The University of Southern California, its main campus, was closed on Sunday as police evacuated the pro-Palestine protest camp.
American media quoted the university administration as saying that “police officers stormed the protest camp,” while the university asked the students to leave and said that “people who do not leave the campus are at risk of being arrested by the police.”
Video clips circulated on social media and taken by eyewitnesses and local media on Sunday showed Los Angeles Police officers wearing riot gear gathering in large numbers around the university campus.
The University of Southern California witnessed massive protests in support of the Palestinians on its campus in Los Angeles, the state capital, during the past few weeks.
The university president met with student demonstrators in the pro-Palestine camp several times, but he said last week that the University of Southern California was unable to reach an agreement with them, according to the American CNN network.
According to CNN, human rights and civil organizations in the United States have opened investigations into police behavior during the dispersal of university protests. Civil rights groups also argued that the police responses were excessive and violated the First Amendment’s freedom of expression.
Since April 18, students and academics who reject the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip have begun a sit-in on the campus of Columbia University in New York, demanding that its administration stop its academic cooperation with Israeli universities and withdraw its investments in companies that support the occupation of Palestinian territories.
The protests spread to many American universities, and with the intervention of police forces and the arrest of dozens of protesters, the state of anger expanded, with the demonstrations extending to universities in countries such as France, Britain, Germany, Canada and India, all of which witnessed demonstrations in support of their counterparts in American universities, and demands to stop the war on Gaza and boycott the companies that supply weapons to Israel.
Other universities
As part of the campaign to suppress pro-Palestine protests at American universities, police arrested 25 demonstrators on Saturday at the University of Virginia on charges of “trespassing on the property of others,” after local police and campus police intervened to disperse a pro-Palestine camp.
Police also arrested at least 50 people at the Art Institute of Chicago, according to the university.
In the face of the continuing protests at George Washington University in the American capital, the university president took a hard-line stance and considered that the demonstrations at the university had developed, like many demonstrations throughout the country, into what could only be classified as an illegal occupation of property, as she put it.
She added that what is happening currently are not peaceful demonstrations protected by the First Amendment or university policies, and that all efforts and measures that have been taken, including requesting assistance from the police, have failed to end the demonstrations in support of Palestine.
However, these police measures and official statements did not discourage students from continuing to protest at many universities, including Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where students continue their open sit-ins.
The protesters expressed their rejection of the pressures and threats aimed at breaking up their sit-ins, and accused them of violence and anti-Semitism.
For its part, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology administration refused to remove a fence it had erected around the student protest square in support of Palestine, demanding the cessation of cooperation programs between the university and the Israeli army.
Britain and Canada
Outside the United States, the University of Edinburgh in Scotland joined the list of British universities whose students organize sit-ins in support of Gaza.
The protesting students demand that the university administration sever its academic relationship with the Israeli Ben Gurion University and liquidate its investments in arms companies that export to Israel or support the settlements.
Tel Aviv Tribune’s correspondent in Britain also reported that the students of 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.
In Canada, the administration of the University of Toronto in Canada informed the students who were protesting on the university campus that it maintained its position that the student camp is unauthorized and may expose its participants to the risk of being accused of trespassing on the property of others.
In a letter to the students, seen by Tel Aviv Tribune, the administration proposed a number of measures in light of what it said was the students’ announcement of their intention not to leave and its keenness to reach a solution.
Students at the University of Toronto continue their sit-in to demand an end to the Israeli war on Gaza and to demand the severing of the university’s relations with its Israeli counterparts.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza, which has left tens of thousands dead and wounded, most of them children and women, massive destruction, and famine that has claimed the lives of children and the elderly.
Israel continues its war despite the issuance of an immediate ceasefire resolution by the Security Council, and despite its appearance before the International Court of Justice on charges of committing “genocide.”
