Protests against the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip continue in many American universities, and the protests are expanding to include universities in Canada, Britain, Scotland, and Ireland.
CNN reported that the University of Southern California administration asked the protesters to evacuate their sit-in camp, and threatened to arrest students who refuse to disperse the sit-in. Los Angeles Police gathered in large numbers around the university campus in preparation to disperse the sit-in.
Journalists published scenes showing a police raid on the University of Southern California campus. The university said – via the
To be honest, LAPD and DPS are a mess right now at USC. No information is being given about the situation or the pro-Palestine protesters. Officers keep switching positions seemingly without cause and are sometimes told off for failing to fall in properly. pic.twitter.com/o4Vkf1zPQM
— vpsreports.com (@vpsreports_com) May 5, 2024
Tel Aviv Tribune’s correspondent said that the American police broke up a sit-in at the University of Virginia demanding an end to the war on Gaza.
Local police and campus police, who gathered earlier on Saturday, quickly moved toward the demonstrators and dismantled their tents.
The university announced the arrest of 25 students on charges of assaulting others’ property after the police were called to the campus to disperse the sit-ins. According to local media, pro-Palestinian demonstrators have been gathering on the University of Virginia campus for 5 days.
At George Washington University in the American capital, student protesters renewed their demands for universities to end investment in companies linked to Israel, accusing the United States of financing genocide in the Gaza Strip.
Apartheid wall
Meanwhile, student protesters at Harvard and Massachusetts universities continue their open sit-ins. The students reject the pressures and threats aimed at breaking up their sit-ins, and accuse them of violence and “anti-Semitism.”
On the other hand, the administration of the American University of Massachusetts of Technology refused to remove a fence it had erected around the square of the student protest sit-in in support of Palestine, demanding the cessation of cooperation programs between the university and the Israeli army.
The students raised a banner in front of the only entrance to the square, demanding that the university remove the wall, which they called the apartheid wall.
The protesters say that the wall aims to isolate them from their university and popular environment, which interacts with them strongly and supports their peaceful sit-in and their just and legitimate demands. Israeli flags and banners condemning the protesters and inciting them were placed on the fence.
Security forces continue to surround the protesting students and prevent the media from covering their activities. The students considered this to be pressure on them to end the sit-in against the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip.
The protesters demand stopping the Israeli drone program that is being developed in the university’s defense laboratories, according to what they said.
In Ann Arbor, Michigan, university graduates chanted slogans against the war in Gaza at a graduation ceremony attended by tens of thousands of students and invitees.
The students – who wore Palestinian keffiyehs and graduation uniforms – raised banners, one of which read: “There is no longer any university in Gaza.” The students’ chants forced US Secretary of the Navy Carlos del Toro to stop several times during his speech at the ceremony.
Republicans are threatening
In the context of reactions to the protests at American universities, US House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson told Axios that Republicans are preparing to exert pressure on universities regarding demonstrations in support of Palestine, and he believes that it is their duty to exert pressure and use their other powers in this regard.
The American official added that confiscating the visas of foreign students participating in the demonstrations should be on the table, and parliamentary committees will take care of this issue. He also called for consideration of canceling tax exemptions to pressure universities regarding demonstrations.
Yesterday, Saturday, the American New York Times newspaper revealed that counter-demonstrators attacked students at a pro-Palestinian camp for several hours at the University of California.
An examination by the newspaper of more than 100 video clips from the clashes found that violence by “counter-protesters” against students at a pro-Palestinian camp lasted approximately five hours, much of it with little or no police intervention.
During a press conference, the protesters expressed their rejection of the measures taken by the university, such as calling the police, arresting some students, and depriving them of education and university housing. They demanded that charges be dropped against the students and organizations participating in these protests opposing the war on the Gaza Strip.
Canada, the United Kingdom and Ireland
In Canada, hundreds of students demonstrated at the University of Toronto to demand an end to the Israeli war on Gaza and to support the anti-war student sit-in held on the university campus.
The demonstrators gathered in front of the American Consulate in the city before moving on a march that ended near the student sit-in headquarters. The demonstrators chanted slogans, including “Free Palestine from the river to the sea,” and raised Palestinian flags.
In Britain, Tel Aviv Tribune’s correspondent reported that students at the University of Manchester confirmed that they would continue their sit-in to demand that the university sever its relations with Israel.
This came after the university administration filed a report with the city police against the students, claiming that one of their chants was causing division.
The students expressed their determination to continue their sit-in until the university administration responds to their demands, most notably the severing of academic and research relations with Israeli institutions and companies that supply Israel with weapons.
The “Fathers for Palestine” group also called for a demonstration in front of the University College in London in solidarity with its students who set up tents on the university campus. The crowds will bring their children as a reminder of the massacres of children in Gaza.
In the United Kingdom, Tel Aviv Tribune’s correspondent reported that students protesting the Israeli war on Gaza set up a camp in the main square of the University of Edinburgh campus in Scotland.
While the administration closed all the gates of the university building, students flocked to the sit-in, which organizers say will continue until the administration listens to them by cutting its ties with arms companies that support Israel.
In Ireland, the head of the Trinity University Student Union in the capital, Dublin, said that the sit-in denouncing the Israeli war on Gaza will continue until the students’ demands calling for an end to the war are met.
Nearly 100 students participated in the protest – which began last Friday. The students called on the university administration to cut its ties and investments with Israeli universities, and to denounce the Israeli massacres in Gaza.
Since October 7, the Israeli army has been waging a devastating war on the Gaza Strip that left about 112,000 martyrs and wounded, most of them children and women, which required Tel Aviv to appear before the International Court of Justice on charges of committing genocide.
