Universities across the United States, including Columbia and NYU, are witnessing escalating protests and police clashes as students decry Israel’s actions in Gaza and demand an end to financial ties with entities involved in the conflict.
Protests in response to the conflict in Gaza have escalated across universities in the United States, leading to clashes with police and a wave of arrests. In recent developments, Columbia University in New York extended its deadline for the dissolution of protest encampments following negotiations, amidst calls from U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson for university President Minouche Shafik to resign if disruptions continue. Over 100 students have been arrested at Columbia, with similar disruptions occurring at New York University.
The protests have spread nationwide with significant police activity reported at the University of Southern California and Emerson College in Boston, where protesters faced police action for setting up encampments despite campus warnings. The University of Texas at Austin also witnessed confrontations, resulting in 34 arrests.
These university protests, characterised by student walkouts and claims of antisemitic harassment towards Jewish students, have seen participants decrying Israel’s military action in Gaza and calling for universities to sever financial ties with entities involved in the war. The movement encompasses several major academic institutions including Yale, Brown, and Harvard.
Concurrently, the U.S. Senate passed a bill to extend military aid to Israel, which, alongside allocations for Ukraine and Taiwan, sparked criticism from some Democratic senators over the absence of measures to hold Israel accountable for its Gaza operations.
As these tensions continue, Amnesty International has urged universities to protect the peaceful protest rights of their students, highlighting the deep divisions and ongoing debates surrounding the Israel-Palestine conflict within academic circles and beyond.
