(New York) Anger remained high Tuesday among many American students after calls from university leaders to the police led to mass arrests of pro-Palestinian demonstrators, the latest episode in the turmoil caused by the conflict in Gaza on campuses across the country.
During the night from Monday to Tuesday, 120 people were arrested in front of the premises of the prestigious New York University (NYU), according to a downwardly revised report from the police.
These people were released, said a spokesperson for the NYPD, the New York police.
But the lively debate, and the ire of the students, are far from abating.
“My university administration, my elected representatives in Congress and even the president behave as if they were spokespeople for the Jewish community, equating anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism. They silence us, they suspend us,” Sarah Borus, a pro-Palestinian Jewish student from Barnard College at Columbia University, denounced to the press, keffiyeh on her shoulders.
PHOTO ANDRES KUDACKI, THE NEW YORK TIMES
Protesters at New York University, April 23, 2024.
Last week, around a hundred Columbia students, demanding an end to the war ravaging Gaza and that their establishment boycott all activities linked to Israel, were arrested.
At Yale, around fifty people were arrested in similar circumstances.
On Tuesday afternoon, outside the Columbia campus, about 100 protesters marched peacefully in a circle, carrying signs calling to “stop all U.S. aid to Israel.”
“Shaken”
Many American universities have found themselves at the heart of the news with the war in Gaza, triggered almost seven months ago by a Hamas attack in Israel.
Accused of not doing enough against anti-Semitism, two university presidents, including Harvard, had to resign a few months ago.
In recent days, several campuses have caught fire.
The latest wave of protest started from Columbia. Then the president of the establishment called the police to intervene.
PHOTO EDUARDO MUNOZ, REUTERS
Protesters at Columbia University.
That’s also what happened at NYU, according to a university letter released by police calling on officers to “evacuate protesters.”
To justify its use of law enforcement, the university claimed to have observed “hostile and disruptive public order” behavior.
“We also learned that there were intimidating slogans and that several anti-Semitic incidents had been reported,” according to a spokesperson.
An NYU faculty association strongly denounced the university’s “unjustified” decision to call the police for help, further asserting that “no one in the plaza was, at any time, violent or anti-Semitic.”
Marianne Hirsch, a professor at Columbia and herself of Jewish faith, told the press that she was “extremely concerned about anti-Semitism, and always has been.”
But “I am extremely shaken at the moment by seeing how anti-Semitism is exploited and misused […]to put an end to academic freedom, free debate, critical thinking,” she said.
Concerns
The topic has turned into a heated and often violent debate over free speech.
Students and teachers accuse their universities of seeking to censor political speech, while several personalities, including elected representatives of Congress, in return accuse activists of fueling anti-Semitism.
The Republican President of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, also announced that he would meet with Jewish students at Columbia on Wednesday to discuss “the worrying rise of virulent anti-Semitism” on campuses.
On CNN, a Jewish student from Columbia, Nick Baum, said he had felt “downright in danger” for several days. “They called us settlers,” he said.
“I think it’s very important to remember that being uncomfortable is different from being in danger,” another Jewish student, Soph Askanase, who said she was suspended by Columbia for her activism a few hours before being arrested.
Faced with tensions, the university said it was working “hard to resolve the situation on campus”.
Students “have the right to protest, but they are not allowed to disrupt campus life or harass and intimidate other students and members of our community.” We are acting on concerns expressed by our Jewish students,” said Ben Chang, a Columbia official.
On Sunday, Democratic President Joe Biden himself intervened, saying that anti-Semitism had “no place” on campuses.