Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters arrested at U.S. universities… Conflicts with police everywhere

Emerson University: 108 people taken into custody, 4 police officers injured… 93 people from USC and 34 from the University of Texas were arrested.
Negotiations underway at Columbia University… “Hurry to suppress protesters ahead of university graduation ceremonies.”

Hundreds of protesters were arrested by the police as protests against American pro-Israel policies intensified on American university campuses in connection with the war in the Gaza Strip between Israel and the Palestinian armed faction Hamas.

At university campuses across the United States, police increased the level of suppression in an attempt to forcibly disperse the protesters, and students fiercely resisted, resulting in physical fights and scuffles between the two sides.

In particular, American media reported that the university is rushing to deploy police to clean up the campus ahead of next month’s graduation season.

◇ Conflicts between student protesters and police intensify from the eastern United States to the western United States.
According to the Boston Police Department in the eastern United States on the 25th (local time), 108 protesters were arrested by the police at Emerson University in Boston from the night before to early this morning, and four police officers were injured while the students resisted.

Video from WHDH, a CNN-affiliated local broadcaster, showed police armed with riot gear driving away demonstrators all night long to disperse them.

Several videos spread online showed students linking arms and using umbrellas to resist police, and police pushing protesters to the ground.

Emerson University canceled all classes that day.

According to the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), 93 protesters were arrested at the University of Southern California (USC) the day before.

Police reported that no one was injured during the arrest at the university.

At the university’s request, the LAPD continued to deploy police on campus and warned that unidentified people entering campus would be arrested for trespassing if they did not disperse.

The Texas Department of Public Safety announced that as of 9 p.m. the previous day, 34 people had been arrested in connection with protests at the University of Texas at Austin.

Immediately after the protest began, a large number of Texas State Police, including cavalry units and batons, arrived on this campus and forcibly dispersed the students, and physical force was used in the process.

The media reported that among those arrested here was a photographer for local media outlet Fox 7.

Local broadcast footage captured the reporter collapsing and bleeding at the scene, and the police called emergency medical staff.

Dane Urquhart, a third-year student at the University of Texas, called the police entry and arrest of protesters an “overreaction” and told The Associated Press that if police had not used force, “it would have stayed peaceful.”

After the police left, about 300 protesters at the University of Texas sat on the lawn and chanted slogans in protest against the police and the school.

At the Humboldt Campus of California State Polytechnic Institute, north of San Francisco, protesters have been staging a sit-in protest, setting up barricades inside the building for the third day.

The school has closed the campus since last weekend and conducted classes online.

At Harvard University, the school tried to block protests by locking most of the doors and blocking access to the plaza, but the day before, a rally was held against the ban on the activities of the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee, and protesters set up 14 sit-in tents.

In Washington DC, the capital of the United States and the center of politics, pro-Palestinian protests began in earnest and tent sit-ins began on campus.

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According to the Washington Post (WP), about 30 protest tents were set up in the center of the George Washington University campus this morning.

Protesters also demonstrated on the streets outside the campus, holding signs and chanting, “End the occupation (of the Gaza Strip) right now.”

At Georgetown University, another university in Washington DC, this morning, about 100 protesters gathered on the steps of Healy Hall on campus and chanted, “Freedom for Palestine.”

Previously, on the 22nd, 133 protesters at New York University and 48 at Yale University were arrested by the police.

At Columbia University, the conflict between protesters and school authorities has become more acute due to police suppression since last week, and the two sides extended the negotiation deadline for another 48 hours the previous day and are continuing negotiations.

About 60 tents remain at Columbia University, and security is being strictly maintained, with police setting up metal barricades surrounding the campus and checking IDs.

Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson visited Columbia University the day before and demanded the resignation of Columbia University President Nemat Shafik, saying that if the protests were not quickly suppressed, “it would be appropriate to deploy the National Guard.”

◇ Students demand, “Oppose war in Gaza, cut ties with Israel.”
Students are arguing that universities should distance themselves from companies that support Israel’s military operations in the Gaza Strip, and in some cases, from Israel itself.

The content varies slightly from school to school, but in general, students will: ▲ Stop doing business with companies that supply weapons to Israel ▲ Stop accepting donations from fund managers who receive money from Israeli companies ▲ Disclose funds received from Israel more transparently ▲ They are demanding pardons for students and faculty and staff who were disciplined or fired for protests.

A group of Harvard students and faculty called Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine said in a statement that Harvard would break with Israel and “reinvest resources in academic initiatives, communities, and culture in Palestine.” He said he hopes to do so.

It is known that on many campuses, pro-Palestinian protests are organized by student organizations such as the Student Coalition for Justice in Palestine, and that students and faculty from diverse backgrounds, including Islam and Judaism, participate.

Although protest organizers have denied violence, some Jewish students have said they feel unsafe on campus and have been made uneasy by the protesters’ anti-Semitic chants.

The U.S. media reported that each school that is confronting protesters is increasing its reliance on public power ahead of the graduation ceremony, the largest event of the year.

Most major universities in the United States hold graduation ceremonies in May.

The school’s position is that it is not possible to hold a graduation ceremony with protest tents filling the center of the school.

The Associated Press reported, “As graduation ceremonies approach, each university is quickly calling in the police to quickly end the protests.”

/yunhap news