By PHILIP MARCELO and DENISE LAVOIE (Associated Press)
On Saturday, 25 people were arrested for trespassing on the University of Virginia after police clashed with pro-Palestinian protesters who refused to remove tents from campus, while demonstrators on the University of Michigan chanted anti-war messages and waved flags Opening ceremonies.
In Virginia, student demonstrators began their protest on Tuesday on a lawn in front of the varsity chapel. On Saturday, video from WVAW-TV showed law enforcement officials in heavy gear and carrying riot shields lined up on the Charlottesville campus. Demonstrators chanted “Free Palestine” and university police said on the social platform X that an “unlawful assembly” had been declared in the realm.
When police moved in, students were pushed to the bottom, dragged by their arms and sprayed with a chemical irritant, Laura Goldblatt, an assistant professor of English and global studies who has helped student protesters, told The Washington Post.
“Our concern from the start has been the safety of our students. “Students are not safe right now,” Goldblatt said.
University officials said in a press release that the protesters were told that the tents and canopies they’d erected were prohibited by school rules and were asked to remove them. Virginia State Police have been asked to help with enforcement, the university said.
It was the newest clash in several tense and sometimes violent weeks at colleges and universities across the country which have seen dozens of protests and a whole bunch of arrests in demonstrations against the continued war between Israel and Hamas.
Camp of demonstrators calling on universities to accomplish that Stop doing business with Israel or firms that they are saying support them War in Gaza have spread across campuses across the country in a student movement unlike every other on this century. Some schools have made agreements with demonstrators to finish the demonstrations and reduce the potential for disruption to final exams and freshmen.
The Associated Press has recorded at the least 61 incidents involving arrests during protests since April 18, with greater than 2,400 people arrested on 47 campuses. The numbers are based on AP reports and statements from universities and law enforcement agencies.
Many camps were dismantled.
Michigan was amongst the faculties preparing for protests throughout the start of faculty this weekend, including Indiana University, Ohio State University and Northeastern University in Boston. Many more are planned in the approaching weeks.
In Ann Arbor, the protest occurred at first of the event at Michigan Stadium. About 75 people, many wearing traditional Arabic kaffiyehs along with their graduation caps, marched up the foremost aisle to the graduation stage.
They shouted: “Regents, Regents, you cannot hide! They are funding genocide!” while holding signs, including one which read: “No more universities in Gaza.”
Overhead, planes flew banners with competing messages. “Get out of Israel now! Free Palestine!” and “We stand with Israel.” Jewish lives matter.”
Officials said nobody was arrested and the protest didn’t seriously disrupt the nearly two-hour event that was attended by tens of 1000’s of individuals, some waving Israeli flags.
State police blocked protesters from reaching the stage, and university spokeswoman Colleen Mastony said public safety personnel escorted protesters to the back of the stadium, where they remained until the top of the event.
“Peaceful protests like this have been taking place at UM commencement ceremonies for decades,” she added.
The university allowed protesters to establish camp on campus, but police helped break up a big gathering at a graduation ceremony Friday evening and one person was arrested.
In Indiana, protesters called on their supporters to wear their kaffiyehs and walk out during President Pamela Whitten's speech Saturday evening. The Bloomington campus has designated a protest zone outside of Memorial Stadium, the world for the ceremony.
In Princeton, New Jersey, 18 students went on a hunger strike in an effort to pressure the university to divest from firms linked to Israel.
One of them, senior David Chmielewski, said in an email that the strike began Friday morning with participants consuming only water and that it can proceed until the administration engages with students over demands equivalent to amnesty of criminal and disciplinary charges for demonstrators.
Other protesters took part in 24-hour “solidarity fasts,” Chmielewski said.
Princeton students arrange a protest camp and a few staged a sit-in outside an administration constructing this week that led to about 15 arrests.
Students at other colleges, including Brown and Yale, went on similar hunger strikes earlier this 12 months before the newest wave of encampments.
Meanwhile, students at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, dismantled their camp peacefully on Friday evening without police intervention.
School officials said they were pleased with the event, which was not the results of an agreement. Protest organizers said in a press release they were “deeply upset and disappointed” that negotiations with the university had failed.
The protests stem from the conflict that began on October 7 when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking about 250 hostages.
Promising to destroy Hamas, Israel launched an offensive within the Gaza Strip that killed greater than 34,500 Palestinians within the Hamas-controlled area, about two-thirds of them women and youngsters, in response to the Health Ministry. Israeli attacks have devastated the enclave and displaced most of its residents.
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Marcelo reported from New York. Lavoie reported from Richmond, Virginia. Associated Press reporters Ed White in Detroit, Nick Perry in Boston and Adrian Sainz in Memphis, Tennessee, contributed.
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