Gaza protests: Police raids on Colombian protests spark campus movement

In the early hours of Wednesday, April 17, a small group of students pitched a tent at Columbia University to demonstrate against Israel's military action in Gaza and to challenge the university to engage with companies deemed to be supporting the war. I asked them to stop the transaction.

They did so as Columbia University President Minoush Shafiq was on his way to the Capitol to face intense criticism from Congress over anti-Semitism on campus and her efforts to combat anti-Semitism.

During a nearly four-hour cross-examination that Wednesday, she defended the actions she had already taken. He said students “are getting the message that there are consequences for violating our policies.”

The next afternoon, Colombia's president made the decision to ignite wildfires of protests at universities across the country.

Students at the protest camp were trespassing, refusing to leave and creating a “harassing and intimidating environment” for many of their fellow students, she said.

She was dispatched to the NYPD.

Shortly after, officers from the nation's largest police department, wearing riot gear and brandishing plastic handcuffs, arrested more than 100 students. It was the first mass arrest on Columbia University's campus since Vietnam War protests more than 50 years ago.

“It was a shock to all of us,” said Rashida Mustafa, a doctoral student at Columbia University. “I couldn't believe it. But it felt like a call to action.”

The students' anger spread quickly. By the next day, another protest camp was set up on another lawn just a few meters away.

It's much bigger than before, swelling from a few tents to a crowded campsite, with buffet-style meals made from donated food, live performances, and a “security team” at the gate to watch for intruders. Completely equipped.

The next day, another protest camp was set up at Yale University, another elite educational institution in Connecticut, just over 70 miles (112 kilometers) northeast of Columbia.

By mid-week, demonstrations were taking place on dozens of campuses across the country and extended into the weekend. U.S. police said Saturday they had ended another protest at Northeastern University in Boston and arrested about 100 people.

Columbia students sparked a nationwide movement.

Student anger over how Israel is fighting its war with Hamas raises difficult questions for university leaders already struggling with heated debates on campus over what is happening in the Middle East. is being cast.

How do they balance the right to protest and free speech with the need to protect other students from harm and abuse? When are we going to send in the police to enforce university policy knowing it will show up on social media feeds?

At Yale University, police arrived at a protest camp in the center of campus in the early hours of April 22, while many students were still asleep. Nearly 50 students were arrested for refusing to leave with their arms crossed on the flagpole.

“They came very quickly and without any warning. A huge swarm of police poured into the square,” law student Chisato Kimura told the BBC from New Haven.

“It was very disturbing to see armed groups invited by Yale come to campus,” she added. “We were peacefully protesting.”

U.S. college campuses have become flashpoints for Gaza war protests since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking the remaining 253 hostages back to Gaza. It becomes. Since then, more than 34,000 people have been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry.

But over the past 10 days, protests in the United States have been the most intense and widespread in six months. After the first Colombian camp was evacuated, smoldering tensions boiled over, and clashes and arrests continued elsewhere.

At the University of Texas at Austin, state police, some on horseback, stopped hundreds of students from occupying the university's lawn on Wednesday. A video of a female professor at Emory University in Atlanta being tackled, stopped and handcuffed by a police officer went viral on Thursday.

Police also cracked down on protesters at Emerson College in Boston, George Washington University in Washington, D.C., New York University, and the University of Southern California (USC).

The protest encampment has called on university administrators to “strip” school donations from companies they deem linked to Israel's war in Gaza, sever ties with Israeli academic institutions, and formally They are calling for a ceasefire.

Some Jewish students and faculty say they fear for their safety. And these concerns are part of what motivated university officials, including Shafik, to call the police.

“Students have a right to protest,” said Paige Fortna, a political science professor at Columbia University. “But they have no right to protest in a way that makes other students feel discriminated against or harassed.”

In interviews this week, Jewish students on several campuses described incidents that made them feel uncomfortable, from chants and signs supporting the banned terrorist organization Hamas to physical altercations and perceived threats. Ta.

Eli Kia, 22, a Jewish student at the University of Southern California, said the protests have left him feeling anxious and fearful. He began to hide the Star of David on a chain.

“It's difficult to feel safe coming to school every day,” he told the BBC. “When I walk around campus, I find myself rethinking, 'What am I going to do?' 'What am I facing?' and 'Who is likely to come after me?'

Northeastern University officials said they decided to take action Saturday because some of the protesters were using anti-Semitic slogans. The university said the demonstration began as a student protest, but outsiders also participated.

Many protesters have sought to distance themselves from anti-Semitic incidents, in some cases blaming outside agitators. They say many Jewish students have taken part in the protests and that the focus should be on the civilian death toll in Gaza.

As negotiations between educational institutions and students stall, many demonstrators and their outside supporters believe what they see as heavy-handed police tactics will help keep the movement going.

“This is a movement that started with just 70 students,” Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, a fierce critic of the Biden administration's Gaza policy, told the BBC during a visit to the Colombian encampment this week.

“And this is now spreading nationally and internationally because Columbia University has decided to crack down on them and violate the First Amendment.”

Her daughter was among the Colombian protesters arrested.

Omar Zegar, a protester at the University of Southern California, said he believes Columbia is just the beginning of a broader movement. “I think a lot of universities around the country will start doing these camps,” he said. “The police escalated the situation.”

For some observers, the protests are reminiscent of the 1960s, demonstrations against U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.

Marianne Hirsch, a Columbia University professor who participated in the 1960s protests, told reporters this week that, like the Vietnam War, the situation in Gaza should make it “impossible to continue with business as usual.” .

The wave of protests also comes at a politically stressful time for President Joe Biden, who is seeking re-election. The president has been criticized by some for supporting Israel.

Some Democrats fear that thousands of protesters will flock to this summer's Chicago national convention, where the party will officially nominate him as its presidential candidate. The 1968 convention was also held in Chicago, but it was overshadowed by the Vietnam War demonstrations.

Ahmad Hasan, a University of Southern California graduate who attended the rally this week, said he believes the student protests will have a far-reaching impact on attitudes in the United States.

“It's always going to be up to the students to tell people that this is not right and that we won't stand for this,” he said.