Police arrested at least 25 pro-Palestinian protesters and cleared an encampment at the University of Virginia (UVA), as campuses across the United States brace for more turmoil during graduation ceremonies.
Tensions rose on UVA’s Charlottesville campus, where protests were largely peaceful until Saturday morning, when police in riot gear were seen on video moving into a camp on the campus lawn, handcuffing some protesters with zip ties. and using what appeared to be chemical spray.
Students from across the U.S. gathered or set up tents at dozens of universities to protest the months-long war in Gaza and call on President Joe Biden, who has supported Israel, to do more to stop the bloodshed in Gaza.
They also demand that their schools divest from companies that support the Israeli government, such as weapons suppliers.
UVA said in a statement that protesters violated several university policies, including erecting tents Friday night and using amplified sound.
UVA President Jim Ryan wrote in a message that authorities learned that “individuals not affiliated with the university” who had “some safety concerns” had joined protesters on campus.
It was not immediately clear how many of those arrested were UVA students.
In an Instagram post, a group called UVA Encampment for Gaza, which said earlier this week it had set up the camp, condemned the university’s decision to call the police.
Meanwhile, dozens of people were arrested for “criminal trespass” in front of the Art Institute of Chicago at a demonstration on Saturday after the institute called police to remove protesters who it said were illegally occupying its property, the Department of Public Affairs said. Chicago Police at X.
Elsewhere, clashes did not escalate into arrests. In Ann Arbor, pro-Palestinian protesters briefly disrupted a graduation ceremony at the University of Michigan, one of many universities that have altered their security protocols for graduation ceremonies.
Videos shared on social media showed dozens of students wearing the traditional keffiyeh headdress and graduation caps, and waving Palestinian flags as they walked down the center aisle of Michigan Stadium amid cheers and boos from a crowd of thousands.
The ceremony continued and campus police escorted protesters to the back of the stadium, but no arrests were made, according to Colleen Mastony, a university spokeswoman.
“Peaceful protests like this have occurred at UM [University of Michigan] graduation ceremonies for decades,” Mastony said in a statement. “The university supports freedom of expression and university leaders are pleased that today’s graduation was a moment of pride and triumph.”
One of the common chants of protesters heard at the University of Michigan was: “Disclose, divest. We will not stop, we will not rest,” said Al Jazeera’s John Hendren, reporting from Ann Arbor.
“According to the faculty and students we spoke to, they say they have not received a satisfactory response in involving students in their demands. The university did not agree to disclose its investments in Israel,” he said.
Contrasting views about Israel’s war in Gaza have emerged, sometimes violently, on U.S. campuses in recent weeks. Many of the schools, including Columbia University in New York City, called on the police to quell the protests.
So far, police have arrested more than 2,000 protesters at colleges across the country.
Anti-war protests in the US are being held in response to Israel’s offensive in Gaza, where more than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since October and the Palestinian enclave has been razed to the ground in what human rights experts have called genocide. .
The attacks began after the Palestinian group Hamas launched, on October 7, an unprecedented attack inside Israel, in which, according to Israeli authorities, close to 1,200 people were killed.
Outrage over Ole Miss incident
The campus protests have emerged as a new political flashpoint during a highly contested and deeply contentious U.S. election year.
On Thursday, a pro-Palestine protest at the University of Mississippi, also known as Ole Miss, was met by a larger crowd of counterprotesters singing the national anthem and carrying U.S. flags.
Events at Ole Miss, the state’s flagship university, sparked widespread outrage and condemnation after a viral video showed a group of mostly white students insulting a black protester.
Some shouting of racist comments and an individual can be heard making what appeared to be monkey noises at the black student.
While the university president condemned the “racist overtones” of the incident and said an investigation was underway, Republican Rep. Mike Collins of Georgia shared the video to his X account on Friday, writing: “Ole Miss taking care of business”.
A spokesperson for Collins said he was pointing to examples of “ordinary everyday students…resisting the small group of leftist agitators who only care about disrupting and destroying.”
But the provocations brought harsh criticism on and off campus.
“The students called for an end to the genocide. They were met with racism,” wrote James M Thomas, a sociology professor at the University of Mississippi, in X.
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
