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The pro-Palestinian protests of students in the USA and Europe do not stop

2024-04-26 19:29:27Kosova&Bota SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
The pro-Palestinian protests of students in the USA and Europe do not stop
Pro-Palestinian student protests

 

Pro-Palestinian student protests continue today at American universities. As the protest at Columbia University entered its 10th day, the University of Southern California canceled its graduation ceremony. The protests that have spread throughout the country have already included the universities of Washington. Our Keida Kostreci college is located at George Washington University, where students from several universities have gathered since yesterday, in the most massive protest in the country's capital.

Columbia University students are continuing their protest on Friday. Administrators and police at universities from California to Connecticut are scrambling to end protests that have also seen clashes with police and hundreds of arrests.

Columbia officials are negotiating with student protesters who do not appear to be backing down.

Other universities have decided to seek police intervention.

At Indiana University in Bloomington, after the tent camp was set up on Thursday, police intervened violently and arrested 33 students.

Hours later, police broke up a tent camp at the University of Connecticut and arrested one person.

Similar protests are being held in other countries. Students blocked the entrance to Paris' Sciences Po university on Friday, demanding that the institution condemn Israel's actions.

Chanting in support of the Palestinians, the students placed Palestinian flags in the windows and over the building's entrance.

University officials did not respond to a request for comment.

"We ask, as is the tradition at our university, to punish the violation of international law, but they have not said anything about what Israel is doing to the Palestinians," says Hicham, a student at this university.

In an effort to prevent similar situations, Harvard University in Massachusetts closed most of the entrances before the start of classes on Monday and restricted access to its premises even to people who have ID cards of this school.

Harvard University has also put up signs warning against setting up camps without permission.

"This is incredibly disappointing. This has been probably one of the worst times that the Muslim, the Arab community, the South Asian community has experienced in terms of having their voices suppressed," said Asmer Safi, a Harvard student from Pakistan.

Some Jewish students say the protests have turned into anti-Semitism and have made them afraid to go to university. This, in part, has fueled calls for police intervention.

"I think the problem is that there is no distinction being made between reasonable criticism of Israel and support for the Hamas attack on October 7. If in these protests there are statements like 'from the river to the sea' or 'globalize the Intifada' that is anti-Semitic for Jewish students, and the fact that some of these people keep saying these things is a little disturbing to me," says Ely Hahami, a Jewish Harvard student from New York.

Efforts by the Harvard administration did not prevent protesters from setting up a 14-tent encampment on Wednesday, however, following the university's suspension of Harvard's Palestine Solidarity Committee.

Protesters who have camped out at universities across the country are demanding that schools cut financial ties to Israel and divest from companies they say are enabling the conflict in Gaza. In some cases, distancing from the state of Israel is also being sought.

As the protests continue, graduation ceremonies, which are usually held in early May, are approaching, putting pressure on schools to clear the demonstrators' camps.

Officials at Columbia University in New York said negotiations with student demonstrators were showing progress as they neared a deadline ending today to reach an agreement to remove the protest camp.

However, two police buses were parked near the University and there was a visible presence of private security and police at the entrance to the University.

California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, has been negotiating with students who have been trapped inside a building since Monday, resisting police efforts to evict them./VOA


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