Classes were cancelled at Columbia University, dozens of protesters were arrested at New York University and Yale, and Harvard’s doors were closed to the public on Monday as some of the most prestigious US universities sought to defuse campus tensions over the Gaza war.
More than 100 pro-Palestinian demonstrators camped out on Columbia’s campus were arrested last week. Following the intervention at Columbia, similar camps were set up at universities across the country.
According to the Associated Press (AP), a camp set up by students at New York University attracted hundreds of protesters throughout the day on Monday. School officials said they warned the crowd to disperse, then called police when the ‘scene became disorganised’ and the university learned of ‘frightening slogans and several anti-Semitic incidents’. In the evening, the police began making arrests.
Tensions were also high on Monday at Columbia, where campus gates were closed to anyone without a school ID and protests erupted both on and off campus.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators called for the university to withdraw its support for Israel and criticised the school’s response to the war.
Republicans call on Columbia provost to resign
Representative Kathy Manning, a Democrat from North Carolina who visited Columbia with three Jewish members of Congress, told reporters after meeting with students from the Jewish Law Students Association that there was a “huge encampment of people” taking up about a third of the green space.
Manning said after leaving the school’s Morningside Heights campus that she “saw signs calling for the destruction of Israel”, while Columbia administrators announced on Monday that classes at the Morningside campus would offer online options for students whenever possible, citing security as a top priority.
In a message to the school community on Monday, University President Minouche Shafik said he was “deeply saddened” by the events on campus.
“In order to calm the anger and give us all a chance to think about the next steps, I am announcing that all classes will be held virtually on Monday,” Shafik wrote, adding that students who do not live on campus should stay away.
In a letter sent on Monday, Republicans in the US House of Representatives from New York called on Shafik to resign, arguing that he had failed to provide a safe learning environment in recent days as “anarchy engulfed the campus”.
On Sunday, Elie Buechler, rabbi of the Orthodox Union’s Jewish Learning Initiative at Columbia, sent a WhatsApp message to about 300 Jewish students advising them to go home until the campus was safer for them.
New England Patriots owner suspends donations to Columbia
Robert Kraft, owner of the American football team the New England Patriots, has announced that he is withdrawing his support for Columbia University because of its “treatment of Jewish students and faculty” during pro-Palestinian protests on the New York campus.
The announcement by Kraft, a Columbia alumnus and major donor, adds to the pressure on the university, whose chancellor is facing calls from members of Congress to resign.
“I am deeply saddened by the hatred that continues to grow on campus and in our country. I am no longer confident that Columbia can protect its students and staff, and I am reluctant to support the university until corrective action is taken,” Kraft said in a statement through the Foundation Against Antisemitism.
The businessman donated $3 million to build the Kraft Centre for Jewish Student Life in 2000 and has given millions more since then.
Harvard administrators ban pro-Palestinian group
As Harvard Yard closed to the public on Monday, a sign at the entrance stated that structures such as tents and tables could only enter the yard with prior permission. “Students who violate this policy will be subject to disciplinary action,” the sign read, as security guards checked people’s school IDs.
On the same day, the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee announced that the university administration had suspended its group. In the suspension notice provided by the student organisation, the university wrote that the group’s demonstration on 19 April violated school policy and that the organisation had previously been placed on probation but had failed to attend required training.
The Palestine Solidarity Committee said in a statement that they were suspended for “technical reasons” and that the university refused to provide them with a written explanation of university policy when asked.
“Harvard has repeatedly shown us that Palestine is the exception to the rule of free speech,” the group said in a statement.
Dozens arrested at Yale
At Yale, police officers arrested about 45 protesters and charged them with trespassing on campus, New Haven police spokesman Christian Bruckhart said. All were later released with promises to appear in court, Bruckhart said.
The protesters set up a tent on Beinecke Plaza on Friday and demonstrated over the weekend, demanding that Yale end its investments in defence companies that do business with Israel.
Yale President Peter Salovey told the campus community on Sunday that university officials had spoken with the protesting students on several occasions about the school’s policies and guidelines, including permission to speak and access campus grounds.
School officials said they gave the protesters until the end of the week to leave Beinecke Plaza.
They said they warned the protesters again Monday morning that they could face disciplinary action, including arrest and suspension, before police took action.Bruckhart said that after Monday’s arrests at Yale, a large group of protesters regrouped and blocked a street near campus.
MIT students call on administration to speak out against warMIT junior Prahlad Iyengar, who is studying electrical engineering, was among the students who set up a tent camp on the school’s campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Sunday night, AP reported.The student said they were calling for a ceasefire and protesting what they described as MIT’s “complicity in the ongoing genocide in Gaza”.
“MIT hasn’t even called for a ceasefire, and that’s absolutely our demand,” Iyengar said.
Inspired by the protests at Columbia University, students at MIT, as well as at Tufts University and Emerson College, set up pro-Palestinian encampments.
Hundreds of students set up tents on campuses in Cambridge, Medford and Boston on Sunday night to protest the Israeli-Hamas war.
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