Photo: Reuters
Protests against the Gaza war have spread from Columbia University in the US to Yale and other universities. The authorities are struggling to control these growing protests.
Police tried to break up one such protest at New York University in Manhattan on Monday night, arresting several people.
Earlier the same day, police arrested many students from the campus of Yale University in Connecticut. On the other hand, in the face of student protests, Columbia University has canceled in-person attendance at classes.
Protests over the Gaza war are echoing at US universities, Reuters reported.
Similar protests have spread to Berkeley, MIT and other universities across the country, the BBC reported.
A series of protests continued last week with a tent encampment at Columbia University’s New York City campus. On Monday, the university authorities canceled classes but canceled attendance in person. The police then launched an operation against the protestors who pitched tents on the campus.
Protesting students at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut blocked traffic on the streets around the campus. They chanted slogans demanding that the university’s ties with military arms manufacturers be severed.
According to the student-run Yale Daily News, police arrested more than 45 protesters.
In New York, protesting students took over an open square on the New York University campus and set up tents there. The authorities asked them to vacate the premises, warning them to suffer the amount if not. But hundreds of protesters ignored these and continued the protest.
Shortly after nightfall, police officers raided the place. In a viral video on social media, police are seen taking away the tents of the protestors’ camp. Students clashing with the police chanted, “We will not stop, we will not rest. Publish, abandon.”
A spokesperson for the New York Police Department said that after authorities called the police, they went to the campus and arrested the protesters.
Reuters reported that it was not immediately known how many people were arrested at the scene. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
On October 7, the Palestinian independence group Hamas launched an unprecedented Israeli attack. In response, Israel launched a violent attack on Hamas-controlled Gaza, prompting protests at Yale, Columbia, New York University and other universities across the United States.
In an email sent to students and staff on Monday, Columbia University President Nemat Minuche Shafiq said the university is canceling in-person class attendance and moving to online classes.
Columbia University students occupy the main square of the campus demanding that the university abandon its investments related to Israel. Some faculty of the university condemned the demands of the protesters. Last week, President Shafiq called the police to the campus to remove the protestors from here.
On Thursday, the police arrested more than a hundred students from this campus. The university authorities expelled dozens of students involved in the protest.
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