Tensions have risen at the top US universities over the war in Gaza with riots and arrests at some of the most elite educational institutions of the world like Columbia, Yale and New York University (NYU) and tensions at dozen more from Berkeley to the MIT.
Eva Metis Koutoumanou
Dozens of people were arrested by authorities at Yale University who were demonstrating against the war in Gaza. Protesters occupied a campus square while ignoring repeated requests to evacuate.
Police have arrested dozens of people at pro-Palestinian rallies at Yale University in Connecticut and the University of New York in Manhattan as student protests against Israel's war on Gaza intensify.
On Yale's campus in New Haven, authorities arrested at least 47 protesters who will be indicted for disciplinary action.
Columbia University students are attending classes online following last week's mass arrests at the top university following pro-Palestinian protests and allegations by professors and students of an unprecedented upsurge in anti-Semitism.
Columbia canceled in-person classes in response to protesters setting up tent camps on its New York City campus. In an email to Columbia staff and students, the university's president, Nemat (Minouche) Shafik, said in-person classes were being suspended Monday in an effort to "de-escalate" the situation and so that "all of us have an opportunity to consider next steps."
Similar protests are flaring up at Berkeley, MIT and other top American universities, as tensions between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel and Jewish students are at a dangerous point.
Protesters are calling on universities to disclose programs that are "funded or donated by arms manufacturers and companies associated with the Israeli occupation."
In New York, police intervened to evacuate New York University students camped out in Gould Square and for hours defied university warnings that they would face sanctions if they did not leave.
A New York police spokesman said the arrests were made after the university asked law enforcement to remove squatters from the square, but the number of those arrested was not immediately known.
Columbia University President Nemat (Minouche) Shafik last week called on police to remove tents set up on the grass outside Columbia's main building by protesters, demanding that the university not invest in Israeli companies.
The police interventions at Yale and New York universities came after days of tensions on college campuses across the US.
More than 100 students were arrested last Thursday and after the Columbia invasion students at several universities in the US began their own demonstrations in solidarity to Palestinians, including Brown, Princeton and Northwestern on Friday and over the weekend, but also at MIT, Emerson, Boston University, Berkeley, the University of California and the University North Carolina, at Chapel Hill.
Robert Kraft, a major donor to Columbia University, lamented Columbia's lack of protection for Jewish students as many Columbia staff members joined students protesting against Israel.
Kraft, who is Jewish, has donated millions of dollars to the university and threatened to cut off funding, saying in a statement that "I do not feel comfortable supporting the university until corrective action is taken."
U.S. President Joe Biden, criticized by protesters for providing funding and weapons to Israel, said in a statement Sunday that the administration was doing everything to protect the Jewish community.
"Even in recent days we have seen harassment and calls for violence against Jews," Biden said. "This blatant anti-Semitism is reprehensible and dangerous and has absolutely no place in universities or anywhere else in our country," he added.
Students organizing the protest at Columbia criticized Biden's announcement, pointing out that some of the participants are Jewish and complaining that the media has focused on "extreme individuals who do not represent us."
"We categorically reject any form of hatred or intolerance and treat with caution non-students who seek to disrupt the solidarity formed among students – Palestinians, Muslims, Arabs, Jews, blacks and pro-Palestinians," they said in a statement.
American universities have become hotbeds of tension in the US since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas.
Denouncing incidents of antisemitism, Republicans addressed the issue in the fall, calling for a congressional hearing of the deans of Pennsylvania, Harvard and MIT universities. Subsequently, the first two resigned.
The president of Columbia, Nemat (Minouche) Shafik, during her hearing last week in Congress, assured that "antisemitism has no place in our university", but this did not prevent Republican lawmakers from calling for her resignation, calling it "anarchy". Under the weight of the situation, President Shafik requested the intervention of the New York police to remove tents set up outside Columbia's main building by protesters, demanding that the university not invest in Israeli companies, a move that was criticized by pro-Palestinian protesters but considered necessary by a large part of the public.
