Pro-Palestinian Protests Sweep Campuses04/23 06:22

   

   NEW YORK (AP) -- Columbia canceled in-person classes, dozens of protesters 
were arrested at New York University and Yale, and the gates to Harvard Yard 
were closed to the public Monday as some of the most prestigious U.S. 
universities sought to defuse campus tensions over Israel's war with Hamas.

   More than 100 pro-Palestinian demonstrators who had camped out on Columbia's 
green were arrested last week, and similar encampments have sprouted up at 
universities around the country as schools struggle with where to draw the line 
between allowing free expression while maintaining safe and inclusive campuses.

   At New York University, an encampment set up by students swelled to hundreds 
of protesters throughout the day Monday. The school said it warned the crowd to 
leave, then called in the police after the scene became disorderly and the 
university said it learned of reports of "intimidating chants and several 
antisemitic incidents." Shortly after 8:30 p.m., officers began making arrests.

   "It's a really outrageous crackdown by the university to allow the police to 
arrest students on our own campus," said New York University law student Byul 
Yoon.

   "Antisemitism is never ok. That's absolutely not what we stand for and 
that's why there are so many Jewish comrades that are here with us today," Yoon 
said

   The protests have pitted students against one another, with pro-Palestinian 
students demanding that their schools condemn Israel's assault on Gaza and 
divest from companies that sell weapons to Israel. Some Jewish students, 
meanwhile, say much of the criticism of Israel has veered into antisemitism and 
made them feel unsafe, and they point out that Hamas is still holding hostages 
taken during the group's Oct. 7 invasion.

   Tensions remained high Monday at Columbia, where the campus gates were 
locked to anyone without a school ID and where protests broke out both on 
campus and outside.

   U.S. Rep. Kathy Manning, a Democrat from North Carolina who was visiting 
Columbia with three other Jewish members of Congress, told reporters after 
meeting with students from the Jewish Law Students Association that there was 
"an enormous encampment of people" who had taken up about a third of the green.

   "We saw signs indicating that Israel should be destroyed," she said after 
leaving the Morningside Heights campus. Columbia announced Monday that courses 
at the Morningside campus will offer virtual options for students when 
possible, citing safety as their top priority.

   A woman inside the campus gates led about two dozen protesters on the street 
outside in a chant of, "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!" -- 
a charged phrase that can mean vastly different things to different groups. A 
small group of pro-Israel counter demonstrators protested nearby.

   University President Minouche Shafik said in a message to the school 
community Monday that she was "deeply saddened" by what was happening on campus.

   "To deescalate the rancor and give us all a chance to consider next steps, I 
am announcing that all classes will be held virtually on Monday," Shafik wrote, 
noting that students who don't live on campus should stay away.

   Protests have roiled many college campuses since Hamas' deadly attack on 
southern Israel, when militants killed about 1,200 people, most of them 
civilians, and took roughly 250 hostages. During the ensuing war, Israel has 
killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the local 
health ministry, which doesn't distinguish between combatants and 
non-combatants but says at least two-thirds of the dead are children and women.

   On Sunday, Elie Buechler, a rabbi for the Orthodox Union's Jewish Learning 
Initiative at Columbia, sent a WhatsApp message to nearly 300 Jewish students 
recommending they go home until it's safer for them on campus.

   The latest developments came ahead of the Monday evening start of the Jewish 
holiday of Passover.

   Nicholas Baum, a 19-year-old Jewish freshman who lives in a Jewish 
theological seminary building two blocks from Columbia's campus, said 
protesters over the weekend were "calling for Hamas to blow away Tel Aviv and 
Israel." He said some of the protesters shouting antisemitic slurs were not 
students.

   "Jews are scared at Columbia. It's as simple as that," he said. "There's 
been so much vilification of Zionism, and it has spilled over into the 
vilification of Judaism."

   The protest encampment sprung up at Columbia on Wednesday, the same day that 
Shafik faced bruising criticism at a congressional hearing from Republicans who 
said she hadn't done enough to fight antisemitism. Two other Ivy League 
presidents resigned months ago following widely criticized testimony they gave 
to the same committee.

   In her statement Monday, Shafik said the Middle East conflict is terrible 
and that she understands that many are experiencing deep moral distress.

   "But we cannot have one group dictate terms and attempt to disrupt important 
milestones like graduation to advance their point of view," Shafik wrote.

   Over the coming days, a working group of deans, school administrators and 
faculty will try to find a resolution to the university crisis, noted Shafik, 
who didn't say when in-person classes would resume.

   U.S. House Republicans from New York urged Shafik to resign, saying in a 
letter Monday that she had failed to provide a safe learning environment in 
recent days as "anarchy has engulfed the campus."

   In Massachusetts, a sign said Harvard Yard was closed to the public Monday. 
It said structures, including tents and tables, were only allowed into the yard 
with prior permission. "Students violating these policies are subject to 
disciplinary action," the sign said. Security guards were checking people for 
school IDs.

   The same day, the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee said 
the university's administration suspended their group. In the suspension notice 
provided by the student organization, the university wrote that the group's 
April 19 demonstration had violated school policy, and that the organization 
failed to attend required trainings after they were previously put on probation.

   The Palestine Solidary Committee said in a statement that they were 
suspended over technicalities and that the university hadn't provided written 
clarification on the university's policies when asked.

   "Harvard has shown us time and again that Palestine remains the exception to 
free speech," the group wrote in a statement.

   Harvard did not respond to an email request for comment.

   At Yale, police officers arrested about 45 protesters and charged them with 
misdemeanor trespassing, said Officer Christian Bruckhart, a New Haven police 
spokesperson. All were being released on promises to appear in court later, he 
said.

   Protesters set up tents on Beinecke Plaza on Friday and demonstrated over 
the weekend, calling on Yale to end any investments in defense companies that 
do business with Israel.

   In a statement to the campus community on Sunday, Yale President Peter 
Salovey said university officials had spoken to the student protesters multiple 
times about the school's policies and guidelines, including those regarding 
speech and allowing access to campus spaces.

   School officials said they gave protesters until the end of the weekend to 
leave Beinecke Plaza. The said they again warned protesters Monday morning and 
told them that they could face arrest and discipline, including suspension, 
before police moved in.

   A large group of demonstrators regathered after Monday's arrests at Yale and 
blocked a street near campus, Bruckhart said. There were no reports of any 
violence or injuries.

   Prahlad Iyengar, an MIT graduate student studying electrical engineering, 
was among about two dozen students who set up a tent encampment on the school's 
Cambridge, Massachusetts, campus Sunday evening. They are calling for a 
cease-fire and are protesting what they describe as MIT's "complicity in the 
ongoing genocide in Gaza," he said.

   "MIT has not even called for a cease-fire, and that's a demand we have for 
sure," Iyengar said. ___

   Perry reported from Meredith, New Hampshire, and Collins reported from 
Hartford, Connecticut. Associated Press writers Steve LeBlanc in Boston and 
Susan Haigh in Hartford contributed to this report.