Police detained over 45 protesters at pro-Palestinian demonstrations at Yale University in Connecticut and New York University in Manhattan, after Columbia University suspended in-person courses on Monday in response to protestors setting up encampments on its New York City campus last week, as reported by Reuters.
As the conflict in Gaza continued to resonate throughout U.S. college campuses, demonstrators halted traffic near Yale’s campus in New Haven, Connecticut, demanding that the institution immediately cease financial affiliation with weapons manufacturers, according to the Yale Daily News.
In New York, authorities advanced on the NYU gathering just after dusk, after hundreds of protestors failed to heed university warnings that they would face penalties if they did not leave the plaza in which they had assembled. Social media footage showed law enforcement removing tents from the demonstrators’ campsite.
Demonstrators clashed with police while chanting, “We will not stop, we will not rest. Disclose. Divest.”
A New York police spokeswoman said arrests were carried out when the university requested that officers enforce trespassing laws; however, the actual number of arrests and citations would not be known until much later. There were no immediate injuries reported.
Protests erupted on Yale, Columbia, NYU, and other university campuses around the country in response to the escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which began with a fatal cross-border incursion by Hamas on October 7 and Israel’s disproportionately harsh retaliation in Gaza.
In an email to Columbia staff and students on Monday, Columbia President Nemat Minouche Shafik stated that the institution was suspending in-person sessions and shifting to online instruction to “de-escalate the rancor and give us all a chance to consider next steps.”
On Thursday, police detained over 100 Columbia students for trespassing. Columbia and its associated Barnard College have suspended scores of students who participated in the demonstrations.
Robert Kraft, a major university supporter and billionaire owner of the New England Patriots National Football League team, was likewise dissatisfied with Columbia’s protections for Jewish students. Kraft, who is Jewish, has contributed millions of dollars to Columbia and has threatened to withhold future donations, stating, “I am not comfortable supporting the university until corrective action is taken.”
Amid angry confrontations at Columbia between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel groups, police have received reports of Israeli students having flags snatched from their hands, but “no reports of any physical harm against any student,” Tarik Shappard, the chief police spokesperson, conveyed at a press conference.
Student protestors spent several nights sleeping in the open on the grass and have subsequently pitched tents again. Students have arranged Muslim and Jewish prayers at the encampment, and others have delivered speeches criticizing Israel and Zionism while celebrating Palestinian armed resistance.
On Monday, over 100 Columbia faculty members joined students in support at the campsite, where an outdoor seder was scheduled to commemorate the first day of the Jewish Passover celebration.
U.S. President Joe Biden, who has been chastised by demonstrators for providing funds and weaponry to Israel, communicated in a statement on Sunday that his administration has committed the whole weight of the federal government to preserving the Jewish people.