Yale University: Numerous people detained during US-Gaza campus demonstrations

Yale University: Numerous people detained during US-Gaza campus demonstrations

Yale University has seen dozens of demonstrators detained amid nationwide student protests against the Gaza War.

The Ivy League university informed the BBC that protestors occupying a plaza disregarded repeated calls to vacate.

On Monday, Columbia University students were instructed to participate in virtual classrooms after more than 100 arrests during last week's demonstrations.

The White House has denounced reported instances of antisemitism at Columbia University.

The safety of Jewish pupils at schools around the nation has come under scrutiny due to the continuing demonstrations.

Tensions are already building at major colleges after the October 7 assault on southern Israel by Hamas militants, which sparked discussions and altercations concerning the Middle East and free speech on college campuses around the nation.

Around the nation, protest "encampments" have also appeared at other campuses, such as Tufts, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Michigan, and Emerson College.

Pupils from all backgrounds report an increase in occurrences of Islamophobia and antisemitism.

Protesters at Yale have been urging the institution to reduce its financial ties to arms manufacturers.

According to the student publication Yale Daily News, protestors pitched tents on Beinecke Plaza's encampment for the third day on Sunday.

Over the weekend, the university said that "several hundred people" were involved in the demonstrations. There have reportedly been no responses to an offer for demonstrators to meet with the university's investment board.

While some protestors departed when requested, others disregarded "multiple requests" to leave, which resulted in 47 arrests by campus police on Monday, according to the university.

More than 1,500 parents, students, and alumni had signed a letter in favor of the continuing protest there as of Monday afternoon.

When municipal police in New York were sent to the Columbia campus last week, they detained hundreds of demonstrators who were also demanding divestment.

Among those detained and charged with violating security protocols was the offspring of Minnesota legislator Ilhan Omar.

Students slept out on the school grounds as part of the protest, which took place at the same time Columbia President Minouche Shafik traveled to Capitol Hill to provide testimony on the university's antisemitic initiatives before a congressional committee.

Tensions between Israel and Gaza rise on US college campuses.

On Monday, the first day of the Jewish holiday of Passover, Columbia offered virtual sessions. Dr. Shafik's letter emphasized incidents of "intimidating and harassing behavior," including antisemitism.

The advice to non-resident students was to avoid them.

Dr. Shafik said in the statement released on Monday that those "who are not affiliated with Columbia who have come to realize campus to pursue their own agendas" had "exploited as well as amplified" the tensions on school.

She went on, "We've formed a working group to try to resolve this crisis."

Earlier, US media claimed that 300 Jewish students received a note from an affiliated rabbi at the institution, encouraging them to avoid campus until the situation "dramatically improved".

There is increasing pressure on Dr. Shafik and the university administration to find a solution.

Representative Elise Stefanik, a Republican from New York, led a group of federal legislators who signed a letter on Monday pleading with her to resign for what she described as a "failure to put an end to the mob of students as well as agitators calling for acts of terrorism against Jewish students."

Several other politicians, including Democrats Jared Moskowitz, Josh Gottheimer, Dan Goldman, and Kathy Manning, have also shown interest in the demonstrations in New York.

Virginia Foxx, a Republican from North Carolina and the head of the House Education Committee, said in an online letter that "Columbia's continued failure to restore order and safety" is a violation of the terms of federal support and has to be "immediately rectified."

Robert Kraft, a well-known Columbia graduate and the owner of the NFL's New England Patriots, has threatened to quit sponsoring Columbia University "until corrective action is taken" in response to the protests.

The White House has denounced reported antisemitic actions that have occurred throughout the United States.

President Joe Biden said that he opposes "those who don't understand what's going on with the Palestinians" and "the antisemitic protests" in response to questions on the demonstrations on Monday.

Speaking out "against the alarming surge of antisemitism" in US schools, neighborhoods, and online, Mr. Biden addressed the topic once again over the weekend in a message commemorating Passover.

He said, "Silence is complicity." "This blatant antisemitism is reprehensible as well as hazardous - and it has absolutely no place on university campuses, or anywhere in our country."

On his social media site, Truth Social, former President Donald Trump expressed his opinion that the police who have blocked off the area surrounding the courtroom "like a drum" need to be transferred to Columbia. Trump is now in New York City awaiting his trial.

Videos that surfaced online earlier seemed to show some demonstrators endorsing the Hamas assault on Israel.

There have been larger rallies against the events in Gaza in the US in addition to the university protests.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators have lately shut down important highways throughout the nation, limiting travel to airports including Seattle's Tacoma and Chicago's O'Hare International, together with the Brooklyn Bridge in New York and San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge.