(New York) More than 130 people were arrested overnight in New York in front of the premises of the prestigious NYU university, after pro-Palestinian student demonstrations, police told AFP on Tuesday.
These 133 people were released, said a spokesperson for the NYPD, the New York police.
A law enforcement official, Kaz Daughtry, published on X the letter from the university asking the police to intervene “to evacuate the demonstrators”.
“If they refuse to leave, we ask the NYPD to take enforcement action accordingly, up to and including arrest,” according to this letter.
Several American campuses have flared up again in recent days due to the conflict in Gaza, with students organizing demonstrations and sit-ins to demand an end to the war led by Israel in Gaza, a Palestinian territory in the grip of a humanitarian disaster.
Around a hundred pro-Palestinian students had already been arrested last week at Columbia University, also in New York. Here again, the president of the establishment asked the police to intervene.
Several personalities, including elected representatives of Congress, have accused these gatherings of fueling anti-Semitism, and the lively debate has reached the White House.
“In recent days, we have witnessed harassment and calls for violence against Jews,” President Joe Biden said in a statement on Sunday, on the eve of Passover.
“This blatant anti-Semitism is reprehensible and dangerous, and it has absolutely no place on college campuses or anywhere in our country,” he continued.