(New York) Tensions are once again electrifying American campuses, and especially the prestigious New York University Columbia, between pro-Palestinian demonstrations and accusations of rising anti-Semitism, four months after the highly publicized resignations of two university presidents.
That of Columbia, Nemat Shafik, decided on Monday that all classes would be held remotely and called in a press release to “put things back in order”.
Under a spring sun on Monday, dozens of tents – to avoid being easily dislodged – are pitched on the large esplanade of the university, occupied by demonstrators who denounce the war waged by Israel in Gaza, a Palestinian territory in the grip of a humanitarian disaster.
On the outskirts of the Manhattan campus, in the heart of New York, groups of pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli demonstrators face each other, under a heavy police presence. The nearest metro entrances are closed.
These demonstrations “turned into a question about freedom of expression”, summarized to AFP a student who does not support either camp, and who did not wish to give his name.
PHOTO CAITLIN OCHS, REUTERS
Protest at Columbia University
Since Thursday and the arrest of around a hundred people during a rally on campus, tensions have continued to increase, first at Columbia then on numerous campuses across the country.
“Very, very sensitive”
The arrests were the “nuclear option,” regrets Joseph Howley, professor of Greek and Latin at Columbia.
“The university immediately took advantage of a bad tool. And she was not just wrong, she made the situation worse,” adds the man who is also a member of a rather pro-Palestinian group of teachers to AFP.
“There has been a big debate about whether or not to mobilize the police,” President Nemat Shafik said in a statement, with police forces only able to intervene on the campus, private property, with their agreement.
PHOTO BING GUAN, THE NEW YORK TIMES
Protest at Columbia University
The debate rages within the academic world between, on the one hand, those who denounce the demonstrations causing, according to them, a rise in anti-Semitism, and on the other, those who defend freedom of expression.
“It’s a very, very sensitive subject. We’re trying to do our best,” Mike Gerber, head of legal affairs for the New York police, said Monday.
“No form of violence will be tolerated. Material damage, whatever it may be. Any form of crime. And this includes harassment, threats […] or anything like that,” he added.
“99% of us are here for the liberation of Palestine”, but also of other peoples caught up in the war like in Sudan, explains to AFP Mimi Elias, a student of Mexican origin who says she is part of the Hundreds of students arrested Thursday and since suspended from the university.
“We are not for anti-Semitism or Islamophobia. We want the liberation of everyone,” she proclaims.
Call to resign
Further south in Manhattan, the campus of New York University (NYU) is also under tension. Management asked demonstrators to evacuate a place.
On the campus of Yale University, north of New York, hundreds of students waved pro-Palestinian flags and signs. At least 47 people were arrested, according to a university statement Monday.
PHOTO NED GERARD, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Pro-Palestinian demonstration at Yale University
In Boston, Rayan Amim, a student at Emerson College, told AFP they were demonstrating “to relentlessly condemn the ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and the ethnic cleansing that has lasted for more than 75 years.”
The park at the heart of the Harvard campus is closed to the public for the entire week.
American campuses have been the scene of tensions since the start of the conflict between Israel and Hamas on October 7.
Denouncing a rise in anti-Semitism, the Republicans took up the subject in the fall and after a stormy hearing in Congress, the president of the University of Pennsylvania Elizabeth Magill and her Harvard counterpart Claudine Gay resigned, respectively in December and January.
That of Columbia, heard last week in Congress, assured that “anti-Semitism [n’avait] nothing to do on our campus”, which did not prevent calls for his resignation from elected Republican officials, who denounce “anarchy”.
On Monday, US President Joe Biden condemned “anti-Semitic demonstrations” while denouncing “those who do not understand what the Palestinians are going through”.