Pro-Palestinian encampment at Columbia University on 28 April 2024 in New York City. The protests against Israel’s war with Hamas began at Columbia University earlier this month before spreading to campuses across the country. (Charly Triballeua/AFP)
- The White House has called for peaceful protests on US
university campuses in response to the recent wave of pro-Palestinian
demonstrations. - The protests, which began at Columbia University and have
spread across the country, have seen increasing numbers of arrests, including
notable figures like Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein - The demonstrations are part of a broader call for a
ceasefire in Israel’s conflict with Hamas and for colleges to cut ties with
Israel.
The
White House insisted Sunday that pro-Palestinian protests that have rocked US
universities in recent weeks must remain peaceful, after police arrested around
275 people on four separate campuses over the weekend.
“We
certainly respect the right of peaceful protests,” National Security
Council spokesperson John Kirby told ABC’s “This Week.”
But,
he added, “we absolutely condemn the anti-Semitism language that we’ve
heard of late and certainly condemn all the hate speech and the threats of
violence out there.”
The
wave of demonstrations began at Columbia University in New York, but they have
since spread rapidly across the country.
While
peace has prevailed in many campuses, the number of protesters detained – at
times by police in riot gear using chemical irritants and tasers – is rising
fast.
They
include 100 at Northeastern University in Boston, 80 at Washington University
in St Louis, 72 at Arizona State University and 23 at Indiana University.
Among
those arrested at Washington University was Green Party presidential candidate
Jill Stein, who faulted police for aggressive tactics she said provoked the
sort of trouble they are meant to quell.
“This
is about freedom of speech… on a very critical issue,” she told CNN
shortly before her arrest Saturday. “And there they are, sending in the
riot police and basically creating a riot.”
Protesters
at Yale University established a new encampment on Sunday, the school’s
independent student newspaper reported, after a previous site was taken down by
police days earlier, when dozens were arrested and charged with trespassing.
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College
administrators have struggled to find the best response, caught between the
need to respect free-speech rights and the imperative of containing
inflammatory and sometimes violently anti-Semitic calls by protesters.
With
final exams coming in the next few weeks, some campuses – including the
Humboldt campus of California State Polytechnic University, have closed and
instructed students to complete their classes online.
The
activists behind the campus protests – not all of them students – are calling
for a ceasefire in Israel’s war with Hamas, and want colleges to sever ties
with Israel.
Hamas
militants staged an unprecedented attack on Israel on 7 October 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 34 454 people in Gaza, mostly women
and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.