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A US Police officer stands guard as a demonstrator holds a placard reading "Free Palestine" at a pro-Palestinian encampment set up on on the campus of the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), after clashes erupted in Los Angeles on May 1, 2024. Etienne Laurent, AFP

A US Police officer stands guard as a demonstrator holds a placard reading "Free Palestine" at a pro-Palestinian encampment set up on on the campus of the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), after clashes erupted in Los Angeles on May 1, 2024. - Clashes broke out on May 1, 2024 around pro-Palestinian demonstrations at the University of California, Los Angeles, as universities around the United States struggle to contain similar protests on dozens of campuses. (Photo by ETIENNE LAURENT / AFP)

Article (news)

Free Palestine

Agence France-Presse

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="A US Police officer stands guard as a demonstrator holds a placard reading &#x27;Free Palestine&#x27; at a pro-Palestinian encampment set up on on the campus of the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), after clashes erupted in Los Angeles on May 1, 2024. Etienne Laurent, AFP" src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1714578553315AFP__20240501__34QM7AZ__v1__Preview__UsIsraelPalestinianConflictEducationDemo.jpg" class="fr-fil fr-dib"/><figcaption>A US Police officer stands guard as a demonstrator holds a placard reading &quot;Free Palestine&quot; at a pro-Palestinian encampment set up on on the campus of the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), after clashes erupted in Los Angeles on May 1, 2024. <em>Etienne Laurent, AFP</em></figcaption></figure></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt">LOS ANGELES -- Hundreds of people were arrested at pro-Palestinian protests on US campuses as police Wednesday extended a crackdown that included clearing out demonstrators occupying a building at Columbia University in New York.</p><p>On the other side of the country, counter-protesters attacked a pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of California, Los Angeles as violent clashes erupted in the dark before police intervened.</p><p>At Columbia, the center of nationwide protests, police were on standby Wednesday after their overnight operation dismantled a weeks-long encampment and forcibly removed people occupying an academic building.</p><p>Demonstrators have gathered in at least 30 US universities to protest the soaring death toll from Israel&#x27;s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, many demanding college authorities end investments in Israeli companies.</p><p>About 300 arrests were made at Columbia and another New York college on charges including trespass, criminal mischief and burglary, Police Commissioner Edward Caban told a news conference Wednesday.</p><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">&quot;Public safety was a real concern, especially after the protesters escalated the situation by breaking and entering into a university building, and the NYPD was called in to do their job,&quot; he said.</span></div><p>Mayor Eric Adams blamed &quot;outside agitators&quot; who entered Columbia&#x27;s campus for ratcheting up tensions.</p><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">&quot;These external actors (have) a history of escalating situations and trying to create chaos, not to peacefully protest,&quot; he said.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/2024/4/30/fil-am-student-joins-pro-palestine-protests-at-georgia-university-1816">READ: Fil-Am student joins pro-Palestine protests at Georgia university</a></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/world/2024/5/1/nypd-warns-external-actors-behind-escalation-at-columbia-university-protests-823">READ: NYPD warns &#x27;external actors&#x27; behind escalation at Columbia University protests</a></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><strong>- Wave of campus unrest -</strong></span></div><div><ivs-player data-ivs-key="e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603" data-ivs-spid="3001339" data-ivs-vid="3027065"></ivs-player> <script src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/js/loader.js"></script></div><p>The unrest has swept through US higher education institutions, with student protesters erecting tent encampments on campuses from coast to coast.</p><p>The protests have posed a challenge to university administrators trying to balance free speech rights with complaints that the rallies have veered into criminal activity, anti-Semitism and hate.</p><p>At Columbia, police climbed into the barricaded Hamilton Hall via a second-floor window before leading people in handcuffs out of the building into vans.</p><p>In Los Angeles, fireworks were hurled as counter-protesters sprayed chemical substances onto a pro-Palestinian encampment and attempted to tear down wooden boards and metal barricades, AFP journalists saw.</p><p>Several protesters were also beaten on the ground.</p><p>Los Angeles police eventually arrived to restore calm, with a large presence remaining on Wednesday.</p><p>One protester, UCLA doctoral student Vincent Doehr, voiced outrage at the university for not preventing the violence, saying it had been warned about the counter-protesters, whom he described as being pro-Israel.</p><p>&quot;They still allowed them onto campus and to attack us using weapons such as pepper spray, mace, boards, bricks, fireworks,&quot; he told CNN.</p><p>LA mayor Karen Bass said the violence was &quot;absolutely abhorrent and inexcusable.&quot;</p><p>Elsewhere, police moved in Wednesday at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and arrested several protesters, TV footage showed.</p><p>Earlier at the University of Arizona, police said they were &quot;deploying chemical irritant munitions&quot; to disperse &quot;an unlawful assembly.&quot;</p><p>In contrast, Brown University reached an agreement in which student protesters will remove their encampment in exchange for the institution holding a vote on divesting from Israel -- a major concession from an elite American university.</p><p>The weeks of demonstrations -- possibly the most sweeping and prolonged unrest to rock US college campuses since the Vietnam war protests of the 1960s and 70s -- have also become a political flashpoint in an election year.</p><p>President Joe Biden&#x27;s White House sharply criticized the protesters&#x27; seizure of Hamilton Hall, with a spokesman saying it was &quot;absolutely the wrong approach.&quot;</p><p>Former president Donald Trump on Fox News lamented the &quot;anti-Semitism that&#x27;s just pervading our country,&quot; and slammed Biden, his rival in the November presidential election for inaction.</p><p>The Gaza war started when Hamas militants staged an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7 that left around 1,170 people dead, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.</p><p>During their attack, militants also seized hostages, 129 of whom Israel estimates remain in Gaza, including 34 whom the military says are dead.</p><p>Israel&#x27;s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 34,535 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory&#x27;s health ministry.</p><div><strong>© Agence France-Presse</strong></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/world/2024/5/1/blinken-urges-hamas-to-agree-gaza-truce-as-he-meets-israel-leaders-1650">READ: Blinken urges Hamas to agree Gaza truce as he meets Israel leaders</a></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><strong>RELATED VIDEO:</strong></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable" frameBorder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8GOxrQi53q4?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" width="640"></iframe></span></div>

<p>Hundreds of people were arrested at pro-Palestinian protests on US campuses as police Wednesday extended a crackdown that included clearing out demonstrators occupying a building at Columbia University in New York.</p>

Hundreds of people were arrested at pro-Palestinian protests on US campuses as police Wednesday extended a crackdown that included clearing out demonstrators occupying a building at Columbia University in New York.

Police tackle US campus protests as Los Angeles hit by clashes

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Police tackle US campus protests as Los Angeles hit by clashes

Agence France-Presse,

Etienne Laurent with Ana Fernandez in New York

Published May 02, 2024 01:14 AM PHT

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