Tensions are boiling over on university campuses across the US as student protests in support of Palestinians continue to grow, and are increasingly met with police violence despite students and faculty insisting the demonstrations have been peaceful.
The White House weighed in on the growing unrest on Thursday. “Dissent is essential for democracy,” Biden said. “But dissent must never lead to disorder.”
His words came after more than 100 protesters were arrested at UCLA on Thursday morning in a tense raid that followed several arrests across US campuses on Wednesday. Tensions are high after a weeks-long protest movement over the Israel-Gaza war that has put student demonstrators at odds with university leadership.
Demonstrators have set up encampments on more than 80 campuses across the US and are demanding that academic institutions sever financial ties with Israel or companies connected to the Israeli military’s war in Gaza.
The exact number of arrests remains unclear but is believed to have exceeded 1,300 since the start of the latest bout of protests two weeks ago, with more students being detained on Wednesday evening. Here’s a summary of the main campuses where arrests have taken place this week:
Columbia University, New York
The protest movement was sparked at New York’s Columbia University on 17 April when students pitched tents in the middle of campus and began rallying in support of Palestinians in Gaza.
Police first tried to clear the encampment a day later, when they arrested more than 100 people. That move motivated Columbia protesters to regroup.
On Tuesday night, hundreds of police entered Columbia’s campus at the request of the university president after protesters occupied an academic building. Less than two hours later, all protesters had been removed from Columbia.
The Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg said 282 arrests had been made at the Columbia and City University of New York, or Cuny campuses.
University of California, Los Angeles
Police cleared UCLA’s student encampment in a late-night operation, and arrested at least 132 pro-Palestine demonstrators early on Thursday morning . The school’s student newspaper said “hundreds” had been arrested, including students and members of faculty.
The raid came after UCLA was the site of some of the worst violence seen in the protests so far, when counter-protesters “forcefully attacked” a pro-Palestinian encampment on the campus on Tuesday night.
Fifteen people were injured during the UCLA confrontation, including one person who was hospitalised, while multiple news reports said security guards and law enforcement officials at the scene initially retreated or failed to intervene.
California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, called the violence “unacceptable” while the Los Angeles mayor, Karen Bass, called for a “full investigation” into the incident.
Emory University
Emory entered the spotlight last week after students there set up their own encampment; Atlanta police descended on the scene within hours of the tents getting pitched.
Faculty members were even caught on camera being arrested by Atlanta police in riot gear.
Police deployed teargas and beat students with batons to force them to disperse. At least 28 individuals – 20 of whom were Emory University community members – were arrested on 26 April.
In a widely shared video, the philosophy department chair, Noëlle McAfee, was seen being handcuffed by police. She asked the person recording to inform her colleagues that she’d been arrested.
CNN reported the economics professor Caroline Fohlin was also arrested and charged with battery against a police officer.
The university is now under federal investigation for anti-Muslim discrimination, per a recent Guardian report, with students claiming they have been doxxed, and called terrorists and Hamas-sympathizers.
George Washington University
In Washington DC, students pitched their tents on the school’s “University Yard” just over a week ago. The encampment is being overseen by DC Metropolitan police and has yet to be dismantled.
Nearby House republicans have visited the protest in an attempt to agitate the campus.
The far-right representative Lauren Boebert of Colorado told a crowd on Wednesday through a megaphone: “The mayor must step up and do something to clear this. This is not the summer of love and we are not bowing a knee to the terrorists who caused the riots and chaos is in our cities anymore.”
City University of New York
About 170 of the total 282 arrests were blocks away at the Cuny campus, reports said, with the total number of students involved unclear.
In a statement, the university said the calling in of police on Tuesday night was a “public safety approach [that] was a response to repeated acts of violence and vandalism”.
Video footage late on Tuesday showed officers forcing protesters to the ground and shoving others as they cleared the street and sidewalks. The City news site said an unspecified number of staff and faculty stayed home from work on Wednesday in solidarity with the protesters.
Fordham University, New York
Police officers in riot gear began arresting protesters on Wednesday evening, the New York Times reported, adding that demonstrators “did not appear to resist”.
The university’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) had organized a small encampment in the Lowenstein Lobby building to urge Fordham to divest from Israel on Wednesday morning.
The university paper, the Fordham Ram, reported that all students participating in the encampment had been arrested and suspended by 6.30pm. The university said it had called in the police with the “utmost regret” but added that it had requested a police presence until 22 May.
The city’s pro-Palestine movement reassembled across four different locations on Wednesday evening, including at a joint Columbia and City universities gathering at the Cuny campus in Harlem.
University of Wisconsin, Madison
In Madison on Wednesday, a scrum broke out after police with shields removed all but one tent at the university’s encampment and shoved protesters. Four officers were injured, including a state trooper who was hit in the head with a skateboard, authorities said.
More tents sprang up within hours. More than 30 people were initially detained, but police said only four were charged, with battering law enforcement.
University of Arizona, Tucson
Police at the University of Arizona in Tucson fired “non-lethal” chemical weapons at protesters and arrested four people in the early hours of Wednesday, the Arizona Daily Star reported, to break up a protest camp that had been set up on Tuesday. At least one protester was hit with a rubber bullet.
The university’s president, Robert C Robbins, said police’s “minimal use” of pepper balls and rubber bullets in breaking up the protest was warranted and claimed that officers had been “assaulted with projectiles”.
Student leaders disagreed with the police tactics, saying: “the use of force against peaceful students has never and will never deserve to have a place on our campus”.
University of Texas, Dallas
The University of Texas in Dallas confirmed that 17 protesters had been arrested on its campus as of Wednesday evening, after police moved in at the request of university officials.
According to local media, the police operation involved dozens of state troopers in riot gear. The entire encampment was dismantled within about 20 minutes and additional law enforcement remained on the campus until about 6pm.
About 100 protesters are reportedly continuing demonstrations on another part of the campus.
Another Gaza solidarity encampment protest was set up on Thursday in UT Arlington.
The school’s flagship university, the University of Texas, Austin, has also seen two police crackdowns since a student encampment was set up last week, which has since been dismantled by police and security.
At least 79 people were arrested on Monday and sent to Travis county jail.
Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana
Fourteen people including two students were arrested early on Wednesday when police were called in to clear a two-day encampment, the Tulane Hullabaloo news site reported. University officials said they supported “free speech and the freedom to protest” but were opposed to trespassing, hate speech and antisemitism.
