2024-05-03 04:23:52
Several confrontations They exploded on Wednesday in the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) apart from the movement of pro-Palestinian protests that dozens of American campuses are trying to contain.
Images from television networks showed protesters and counter-protesters clashing at dawn with sticks, knocking down barricades and throwing fireworks and objects at the opposing side in the middle of the night. They also used tear gas, according to an AFP journalist at the scene.
The Los Angeles Police Department said that, at the chancellor’s request, its “officers have been deployed and are currently on the UCLA campus to help restore order,” in a message on social media.
The police force had previously indicated that its actions responded to “multiple acts of violence within the large camp” set up last week at the university.
Chancellor Gene D. Block had previously warned that while many of the protesters and counterprotesters “were peaceful,” “the tactics of others have been downright shocking and disgraceful.” “We have seen cases of violence,” he deplored.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass declared the violence “absolutely abhorrent and inexcusable.”
– Eviction in Columbia –
Los riots in Los Angeles They broke out after dozens of police officers entered Columbia University, in the heart of New York, on Tuesday night and cleared a building occupied by pro-Palestinian students.
CNN, citing the New York police, stated that more than one hundred protesters were arrested.
Officers climbed a platform mounted on a truck to the second floor of Hamilton Hall and began leading handcuffed students into police vans, in front of a crowd chanting “free palestine!”.
Los protesters They had barricaded themselves in that Columbia University building the previous night and promised to fight against attempts to evict them.
The chancellor of Columbia, Minouche Shafik, had asked for police intervention in a public letter where she claimed that the occupation was led “by individuals outside the university.”
Also asked the authorities to “maintain a presence on campus until at least May 17 to ensure order and ensure that camps are not set up.
In a post on Instagram, the protesters attacked the rector, saying that “her use of the words ‘care’ and ‘safety’ are nothing short of horrifying.”
The occupation of the building occurred after the university began suspending students for not complying with an eviction order from the camp set up on its grounds.
Among other demands, protesters asked that Columbia University reject all funding linked to Israel. The institution refused on Monday night and the parties did not reach an agreement.
– Coast to coast –
Demonstrations have spread across the country’s universities, facing the largest mobilization since protests against the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 1970s.
The taking of the building Columbia University It was disapproved by President Joe Biden, who had asked to guarantee students’ freedom of expression and avoid anti-Semitic acts.
His predecessor and rival in the November election, Donald Trump, blamed the Democrat for the “anti-Semitism that is permeating the country.”
Protests against the Gaza war have posed a challenge to university authorities to balance the right to freedom of expression with complaints that rallies have descended into hatred and anti-Semitism.
Brown University agreed with students to remove their camp in exchange for holding a vote on divestment from Israela major award for an elite American university.
But in others, such as the University of North Carolina, the Californian Cal Poly Humboldt or the University of Texas in Austin, the police intervened to dismantle the protests and arrest numerous protesters, with hundreds of arrests throughout the country.
On Wednesday morning, University of Arizona police said they used tear gas to break up an “illegal gathering.”
Protest organizers deny accusations of anti-Semitism, arguing instead that their actions are directed at the Israeli government and its handling of the conflict in Gaza.
The war began with Hamas’ unprecedented attack on October 7, which killed 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliation has killed at least more than 34,500 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s Health Ministry.
2024-05-03 04:23:52