the American South “during the desegregation era, amid explosive racial tensions,” an experience that had a “profound effect,” she said.

A graduate of prestigious universities in the United States and the United Kingdom, Shafik went on to occupy various senior posts at the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Bank of England, before being named head of the London School of Economics.

Shafik is also a member of the House of Lords, the second chamber of the UK parliament, a role from which she is currently on leave.

‘Crucial role’

Columbia University had already been embroiled in debates, including about the costs of higher education, before Shafik became president last year, making her the first woman to hold the post.

But the war in Gaza, triggered by Hamas’s attack on Israel in October, began a course of turmoil for the college.

Shafik saw the resignations of the presidents of two other universities — including Harvard — brought about over claims they were not doing enough to combat anti-Semitism on their campuses.

On April 17, it was Shafik’s turn to be questioned by Congress on the issue. She firmly defended her actions and condemned anti-Semitism “that is so pervasive today.”

That same day, Columbia students set up tents on the campus lawns to demand an end to the war in Gaza and that their university cut all ties with Israel.

Shafik called on New York’s police a day later to help disperse the protesters, leading to more than 100 students being arrested.

That started a high-profile standoff that continued into this week.

In the Columbia Magazine, Shafik said she decided to become president of the “extraordinary institution” because it was the “most cosmopolitan, outward-looking” of America’s top universities.

“And at a time when universities have a crucial role to play in addressing societal problems, I think that Columbia is positioned to be a tremendous force for positive change, in New York City and around the world,” she said.

Her students, on both sides of the fence, seem to have taken her at her word.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Large numbers of New York City police officers entered Columbia University late April 30, hours after the mayor said a pro-Palestinian protest that has crippled the Ivy League school for two weeks “must end now.”

The officers took protesters into custody after the university called in police to end the pro-Palestinian occupation on the New York campus.

The scene unfolded shortly after 9 p.m. as police, wearing helmets and carrying zip ties and riot shields, massed at the Ivy League university’s entrance. The demonstrators had occupied Hamilton Hall, an administration building on campus, more than 12 hours earlier, spreading their reach from an encampment elsewhere on the grounds that’s been there for nearly two weeks. 

Students gather for a rally in support of a protest encampment on campus in support of Palestinians, despite a 2 p.m. deadline issued by university officials to disband or face suspension, during the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in New York City, U.S., April 29, 2024.
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

Colleges around the U.S. implored pro-Palestinian student protesters to clear out tent encampments with rising levels of urgency on April 29 as police arrested more demonstrators at the University of Texas and Columbia University said it was beginning to suspend students who defied an ultimatum to disband the encampment there.

Dozens of law enforcement officers, many in riot gear, confronted protesters who returned to the University of Texas at Austin on April 29. They quickly arrested six demonstrators and took others into custody one by one. Officers used pepper spray after a group of protesters blocked the path of a police van carrying demonstrators who were arrested. The crowd backed away but continued to block the exit from campus. Officers then used two flash-bang explosives to clear a path so the van could leave.

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott reposted on social media a video of troopers arriving on the 50,000-student campus. “No encampments will be allowed,” Mr. Abbott said. Just last week, hundreds of police pushed into protesters at the university, arresting 34 people.

At Columbia, student activists defied a 2 p.m. deadline to leave an encampment of around 120 tents on the school’s Manhattan campus. Instead, hundreds of protesters marched around the quad, clapping, chanting and weaving around piles of temporary flooring and green carpeting meant for graduation ceremonies that are supposed to begin next week.

A handful of counter-demonstrators waved Israeli flags, and one held a sign reading, “Where are the anti-Hamas chants?”

The university didn’t call police to roust the demonstrators. But three hours after the deadline passed, school spokesperson Ben Chang said Columbia had begun suspending students. He didn’t indicate how many students were involved. He also didn’t say how the suspensions would be carried out or whether suspended students would be ejected from the campus.

Mr. Chang said that while the university appreciated the free speech rights of students, the encampment was a “noisy distraction” that was interfering with teaching and preparation for final exams. The protests also made some Jewish students deeply uncomfortable, he said.

Protest organizers said they were not aware of any suspensions as of Monday evening.

The notice sent to protesters earlier on April 29 said if they left by the deadline and signed a form committing to abide by university policies through June 2025, they could finish the semester in good standing. If not, the letter said, they would be suspended, pending further investigation.

Early protests at Columbia sparked similar pro-Palestinian protest encampments at schools across the U.S. Students and others have been sparring over the Israel-Hamas war and its mounting death toll. Many students are demanding their universities cut financial ties with Israel. The number of arrests at campuses nationwide is approaching 1,000. The protests have even spread to Europe, with French police removing dozens of students from the Sorbonne university after pro-Palestinian protesters occupied the main courtyard.

College classes are wrapping up for the semester, and campuses are preparing for graduation ceremonies, giving schools an extra incentive to clear encampments. The University of Southern California canceled its main graduation ceremony.

But students dug in their heels at some high-profile universities, with standoffs also continuing at Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, Yale and others.

Protesters at Yale set up a new camp with dozens of tents on April 28, nearly a week after police arrested nearly 50 and cleared a similar one nearby. They were notified by a Yale official that they could face discipline, including suspension, and possible arrest if they continued.

Yale said in a statement on April 29 that while it supports peaceful protests and freedom of speech, it does not tolerate policy violations such as the encampment. School officials said that the protest is near residential colleges where many students are studying for final exams, and that permission must be granted for groups to hold events and put up structures on campus.

In a rare case, Northwestern University said it reached an agreement with students and faculty who represent the majority of protesters on its campus near Chicago. It allows peaceful demonstrations through the June 1 end of spring classes, requires removal of all tents except one for aid, and restricts the demonstration area to allow only students, faculty and staff unless the university approves otherwise.

At Brown University in Rhode Island, school President Christina H. Paxton offered protest leaders the chance to meet with officials to discuss their arguments for divestment from Israel-linked companies in exchange for ending an encampment.

In the letter to student protesters at Columbia, school officials noted that exams are beginning and graduation is upcoming.

“We urge you to remove the encampment so that we do not deprive your fellow students, their families and friends of this momentous occasion,” the letter said.

The demonstrations have led Columbia to hold remote classes. The school said in an email to students that bringing back police “at this time” would be counterproductive. The university said it will offer an alternative venue for the protests after exams and graduation.

Columbia’s handling of the protests has prompted federal complaints.

A class-action lawsuit on behalf of Jewish students alleges a breach of contract by Columbia, claiming the university failed to maintain a safe learning environment, despite policies and promises. It also challenges the move away from in-person classes and seeks quick court action requiring Columbia to provide security for the students.

Meanwhile, a legal group representing pro-Palestinian students is urging the U.S. Department of Education’s civil rights office to investigate Columbia’s compliance with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 for how they have been treated.

A university spokesperson declined to comment on the complaints.

The plight of students who have been arrested has become a central part of protests, with the students and a growing number of faculty demanding amnesty for protesters. At issue is whether the suspensions and legal records will follow students through their adult lives.

Demonstrators on other campuses, meanwhile, said they would stand firm. Jacob Ginn, a second-year University of North Carolina sociology graduate student, said he had been protesting at the encampment for four days, including negotiations with administrators.

“We are prepared for everything and we will remain here until the university meets our demands and we will remain steadfast and strong in the face of any brutality and repression that they try to attack us with,” Mr. Ginn said about a potential police sweep of the encampment.

Pro-Palestinian activists confront police officers during a demonstration at Emory University on April 25, 2024, in Atlanta, Georgia.
| Photo Credit: AFP

The “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, brought torch-bearing white nationalists together from all over the country. It culminated in an avowed white supremacist driving a car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing one woman and injuring 19 other people.

Donald Trump condemned pro-Palestinian protests sweeping U.S. colleges, saying the level of “hate” on display was far worse than during an infamous, deadly rally by right-wing extremists in Charlottesville in 2017.

“We’re having protests all over,” Mr. Trump told reporters as he left the Manhattan courtroom where he is standing trial on charges of falsifying business records.

“Charlottesville was a little peanut, and it was nothing compared – and the hate wasn’t the kind of hate that you have here, this is tremendous hate,” he said.

Also Read | Why students are protesting across U.S. campuses? | Explained

The “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, brought torch-bearing white nationalists together from all over the country.

It culminated in an avowed white supremacist driving a car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing one woman and injuring 19 other people.

President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign responded to Mr. Trump’s comments by posting video footage from the Charlottesville rally, showing torch-wielding “neo-Nazis and KKK members” chanting “Jews will not replace us!”

Mr. Trump infamously took 48 hours to respond to the violence, and then only said there were “very fine people on both sides” of the protests, drawing widespread criticism.

Mr. Biden has often told the story of how he came out of retirement to run for president in 2020 after Mr. Trump refused to clearly denounce the rally at Charlottesville.

During their first debate, in September of that year, Mr. Trump infuriated many Americans by once again declining to denounce white supremacist groups.

Instead, speaking out to the right-wing nationalist group called the Proud Boys, he told them to “stand back and stand by.”

The group celebrated its mention by the president by adopting those words as part of a new logo – underscoring fears that white supremacists were taking tacit encouragement from Mr. Trump’s failure to unequivocally condemn their ideology.

Two days later, under pressure to explain himself, Mr. Trump said he did in fact condemn all white supremacists.

Mr. Trump spoke as pro-Palestinian protests spread to more college campuses in the United States. Students are staging occupations over the growing human toll of Israel’s war with Hamas.

Hundreds have been arrested so far as universities and police crack down.

Mr. Biden, who has made clear his support for Israel even as he urges its leader to allow greater access to aid for Palestinians, has backed the students’ right to free speech.

The story so far:

On April 18, more than 100 pro-Palestinian protestors who were camped out in tents in Columbia University, New York, were arrested by the police. Since then, similar encampments and protests have risen across U.S. campuses, including in New York University, Yale University and the University of Texas. These protests are an escalation of the demonstrations going on in U.S. campuses ever since the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel and Israel’s subsequent bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

What happened?

Columbia University president Minouche Shafik called in the NYPD to arrest the camping students a day after her Congressional hearing with the U.S House Committee on Education and the Workforce. The hearing was to learn more about the University’s efforts in countering anti-Semitism. Similar hearings had happened on December 5, 2023 with the presidents of the Universities of Pennsylvania, Harvard and Massachusetts, after which presidents of Pennsylvania and Harvard resigned amid criticism of their “inaction” in handling rising anti-Semitism and Islamophobia on campuses after the October 7 attacks. In a similar pattern, Ms. Shafik was also questioned on the university’s inaction to stop anti-Semitic rhetoric on the campus and has faced calls for resignation from various quarters, particularly from New York’s Republican Congressional delegation.

In her latest statement on April 23, Ms. Shafik had given a deadline for protestors to reach a peaceful agreement with the University. She warned that if the talks were not successful, “we will have to consider alternative options for clearing the West Lawn and restoring calm to the campus so that students can complete the term and graduate”. Since then, discussions have been ongoing and the deadline extended twice.

Several campuses, taking inspiration from the protests in Columbia, have peacefully escalated their protests, which have also faced repression from respective university administrations. On April 25, more than 30 people were arrested at a protest held at the University of Texas.

What are the protests about?

On October 7, 2023, Hamas attacked Israel, killing about 1,200 civilians and taking more than 250 people hostage, following which Israel commenced its invasion of the Gaza Strip, killing over 34,000 people, a vast majority of them women and children. Protests have been going on in universities ever since, calling for a permanent ceasefire. These protests peaked last week when students of Columbia started camping out in front of the university campus lawn, creating, as they call it, a ’Gaza solidarity encampment’.

Their primary demands: Columbia university should divest funds from any company/institution that is associated with Israel or profits from “Israeli apartheid”; financial transparency into the university’s investments; and amnesty for all students/faculty that have been participating in the ongoing pro-Palestinian movement. As per the Columbia Daily Spectator, the student newspaper of the university, on April 23, Columbia College passed a divestment referendum by a large margin. The referendum asked students whether the university should divest financially from Israel, cancel the Tel Aviv Global Center, and end Columbia’s dual degree programme with the Tel Aviv University. The first question passed with 76.55% of voters in favour, while the latter two garnered 68.36% and 65.62% support, respectively.

Columbia University has a rich history when it comes to student movements. The last time protests of this scale rocked the campus was in 1968 when students protested the U.S.’s role in the Vietnam War and university policies they considered racist. Similar push-back happened then as well with almost 700 people being arrested by the police.

How have the protests been perceived?

The protests have increasingly polarised student groups and pitted them against each other. While the pro-Palestinian movement has asserted that their movement is peaceful and that their sole goal was to fight against the ongoing “genocide” in Gaza and the U.S.’s complicity in the same, certain Jewish student groups allege that there have been instances of anti-Semitism in the protests and that Jews feel unsafe on the campus.

Several Congresspeople have said the protests were the reason for the alleged increase in anti-Semitism on the campus. New York City Mayor Eric Adams stated that he is “horrified and disgusted” with the anti-Semitism being “spewed” at Columbia University. The State of Israel’s official X account retweeted a video of the Columbia protests, calling the protestors “terrorists”.

Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, on the other hand, has backed the protests, stating the arrests have “ignited a nationwide Gaza Solidarity movement”. She stated on X that “this is more than the students hoped for and I am glad to see this type of solidarity”.

On April 21, The White House also weighed into the issue with a statement which said, “even in recent days, we’ve seen harassment and calls for violence against Jews. This blatant anti-Semitism is reprehensible and dangerous – and it has absolutely no place on college campuses, or anywhere in our country.”

Do campuses receive funds from Israel?

The ‘disclose and divest’ demand of the protestors have gained much traction over the week. It has its roots in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement which is a non-violent Palestinian-led movement, calling for boycott and economic sanctions against Israel.

A report by the Associated Press quotes MIT students who state that MIT has accepted more than $11 million from the Israel Defence Ministry over the past decade. Similarly, the protestors at the University of Michigan say the university sends more than $6 billion to investment managers who profit from Israeli companies or contractors.

However, University of Michigan officials said they have no direct investments with Israeli companies, and that indirect investments made through funds amount to a fraction of 1% of the university’s $18 billion endowment. This sentiment was echoed in a report by the The New York Times, which said universities have less direct control over their investments, opting instead for asset managers to oversee portfolios. Some university administrators have also made the point that very little of their endowments is invested in companies that could be linked to Israel.

According to the Federal Student Aid database, from 2020-22, Columbia University received over $2 million as foreign gifts and contracts from Israel. However, it is unclear from where in Israel these funds came from, who the investors were and what the fund was used for.

On the other hand, universities are losing funding from investors due to what investors are calling ‘anti-Israel protests’. Law and investment firms have threatened to rescind job offers and not hire protesters when they graduate. Some of the prominent investors who have declared they will pull funding from campuses include venture capitalists David Magerman and Jonathon Jacobson, and Jon Huntsman, the former U.S. ambassador to China.

What next?

Tensions remain high across U.S. college campuses as university administrations try to balance students’ protests and increasing pressure from the government. While Columbia discussions seem to be moving forward with a large section of students dispersing in return for written agreements that the police nor the National guard will be called in, protests across other U.S. campuses seem to be spreading like wildfire.

Meanwhile, the war in Gaza rages on. Israel pounded Gaza with airstrikes on April 24 following the approval of a $13 billion aid package by the U.S. Congress to Israel. Reports suggest that Israel is gearing up to begin its assault on Rafah, where over 1.4 million Palestinians are now seeking refuge.