Pro-Palestinian encampments have started at several universities across the United States, including New York University (NYU), Yale University and Columbia University. Dozens of students have been arrested or suspended for participating in these protests.
On Monday night, the NYPD arrested over 100 protesters at NYU, including faculty—who formed a human chain around the encampment to protect students. Law enforcement charged students with trespassing after they set up the encampment outside the Stern School of Business.
“It was extremely violent; (police) started to throw lawn furniture,” says an NYU graduate student, who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation from the university. The student says encampments have “spread like wildfire” after Columbia’s president, Minouche Shafik, . “Definitely, Columbia was the precedent,” the student adds. The NYU encampment has since been cleared by law enforcement.
Others are ongoing. Antiwar protesters have started encampments at UC Berkeley, UNC Chapel Hill, Washington University in Saint Louis, University of Michigan, The New School, MIT, Emerson College, Tufts University, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Rochester, the University of Minnesota and the University of Maryland.
Some Jewish students have said they feel unsafe on college campuses with encampments. A few have staged counter-protests, although they have been much smaller. Other Jewish students are part of the protest movement. Student organizers have denied antisemitism allegations. Protesters’ primary demand is that their universities divest from companies that benefit from the Israeli occupation. The cost of waiting is too high, they say.
Here are photos from the encampments:
