Yale and NYU have jailed pro-Palestinian students; Columbia has canceled in-person classes

As the Gaza War continues to ripple through US college campuses, police detained scores of protesters during pro-Palestinian rallies on Monday at Yale University in Connecticut and New York University in Manhattan.

Following protestors’ tent encampments at Columbia University’s New York City campus last week, the university canceled in-person courses on Monday. This prompted the police crackdowns.

Traffic was halted outside Yale University’s New Haven, Connecticut campus by protesters calling for the university to stop purchasing military hardware. More than 45 demonstrators were taken into custody by the police, the student-run Yale Daily News said.

Officers raided the NYU gathering just after dusk in New York, where hundreds of protesters had congregated in a plaza and for hours ignored university threats to leave or face punishment. Social media footage showed cops dismantling tents at the demonstrators’ camp.

“We will not stop, we will not rest,” protesters yelled as they grappled with police. Reveal. Give up.”

According to a spokesman for the New York police, arrests were made after the university requested that officers pursue trespassing offenses; however, the precise number of arrests and citations won’t be known for some time. There were no reported injuries at the time.

Following a first-of-its-kind cross-border attack by Hamas against Israeli settlements on October 7, last year, protests broke out at Yale, Columbia, NYU, and other university campuses around the country in response to Israel’s horrifying assault on Palestinians in Gaza.

Columbia President Nemat Minouche Shafik announced the university’s decision to switch to online instruction and cancel in-person sessions in an email to staff and students on Monday. The goal of this move is to “deescalate the rancor and give us all a chance to consider next steps.”

In an unprecedented measure that some faculty members denounced, Shafik summoned New York Police last week to remove out a tent encampment protestors had set up on Columbia’s main lawn demanding the school withdraw from interests tied to Israel.

The campsite, according to the school, broke the regulations. On Thursday, police detained over a hundred Columbia University students on trespassing charges. Dozens of students engaged in the demonstrations have been suspended by Barnard College, an associated institution of Columbia University.

“Those who are not affiliated with Columbia who have come to campus to pursue their own agendas have exploited and amplified these tensions,” stated Shafik, who last week testified before a U.S. House of Representatives committee in support of the university’s response to protesters’ alleged antisemitism.

Shafik was asked to resign by Republicans in the Senate and the House, as well as by at least one Democratic senator.

Robert Kraft, a significant university supporter, expressed dissatisfaction about Columbia’s efforts to safeguard Jewish students. The New England Patriots’ owner, Kraft, is Jewish. He has given Columbia millions of dollars and made a threat to stop giving by stating in a statement, “I am not comfortable supporting the university until corrective action is taken.”

Police have received reports of Israeli students having their flags stolen from their hands amid tense confrontations between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel groups at Columbia. However, Tarik Shappard, the chief police spokesperson, stated at a press conference that there have been no reports of “any physical harm against any student.”

After sleeping outside on the grass for many nights, the student protestors have recently pitched tents once more. At the camp, students have arranged Jewish and Muslim prayers, and some have delivered lectures endorsing Palestinian armed resistance and denouncing Israel and Zionism.

At the campsite, where an outdoor seder was scheduled to commemorate the first day of the Jewish Passover festival, approximately 100 Columbia faculty members joined students on Monday in a show of support.

In a statement on Sunday, US President Joe Biden, who has come under fire from demonstrators for arming and financing Israel, claimed that his administration has committed all of its resources to defending the Jewish people.

We’ve witnessed intimidation and demands for violence against Jews even in the last few days,” Biden stated. “This openly antisemitic behavior is disgusting and dangerous; it has no place in our nation, not on college campuses.

Biden’s comments was met with criticism by student organizers from the Columbia campsite, who pointed out that several of the organizers are Jewish and that media outlets had concentrated on “inflammatory individuals who do not represent us.”

Students who identify as Palestinian, Muslim, Arab, Jewish, Black, or pro-Palestinian issued a statement saying, “We firmly reject any form of hate or bigotry and stand vigilant against non-students attempting to disrupt the solidarity being forged among students.”

“We can clearly see that those outside our group do not know the purpose of this encampment,” stated Lea Salim, a sophomore at Barnard who was among the fifteen Jewish students detained on the Columbia lawn the previous week. Salim asserted that criticizing the state of Israel is not inherently antisemitic.