Columbia faces criticism and donor threats over handling of Israel-related protests
\nNEWYORK:
\nPolice arrested dozens of people at pro-Palestinian demonstrations at Yale University in Connecticut and New York University in Manhattan on Monday, as the war in Gaza continued to reverberate through US university campuses.
\nThe police crackdowns came after Columbia University canceled in-person classes on Monday in response to protesters setting up tent encampments at its New York City campus last week.
\nDemonstrators blocked traffic around Yale\u2019s campus in New Haven, Connecticut, demanding the school divest from military weapons manufacturers. Police arrested more than 45 protesters, according to the student-run Yale Daily News.
\nIn New York, officers moved on the NYU crowd shortly after nightfall as hundreds of demonstrators for hours had defied university warnings that they faced consequences if they failed to vacate a plaza where they had gathered. Video on social media showed police taking down tents in the protesters\u2019 encampment.
\nAs demonstrators tussled with officers and chanted, \u201cWe will not stop, we will not rest. Disclose. Divest.\u201d
\nA New York police spokesperson said arrests were made after the university asked police to enforce trespassing violations but the total number of arrests and citations would remain unknown until much later. No immediate injuries were reported.
\nProtests at Yale, Columbia, NYU, and other university campuses across the nation began in response to Israel\u2019s horrific assault on Palestinians in Gaza following a first-of-its-kind cross-border raid by Hamas on Israeli settlers on October 7, last year.
\nIn an email to Columbia staff and students on Monday, Columbia President Nemat Minouche Shafik said the university was canceling in-person classes and moving to online teaching to \u201cdeescalate the rancor and give us all a chance to consider next steps.\u201d
\nLast week, Shafik called in New York Police to clear a tent encampment protesters had set up on Columbia\u2019s main lawn to demand the school divest from Israel-related investments, an unusual move condemned by some faculty.
\nThe school said the encampment violated rules. Police arrested more than 100 students from Columbia on Thursday on charges of trespassing. Columbia and the affiliated Barnard College have suspended dozens of students involved in the protests.
\n\u201cThese tensions have been exploited and amplified by individuals who are not affiliated with Columbia who have come to campus to pursue their own agendas,\u201d said Shafik, who last week testified before a U.S. House of Representatives committee, defending the school\u2019s response to alleged antisemitism by protesters.
\nRepublicans in the House and the Senate, as well as at least one Democratic senator, demanded Shafik resign.
\nDonor threatens cutoff
\nMajor university donor Robert Kraft was also unsatisfied that Columbia was protecting Jewish students. Kraft, who is Jewish and the owner of the New England Patriots, has donated millions of dollars to Columbia and threatened to cut off further funding, saying in a statement, \u201cI am not comfortable supporting the university until corrective action is taken.\u201d
\nAmid 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 \u201cof any physical harm against any student,\u201d Tarik Shappard, the chief police spokesperson, told a press conference.
\nStudent protesters spent several nights sleeping in the open on the lawn, and have since set up tents again. Students have organized both Muslim and Jewish prayers at the encampment, and some have given speeches condemning Israel and Zionism and praising Palestinian armed resistance.
\nMore than 100 Columbia faculty joined students on Monday in solidarity at the encampment, where an outdoor seder was planned to mark the first day of the Jewish Passover holiday.
\nUS President Joe Biden, who has been criticized by the protesters for supplying funding and weapons to Israel, said in a statement on Sunday that his administration has put the full force of the federal government behind protecting the Jewish community.
\n\u201cEven in recent days, we\u2019ve seen harassment and calls for violence against Jews,\u201d Biden said. \u201cThis blatant antisemitism is reprehensible and dangerous \u2013 and it has absolutely no place on college campuses, or anywhere in our country.\u201d
\nStudent organizers from the Columbia encampment criticized Biden\u2019s statement, noting that some of the organizers are Jewish and that news outlets had focused on \u201cinflammatory individuals who do not represent us.\u201d
\n\u201cWe firmly reject any form of hate or bigotry and stand vigilant against non-students attempting to disrupt the solidarity being forged among students \u2013 Palestinian, Muslim, Arab, Jewish, Black, and pro-Palestinian classmates and colleagues,\u201d they said in a statement.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s very clear to us that people on the outside do not understand what this encampment is about,\u201d said Lea Salim, a Barnard sophomore who said she was one of 15 Jewish students arrested on the Columbia lawn last week. Salim said it was not antisemitic to criticize the state of Israel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Columbia faces criticism and donor threats over handling of Israel-related protests NEWYORK: Police arrested dozens of people at pro-Palestinian demonstrations at Yale University in Connecticut and New York University in Manhattan on Monday, as the war in Gaza continued to reverberate through US university campuses. The police crackdowns came after Columbia University canceled in-person classes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":402264,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-402247","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n