NEW YORK: Protests against Israel’s unabated assault on Gaza and Rafah filled streets in Brooklyn and escalated at universities across the United States, some of which included Jewish Passover Seders, negating the much-trumpeted accusations of antisemitism.
A large Brooklyn street protest reached a standoff on Tuesday when New York police began to arrest people over “disorderly conduct”, restraining those who refused to move with zip ties.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations criticised the use of police force to stifle dissent, saying it undermined academic freedom.
Several campus protesters Reuters spoke to attributed the off-campus incidents to rogue provocateurs who are trying to hijack the protests’ message.
Many arrested as demos erupt in Brooklyn
“There are no universities left in Gaza. So we chose to reclaim our university for the people of Palestine,” said Soph Askanase, a Jewish Columbia student who was arrested and suspended for protesting. “Antisemitism, Islamophobia and racism, in particular racism against Arabs and Palestinians, are all cut from the same cloth.”
Other students blamed universities for failing to protect their right to protest or stand up for human rights.
Students at the University of California, Berkeley — a school well known for its student activism during the 1960s — set up tents in solidarity with protesters at other schools.
California’s Cal Poly Humboldt, a public university in Arcata, was shut down amid pro-Palestinian protests.
At the University of Minnesota campus in St. Paul, police cleared an encampment after the school asked them to take action, citing violations of university policy and trespassing law.
“I don’t see what Israel is doing as self-defence. I see incredible, absolutely unbelievable human rights violations,” said Katherine Stern, 62, of Woodstock, New York, who gave up her family Seder 120 miles away to attend the Brooklyn protest.
In Brooklyn, about 2,000 people occupied a plaza near the Brooklyn home of US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Shumer, a staunch Israel supporter and the top-ranking Jew in the US government, chanting, “Stop arming Israel,” “Stop funding genocide” and “Let Gaza live”.
Published in Dawn, April 25th, 2024
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