This Saturday, riot police arrested a hundred students who were participating in a pro-Palestinian camp at Northeastern University in Boston. The educational center assured on the social network According to that statement, there were “infiltrated professionals” among those detained, who are not Northeastern students. The scene, which was described by the police as “non-conflictive,” was completed by groups of students who booed the actions of the authorities from a distance.
Protesters face charges of trespassing and disorderly conduct. The detainees, according to the AP agency, received a warning of about 15 minutes to disperse before being arrested.
The altercations this Saturday in Boston add to the student protests against Israel’s war in Gaza, which has already left some 34,000 dead, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, and to the support of the Joe Biden Administration for the military campaign of the Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
These are the most widespread student protests experienced on American university campuses since the Vietnam War in the 1960s. They also indicate that young people’s support for Biden in the November elections may be undermined by the difficult balance of his policy in the Middle East.
The demonstrations at universities began shortly after the Hamas attack in southern Israel that left 1,200 dead on October 7, and the start of the Gaza war. These protests led to the resignations of the presidents of the universities of Harvard and Pennsylvania at the end of last year.
This new wave has been at its peak since the incidents recorded earlier this week on the Columbia campus in New York. It has encountered a much harsher reaction from authorities, who are torn between guaranteeing freedom of expression and responding to complaints from Jewish students and teachers, those not participating in the protests, who say they do not feel safe.
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In some cases, they have resulted in the transfer of teaching activity to the virtual environment, the closure of campuses to anyone who cannot be accredited as a student, or the cancellation of mass graduation celebrations typical of the end of the course.
The University of Pennsylvania took similar steps to Northeastern on Friday.
Protesters across the country are demanding that universities cut their financial ties to Israel and divest from companies they say are allowing the conflict to spread.
The student group Huskies for a Free Palestine disputed Northeastern University’s version, saying in a statement that the counterprotesters were to blame for the insults and that no students “repeated that disgusting hate speech.”
Indiana University campus officers and state police on Saturday arrested 23 people at a campsite on the Bloomington campus.
On Friday, interim University of Pennsylvania President J. Larry Jameson called for an encampment of protesters on the West Philadelphia campus to be disbanded, saying it violates the university’s facilities policies, although about 40 tents They remained in place Saturday morning.
At Columbia University, whose students have inspired pro-Palestinian demonstrations across the country, students representing the camp said Friday that they had reached a stalemate with administrators and intended to continue their protest.
Although the university has repeatedly set and delayed deadlines for removing the encampment, it sent an email to students Friday night telling them that calling police again “at this time” would be counterproductive.
The decisions to call law enforcement, which have led to hundreds of arrests across the country, have led faculty members at universities in California, Georgia and Texas to initiate or approve votes of no confidence in their leaders. These are largely symbolic rebukes, with no power to remove their presidents.
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