Mass protests demanding solidarity with Palestine and denouncing Israel’s war on Gaza have intensified across several US university campuses. The demonstrations initially centered at Columbia University have now spread to prestigious institutions such as Harvard and Yale.
At the University of Texas’s Austin campus, tensions escalated as around 100 state troopers and local authorities confronted approximately 200 students. The protesters called for the divestment of the university from manufacturers supplying weapons to Israel.
The University of Southern California also witnessed clashes between students and officers of the Department of Public Safety, leading to the intervention of the Los Angeles Police Department.
Harvard University faced a storm of pro-Palestinian protesters who set up encampments after the university restricted access to the Yard, its oldest campus, to only Harvard ID holders.
Similarly, demonstrations occurred at Brown University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, California State Polytechnic, and the University of Michigan.
The protests have drawn controversy, with supporters arguing for Palestinian rights and divestment, while critics expressed concern over the disruption of campus life and the alleged rise of anti-Semitism. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the pro-Palestine protests, calling for unequivocal condemnation and claiming that “antisemitic mobs” have taken over American universities.
The White House has also weighed in, condemning the protests and cautioning against echoing the “rhetoric of terrorist organizations” following the recent violence in the region.
