The situation at Columbia University in New York remains tense. The university has shelved an ultimatum for protesting pro-Palestinian students to vacate the campus by midnight Friday. According to AFP, this was reported by the management of the university, whose students started a nationwide wave of university protests, which led to clashes with the police and the arrest of dozens of people.
“The situation here is very heated and tense,” says Echo24 editor Jan Křovák from the scene. “The university is guarded by dozens of policemen, even if there is no protest right now, there are groups of supporters of Israel or Palestine around the campus,” he described the situation on Thursday afternoon New York time. According to him, the police strictly control who is admitted to the campus, this is only possible with a university ID. “The campus is completely impenetrable,” he adds.
Students have refused to leave the New York campus for the tenth day and continued their protests on Friday night, when the original ultimatum given by the university to vacate the premises expired. However, students with protest banners dispersed at night when about four dozen police officers arrived at the scene, the AP reported. “Negotiations have progressed and are continuing as expected,” university officials said on Friday, according to AFP.
American universities have been the scene of protests since the start of the war in Gaza last October. But in recent days, tensions have escalated after Columbia University officials called the police on their students who had camped out in the middle of the Manhattan campus. Similar protest camps have sprung up across the country, and media reports say the events are attracting activists from outside, who continue to stoke passions.
The campus demonstrations reflect strong disapproval among young Americans of the way Israel is waging war in Gaza against the terrorist Hamas movement. The protesting students are demanding that the schools cut off business ties and investments that are in any way connected to Israel, and are calling for an end to the killing of Palestinian civilians. According to critics, the protests are accompanied by manifestations of anti-Semitism and intimidation of Jewish students.
In recent months, the US Congress has also discussed the situation at universities, where there are fights between students or the cancellation of speeches due to fears of riots. The public hearing chaired by Elise Stefaniková subsequently led to the resignation of the rector of Harvard Claudine Gay and the rector of the prestigious University of Pennsylvania Liz Magill. The prestigious Columbia University, with its approximately 5,000 Jewish students, is one of the epicenters of the tension.
US President Joe Biden warned on Monday in a message he released on the eve of the Jewish holiday of Passover, about an alarming increase in anti-Semitism in schools and universities. “We must speak out against the alarming growth of anti-Semitism in our schools, in our communities and on the Internet,” Biden stressed. According to him, Americans have witnessed attacks and calls for violence against Jews in recent days. “This blatant anti-Semitism is reprehensible and dangerous, whether on college campuses or anywhere else in the country,” the president said.
Former US President Donald Trump also criticized pro-Palestinian demonstrations at US universities, according to press agencies. He claimed, among other things, that the infamous far-right rally in Charlottesville in 2017 was “nothing” compared to the “level of hatred” in current events. Trump claimed that “radicals want to dismantle universities”, AFP recalled.
