Demonstrations broke out on Wednesday at the universities of Ohio and Southern California and in the Texas city of Austin, where a tense confrontation took place between students and police in riot gear. More than twenty people were arrested, including a journalist. Demonstrations took place at dozens of other large and smaller educational institutions, the Washington Post reports. Students from Harvard University in Boston set up a tent camp.
The demonstrators condemn the rising death toll in the Gaza Strip. Since Israel’s invasion in October, at least 34,200 have been killed, mostly unarmed civilians. In addition, students are demanding that their universities stop investing in companies with ties to Israel.
But their expressions of support for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip too often turn into anti-Semitic and pro-Hamas slogans and calls for violence, say critics such as Republican Mike Johnson. Jewish students also say they feel threatened by this.
The wave of protests began at Columbia University, where dozens of demonstrators were arrested last week after university authorities called in police. On Wednesday, demonstrators were given 48 hours to break up a tent camp. Johnson wants principal Nemat Shafik to resign because she is not doing enough to protect Jewish students. Similar actions have also been reported at the University of Michigan, Yale and MIT.
