Signs and flags are pictured at a pro-Palestinian encampment on the lawn of the Stratton Student Center campus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on May 9, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Police dismantled a pro-Palestinian tent encampment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology early Friday and moved to clear protesters from University of Pennsylvania’s campus in Philadelphia, hours after police tear-gassed protesters and took down an encampment at the University of Arizona.

In Cambridge, Massachusetts, video showed police roaming through the MIT encampment. Police in riot gear arrived around 4 a.m., encircled the camp and gave protesters about 15 minutes to leave. Ten students who remained were arrested, the university’s president said. A crowd outside the camp began gathering and chanting pro-Palestinian slogans but were dispersed by 6 a.m.

Also Read | Police clear pro-Palestinian protest camp, arrest 33 at university in Washington DC

At the University of Arizona in Tucson, campus police in riot gear fired tear gas late Thursday at protesters before tearing down an encampment that included wood and plastic barriers on campus. In statement, the University of Arizona said it made the decision because the encampment violated school policy.

“A structure made from wooden pallets and other debris was erected on campus property after 5 p.m. in violation of the policy,” the school said in a statement. “University officials issued warnings to remove the encampment and disperse. The warnings were ignored.”

The school also said that police vehicles were spiked, and rocks and water bottles thrown at officers and university staff.

In Philadelphia early Friday, police detained people who were at an encampment that has been in place at the University of Pennsylvania for more than two weeks. Officers moved in after giving protesters a warning to leave campus or face possible arrest.

Tensions have ratcheted up in standoffs with protesters on campuses across the United States and in Europe. Some colleges cracked down immediately, while others have tolerated the demonstrations. Some have begun to lose patience and call in the police over concerns about disruptions to campus life and safety.

The protest movement began nearly three weeks ago at Columbia University in New York City. It has since swept college campuses nationwide, with demonstrators generally seeking to draw attention to the deaths in the Israel-Hamas war or calling for their schools to stop doing business with Israel or companies that support its war efforts. More than 2,500 people have been arrested.

The move at MIT comes several days after police first attempted to clear the camp only to see protesters storm past barriers and restore the encampment, which includes about a dozen tents in the heart of the campus in Cambridge.

Before removing the encampment, MIT earlier in the week had started suspending dozens of students involved in the encampment, meaning they wouldn’t be able to take part in academic activities nor commencement.

Protesters insisted the move would not stop them from demanding that MIT end all ties to the Israeli military. They encampment had been up for at least weeks and especially angered Jewish students, who have held counterprotests near the camp.

“This is only going to make us stronger. They can’t arrest the movement,” Quinn Perian, an undergraduate student at MIT and organiser for MIT Jews for Ceasefire, said. “We are going to continue and won’t back down until MIT agrees to cut ties with the Israeli military. MIT would rather arrest and suspend some students than they would end their complicity with the genocide going in Gaza.”

The encampment had been up for at least two weeks and especially angered Jewish students, who have held counterprotests nearby. They covered a lawn with small Israeli flags and put up posters of some of the people abducted by the militants in the attack that ignited the war in Gaza.

MIT President Sally Kornbluth, working to strike a balance between recognising the suffering in Gaza and concerns about the “safety of our community,” had warned Monday the encampment would have be removed.

In a letter acknowledging Friday’s arrests, she wrote that her responsibility is “to make sure that the campus is physically safe and functioning for everyone … and that everyone feels free to express their views.” The encampment, she wrote, “increasingly made it impossible to meet all these obligations.”

People holding a banner attend a news conference after police cleared a pro-Palestinian tent encampment at George Washington University and arrested demonstrators on May 8, 2024, in Washington.
| Photo Credit: AP

The police cleared a pro-Palestinian tent encampment at George Washington University early on Wednesday and arrested demonstrators, hours after dozens marched to the home of the school’s president as city officials prepared to appear before Congress on the protest’s handling.

District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser and Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith were called to testify on Wednesday afternoon at the Republican-led House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, but the hearing was canceled after the arrests.

Tensions have ratcheted up in standoffs with protesters of the Israel-Hamas war on campuses across the United States and increasingly in Europe. Some colleges cracked down immediately. Others have tolerated the demonstrations. Some have begun to lose patience and call in police over concerns about disruptions to campus life and safety.

D.C. police said officers moved to disperse demonstrators at George Washington because “there has been a gradual escalation in the volatility of the protest.” They said 33 arrests were made, including for assault on a police officer and unlawful entry. They confirmed they used pepper spray outside the encampment against protesters who were trying to break police lines and enter.

George Washington had warned of possible suspensions for continuing the camp on University Yard. Protesters carrying signs reading “Free Palestine” and “Hands off Rafah” also marched to school President Ellen Granberg’s home Tuesday night.

The school said in a statement: “While the university is committed to protecting students’ rights to free expression, the encampment had evolved into an unlawful activity, with participants in direct violation of multiple university policies and city regulations.”

Since April 18, just over 2,600 people have been arrested on 50 campuses after this latest anti-war movement was launched by a protest at Columbia University in New York.

A pro-Palestinian tent encampment was cleared by officers in riot gear at the University of Chicago on Tuesday after administrators who had initially adopted a permissive approach said the protesters had crossed a line, increasing safety concerns. Hundreds of protesters had gathered for at least eight days until administrators warned them Friday to leave or face removal.

Chicago officers later picked up a barricade erected to keep protesters out of the main gathering space on the campus and moved it toward the demonstrators, some of whom chanted, “Up, up with liberation. Down, down with occupation!” Police and protesters pushed back and forth along the barricade as the officers moved to reestablish control.

“The university remains a place where dissenting voices have many avenues to express themselves, but we cannot enable an environment where the expression of some dominates and disrupts the healthy functioning of the community for the rest,” University of Chicago President Paul Alivisatos wrote.

Other schools are letting protesters hold rallies and organise their encampments as they see fit.

The president of Wesleyan University, a liberal arts school in Connecticut, has commended the on-campus demonstration, which includes a pro-Palestinian tent encampment, as an act of political expression. The camp there has grown from about 20 tents a week ago to more than 100.

“The protesters’ cause is important — bringing attention to the killing of innocent people,” university President Michael Roth wrote to the campus community Thursday. “And we continue to make space for them to do so, as long as that space is not disruptive to campus operations.”

The Rhode Island School of Design’s president, Crystal Williams, spent more than five hours with protesters discussing their demands after students started occupying a building Monday.

On Tuesday the school announced it was relocating classes from the building, which was covered with posters reading “Free Palestine” and “Let Gaza Live.”

Some colleges have tried tactics from appeasement to threats of disciplinary action to clear the way for commencements.

And police moved in Tuesday night to break up an encampment at the University of Massachusetts. Video from the scene in Amherst showed an hours-long operation as dozens of police officers in riot gear systematically tearing down tents and taking protesters into custody. The operation continued into early Wednesday.

UMass Chancellor Javier Reyes said he ordered the sweep after discussions over a wide range of demands failed to yield an agreement to dismantle the encampment and engage in “constructive discussions.”

A week ago, the George Washington encampment was host to a somewhat chaotic visit from several Republican members of the House oversight panel who criticised the protests and condemned Bowser’s refusal at that point to send in police.

Bowser on Monday confirmed the city and police department declined the university’s request to intervene. “We did not have any violence to interrupt on the GW campus,” she said then.

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.)

Pro-Palestine protests continued to swell at college campuses in the US as authorities arrested around 275 people over the weekend. The demonstrations that began at Columbia University in New York more than a week ago have since spread rapidly.

Here Are Top 10 Points On Pro-Palestine Protests In US

Boston:

Police in riot gear detained about 100 people as they cleared a pro-Palestinian encampment at a Boston university Saturday, the latest in a series of clashes on US campuses triggered by protests over Israel’s war against Hamas.

The action was taken after some protesters resorted to “virulent anti-Semitic slurs, including ‘Kill the Jews,'” Northeastern University said in a statement on social media platform X.

The campus protests have posed a major challenge to university administrators across the country who are trying to balance commitments to free expression with complaints that the rallies have veered into anti-Semitism and hate speech.

Police have carried out large-scale arrests at universities in recent days, at times using chemical irritants and tasers to disperse demonstrators.

In its statement, Northeastern said campus police backed by local law enforcement moved in Saturday to clear “an unauthorized encampment” on the campus.

“What began as a student demonstration two days ago was infiltrated by professional organizers with no affiliation to Northeastern,” the school said.

It added that detained individuals who produced a valid school ID have been released and will face disciplinary proceedings, not legal action.

“Those who refused to disclose their affiliation were arrested,” the school said.

– ‘Zionists don’t deserve to live’ –

Tensions were also escalating Saturday at the University of Pennsylvania, where the college president ordered a campus encampment to be disbanded immediately after what he said were “credible reports of harassing and intimidating conduct.”

Meanwhile, Columbia University in New York, where the protests originated, announced Friday that it would not be calling police back to campus after more than 100 people were arrested last week.

“To bring back the NYPD at this time would be counterproductive, further inflaming what is happening on campus, and drawing thousands to our doorstep who would threaten our community,” the leaders of the school said in a statement, referring to the New York Police Department.

The decision was made even as Columbia signaled it had barred from campus Khymani James, a leader of the campus protests who had said in a video in January that “Zionists don’t deserve to live,” and “Be grateful that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists.”

“Chants, signs, taunts and social media posts from our own students that mock and threaten to ‘kill’ Jewish people are totally unacceptable, and Columbia students who are involved in such incidents will be held accountable,” the school said.

Hamas militants staged an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7 that left around 1,170 people dead, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures. 

Palestinian militants also took roughly 250 people hostage. Israel estimates 129 remain in Gaza, including 34 the military says are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 34,356 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

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

French police broke up a pro-Palestinian protest by dozens of university students in Paris, officials said on Thursday, as Israel’s bombardment of Gaza sparks a wave of anger across college campuses in the United States.

The police intervened as dozens of students gathered on a central Paris campus of the prestigious Sciences Po university on Wednesday evening, management said.

“After discussions with management, most of them agreed to leave the premises,” university officials said in a statement, saying the protest was adding to “tensions” at the university.

But “a small group of students” refused to leave and “it was decided that the police would evacuate the site,” the statement added.

Sciences Po said it regretted that “numerous attempts” to have the students leave the premises peacefully had led nowhere.

According to the police prefecture, students had set up around 10 tents.

When members of law enforcement arrived, “50 students left on their own, 70 were evacuated calmly from 0:20 am” and the police “left at 1:30 am, with no incidents to report,” the police said.

The protesters demanded that Sciences Po “cut its ties with universities and companies that are complicit in the genocide in Gaza” and “end the repression of pro-Palestinian voices on campus,” according to witnesses.

‘Deeply worrying’

The protest was organised by the Palestine Committee of Sciences Po.

In a statement on Thursday, the group said its activists had been “carried out of the school by more than fifty members of the security forces,” adding that “around a hundred” police officers were “also waiting for them outside”.

Sciences Po management “stubbornly refuses to engage in genuine dialogue,” the group said.

The organisers have called for “a clear condemnation of Israel’s actions by Sciences Po” and a commemorative event “in memory of the innocent people killed by Israel,” among other demands.

Separately, the Student Union of Sciences Po Paris said the decision by university officials to call in the police was “both shocking and deeply worrying” and reflected “an unprecedented authoritarian turn”.

Many top US universities have been rocked by protests in recent weeks, with some students furious over the Israel-Hamas war and ensuing humanitarian crisis in the besieged Palestinian territory of Gaza.

France is home to the world’s largest Jewish population after Israel and the United States, as well as Europe’s biggest Muslim community.

The war in Gaza began with an unprecedented attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel on October 7 that resulted in the deaths of around 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

In retaliation, Israel launched a military offensive that has killed at least 34,305 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

A protester is arrested by University of Texas police at a pro-Palestinian protest at the University of Texas on April 24, 2024, in Austin, Texas.
| Photo Credit: AP

More than 100 people were arrested on Wednesday at two universities in California and Texas, officials said, after pro-Palestinian protests erupted across U.S. campuses this week.

Demonstrations flared at the University of Southern California’s (USC) Los Angeles campus, where 93 people were arrested for trespassing, and at the University of Texas (UT) in Austin, where 34 were arrested, according to authorities.

The tense standoffs were among the latest on-campus confrontations between law enforcement, including police in riot gear, and banner-wielding students outraged at the mounting death toll in Israel’s war against Palestinian militant group Hamas.

USC said on social media site X at around midnight that the protest had ended and the campus would remain “closed until further notice.”

“Students, faculty, staff, and people with business on campus may enter with proper identification,” the university said.

Los Angeles police officers went to the campus on Wednesday afternoon and “assisted the university in effecting trespass arrests” when protesters refused to leave, Captain Kelly Muniz told reporters.

The LAPD said there were no reports of injuries and patrols would remain in the area on Thursday.

Free speech

The spreading pro-Palestinian protests began at Columbia University in New York, where dozens of arrests were made last week after university authorities called in police to quell a protest encampment that some Jewish students said was threatening and anti-Semitic.

Demonstrators, including a number of Jewish students, have disavowed instances of anti-Semitism and criticised officials equating it with opposition to Israel.

As students and other demonstrators have camped out on school quads, occupied university buildings and disrupted campus activities, universities this week have affirmed their rights to free speech and peaceful protest.

But pro-Israel supporters and others worried about campus safety have also pointed to anti-Semitic incidents and allege that campuses are encouraging intimidation and hate speech.

U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters at Columbia on Wednesday that the demonstrations “place a target on the backs of Jewish students in the United States,” adding that the National Guard could be brought in if the protests were not contained soon.

On Sunday, U.S. President Joe Biden denounced “blatant anti-Semitism” that has “no place on college campuses.”

But the White House has also said that the president supports freedom of expression on US campuses.

Student protesters say they are expressing solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, where the death toll has topped 34,305, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, and are calling on universities to divest from companies with ties to Israel.

U.S. ally Israel launched its war in Gaza after the Hamas attack on October 7 that left around 1,170 people dead, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.