Nearly 200 people were arrested following pro-Palestinian demonstrations on American campuses/ Student movement expands in the US

Almost 200 pro-Palestinian demonstrators were arrested on Saturday in three American campuses, when the police evacuated their camps, the latest episode of a student movement that is spreading in the United States, reports AFP, quoted by News.ro.

Started ten days ago at Columbia University in New York, this new wave of support for the Palestinians and against Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip has spread to several institutions, from California to the northwest of the United States, passing through the center and south.

About a hundred pro-Palestinian demonstrators were briefly arrested by police at a university in Boston.

Northeastern University announced on X that “about 100 people were arrested by the police,” adding that “students who presented their Northeastern U. student IDs were released (…) Those who refused were arrested.” .

“Violent anti-Semitic slurs” such as “Kill the Jews” had been uttered on campus, according to the university, which announced a “return to normalcy” at noon.

An “illegal” camp consisting of several tents was dismantled by university police and local law enforcement in riot gear, according to images posted on social media.

On the other side of the country, Arizona State University (ASU) police “arrested 69 people on Saturday after setting up an unauthorized camp,” the university said, charging that “most of them are not ASU students or employees.” These people will be “prosecuted for illegal trespass to property”.

And in the central United States, 23 people were arrested when police, who used riot gear, evacuated a camp at Indiana University, the Indiana Daily Student newspaper reported.

The president of Columbia University, New York’s epicenter of student protests, has decided not to ask police to evacuate a tent “village” housing 200 people from a campus lawn.

However, a leader of the movement was banned from the site after making anti-Zionist threats in a video in January. The young man later apologized, according to CNN, which described the campus as “relatively calm” on Saturday.

On the other hand, the situation was tense at the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), whose president resigned this winter after making statements before Congress in Washington, considered ambiguous in terms of the fight against anti-Semitism. Following “credible reports of harassment and intimidation”, the president ordered the immediate closure of one camp.

In California, the Humboldt Polytechnic University campus will remain “closed” for the rest of the semester, and classes will be held remotely, due to the “occupation” of two buildings, according to a press release.

In neighboring Canada, a camp was set up for the first time at McGill University in Montreal, where the strike has been ongoing since February. The university is worried about the “risk of escalation and confrontation”.