CHICAGO– Police cleared a pro-Palestinian camp at the University of Chicago on Tuesday, as tensions rose in clashes with protesters on other college campuses across the US — and increasingly in Europe.
Nearly three weeks after a movement launched by a protest at Columbia University, the Rhode Island School of Design held talks with protesters occupying a building, and MIT set up a new encampment at a site that had been vacated but immediately taken over by protesters.
The clashes come at a time when campuses are trying a range of strategies, from appeasement to threats of disciplinary action, to resolve protests against the Israel-Hamas war and pave the way for it to begin.
At the University of Chicago, hundreds of protesters gathered in an area known as the Quad for at least eight days. Campus administrators warned them Friday to leave the area or face removal. Police in riot gear blocked access to the Quad on Tuesday as authorities dismantled the camp.
At MIT, protesters were given a Monday afternoon deadline to leave voluntarily or face suspension. Many left, according to an MIT spokesperson, who said protesters breached the fence after protesters arrived from outside the university. On Monday night, dozens of protesters remained at the camp in a calmer atmosphere, listening to loudspeakers and chanting before taking a break for pizza.
Sam Ihns, an MIT graduate student studying mechanical engineering and a member of MIT Jews for a Ceasefire, said the group has been at the camp for two weeks and is calling for an end to the killing in Gaza.
“Specifically, our camp is protesting MIT’s direct research ties with the Israeli Ministry of Defense,” he said.
No arrests had been made as of Monday evening, according to an MIT spokesperson.
At the Rhode Island School of Design, where students began occupying a building on Monday, a spokesperson said the school affirms students’ rights to free speech and peaceful assembly and that it supports all members of its community. RISD’s president and dean were at the scene meeting with protesters, the spokesperson said.
Student protests have spread across Europe, where they are gaining momentum. Police arrested around 125 activists on Tuesday morning as they dismantled a pro-Palestinian camp at the University of Amsterdam. Students have also held protests or set up camps in Finland, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Spain, France and Britain.
Many protesters want their schools to divest from companies that do business with Israel or otherwise contribute to the war effort. Others simply want to draw attention to the deaths in Gaza and the end of the war.
The demonstrations at Columbia University in New York, where the protest movement began about three weeks ago, shook its campus. Officials on Monday canceled their big main ceremony, but said students will be able to celebrate at a series of smaller school ceremonies this week and next.
Columbia had already canceled in-person classes. More than 200 pro-Palestine protesters who camped on the Columbia lawn or occupied an academic building have been arrested in recent weeks.
Similar camps have popped up elsewhere, leaving universities grappling with where to draw the line between allowing free speech and maintaining safe and inclusive campuses.
The University of Southern California previously canceled its main commencement ceremony. The students abandoned their camp at USC on Sunday after being surrounded by police and threatened with arrest. Other universities held graduation ceremonies with heightened security. The University of Michigan ceremony was interrupted a few times by chants on Saturday.
A group of faculty and staff at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has asked the administration for amnesty for student protesters who were recently arrested and suspended.
Harvard University’s interim president, Alan Garber, warned students that those attending a camp in Harvard Yard could face “involuntary furlough,” meaning they would not be allowed on campus, could lose their student housing and may not could take exams.
At the University of California, San Diego, police cleared a camp and arrested more than 64 people, including 40 students. The University of California, Los Angeles moved classes online for the week due to disruptions following the dismantling of a camp last week, which resulted in 44 arrests.
Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel launched an offensive in Gaza that killed more than 34,500 Palestinians, about two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Ministry of Health in the Hamas-ruled territory. Israeli attacks devastated the enclave and displaced most of its inhabitants.
Hamas announced on Monday its acceptance of a proposed ceasefire between Egypt and Qatar, but Israel said the agreement did not meet its “fundamental demands” and that it was moving forward with an attack on the city of Rafah. , in southern Gaza.
“Ceasefires are temporary,” said Selina Al-Shihabi, a sophomore at Georgetown University who was taking part in a protest in George Washington. “There may be a ceasefire, but the US government will continue to arm the Israeli military. We plan to stay here until the university disbands or until they drag us out of here.”
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LeBlanc reported from Cambridge, Massachusetts. Associated Press writers Jeff Amy in Atlanta and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
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