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Fear of 'Palestine' on American campuses
While trying to calm the tension on campus due to the Gaza war, some of the most prestigious universities in the U.S. were canceled in Columbia, dozens of protesters were detained at New York University and Yale, and Harvard's doors were closed to the public on Monday.
More than 100 pro-Palestinian demonstrators who camped on the Columbia campus were detained last week. Following the intervention in Columbia, similar camps began to be established at universities all over the country.
According to the report in the Associated Press (AP), a camp established by students at New York University reached hundreds of protesters during the day on Monday. The school administration suggested that it warned the crowd to disperse, then called police on 'the scene's irregularization' and learned the university's news of 'frightening slogans and a few antisemitic events'. In the evening, the police started detentions.
In Columbia, where campus doors were closed to anyone without a school ID and protests broke out both on campus and outside, tensions were also high on Monday.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators want the university to withdraw its support from Israel and criticize the school's response to the war.
Republicans call on Columbia rector to resign
North Carolina's Democratic Rep. Kathy Manning, who visited Columbia with three Jewish members of the Jewish Congress, told reporters after meeting with students from the Jewish Law Students Association that it was an 'enormous human camp' that covered about a third of the green space.
After leaving the school's Morningside Heights campus, Manning said they had 'seen currency showing Israel should be destroyed,' while the Columbia administration announced on Monday that classes on the Morningside campus will offer online options for students whenever possible, citing safety as their top priority.
University President Minouche Shafik said in a message to the school community on Monday that he felt 'deep sadness' about what happened on campus.
Stating that students who do not live on campus should stay away, Shafik wrote, "I announce that all classes will be held virtually on Monday to calm the anger and give us all the chance to think about the next steps."
U.S. House Republicans of Representatives from New York called on Shafik to resign in a letter on Monday, suggesting that he could not provide a safe learning environment in recent days 'while the anarchy has surrounded the campus'.
On Sunday, Elie Buechler, the rabbi of the Orthodox Union's Jewish Learning Initiative in Columbia, sent a WhatsApp message to nearly 300 Jewish students to advise them to go home until the campus became safer for them.
New England Patriots owner has stopped donations to Columbia
Robert Kraft, the owner of the American football team New England Patriots, announced that he will withdraw his support to Columbia University on the grounds of 'treatment of Jewish students and faculty' during pro-Palestinian protests on campus in New York.
Kraft's statement, a former Columbia student and a key donor, is driving up pressure on the university, whose rector faces calls for members of Congress to resign.
In a statement through the Foundation for the Fight Against Antisemitism, Kraft said, “I am deeply saddened by the hatred that continues to increase on campus and throughout our country. I'm no longer sure Columbia can protect its students and staff, and I'm hesitant to support the university until corrective measures are taken,” he said.
The businessman had donated $3 million for the construction of the Kraft Jewish Student Life Center in 2000 and has made millions of donations since then.
Harvard administration bans pro-Palestine group
As the Harvard Yard closed to the public on Monday, it was stated that structures such as tents and tables could only enter the garden with prior permission on the sign at the entrance. 'Students who violate these policies are subject to disciplinary action,' the signage wrote, while security guards checked people's school IDs.
On the same day, the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee said it had suspended groups of university administration. In the suspension notice provided by the student organization, the university wrote that the group's demonstration on April 19 violated the school policy and did not attend the necessary trainings afterwards, although the organization was previously kept under surveillance.
In his statement, the Palestinian Solidarity Committee said that they were suspended for 'technical reasons' and when asked, the university refused to give them a written statement about university policies.
In a statement, the group said, "Harvard has repeatedly shown us that Palestine is the exception of freedom of _expression_."
Dozens of detentions in Yale
New Haven police spokesman Christian Bruckhart said police officers in Yale detained about 45 protesters and accused them of intrusion into the campus. Bruckhart said they were all released, promising to appear later in court.
Protesters who set up tents at Beinecke Plaza on Friday held demonstrations over the weekend demanding that Yale end investments in defense companies doing business with Israel.
Yale President Peter Salovey told the campus community on Sunday that university officials have repeatedly spoken to protesting students about the school's policies and guidelines, including speaking and permission to access campus areas.
School officials said they gave protesters until the weekend to leave Beinecke Plaza. They said they warned the protesters again on Monday morning and could face disciplinary action, including arrest and suspension, before police took action.
A large group of demonstrators regrouped after detentions in Yale on Monday, Bruckhart said he closed a street near the campus.
MIT students ask management to make a voice against war
According to the news in the AP, Prahlad Iyengar, an MIT graduate student studying electrical engineering, was among the students who set up a tent camp on the school's Cambridge, Massachusetts campus on Sunday evening.
The student said they called for a ceasefire and protested what they described as MIT's 'complicity in the ongoing genocide in Gaza'.
'MIT didn't even call for a ceasefire, and that's definitely our demand,' Iyengar said.
Inspired by the protests at Columbia University, students set up pro-Palestinian tent camps at Tufts University and Emerson College as well as MIT.
Hundreds of students set up tents on campuses in Cambridge, Medford and Boston on Sunday night protested the Israel-Hamas war.A