- Written by Anna Ramsch & Ido Vock
- BBC News
image source, Getty Images
Hundreds more people were arrested on college campuses across the United States on Saturday as student protests against the war in Gaza continued.
Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein was among those detained by police.
Protesters are calling on institutions to boycott companies and individuals with ties to Israel.
However, some Jewish students have complained of alleged anti-Semitism by some demonstrators.
A spokeswoman for Stein said she was one of about 80 people arrested at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. The Green Party presidential candidate is not believed to have been charged at this time, the spokesperson added.
California State Polytechnic State University became the latest school to announce it would move to remote learning. Due to the protests, in-person classes were canceled and graduation ceremonies were postponed.
On April 17, tents first appeared on Columbia University's College Green. Police in riot gear were then called in to remove the tents, and protests spread across the country, with more than 100 students arrested. Shortly after, students set up another protest camp at Yale University in Connecticut.
More than 100 protesters at Boston's Northeastern University on Saturday were arrested by Massachusetts State Police on suspicion of trespassing after refusing to remove tents from university grounds, police said. The camp was cleared by police.
Northeastern University wrote to X that “the demonstration was infiltrated by professional organizers” unaffiliated with the university. He said he also heard anti-Semitic slurs and said, “We cannot tolerate this type of hatred on campus.” Protest leaders strongly rejected this claim.
At the University of Southern California, pro-Palestinian demonstrators returned to campus, days after police were called in to clear a protest at the university's Alumni Park. The protests were reportedly largely peaceful, but university officials reported “vandalism” on campus grounds after Saturday's protests.
The university said its campus had been vandalized “by members of a group that continues to illegally camp on campus,” adding that a statue and fountain had been damaged. The university says the campus will be temporarily closed to non-residents.
Twenty-three people were arrested Saturday at Indiana University.
Other campuses, including Columbia University and Emory University in Georgia, were reportedly relatively quiet Saturday.
The Hamas-run health ministry said the protests were sparked by anger over Israeli attacks that killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, in the Gaza Strip.
Approximately 1,200 Israelis and foreigners (mostly civilians) were killed and 253 others were taken to Gaza as hostages when Hamas attacked an Israeli community near Gaza on October 7 last year. In response, the Israeli army launched an attack.
image source, Getty Images
