University of Southern California launches encampment protest
The University of Southern California in Los Angeles was the latest school to start a solidarity encampment protest today.
A statement shared online from the USC Divest from Death Coalition, comprising students, faculty and Los Angeles community members, said “Our choice of ‘occupation’ draws attention to the complicity of USC in the Israeli occupation, USC’s displacement of the South Central community, and USC being an occupying force on the unneeded land of the Tongva people.”
The group said it was joining the nationwide call by students for universities to disclose their finances, “divest from Israeli violence” and “defend Palestinians.”
NYU assistant professor describes ‘violent’ arrests at student protest
Dr. Chenjerai Kumanyika, an assistant professor of journalism at NYU, said he and other faculty members went to support students protesting in support of Palestinians yesterday when ranks of “intimidating” helmeted police officers closed in and arrested them.
”I can’t even count how many police. Then they arrested faculty and they violently arrest students, and sort of destroyed this academy that the students had set up. Took all of us down to One Police Plaza, the NYPD headquarters, and everyone was charged with trespass,” he said.
Kumanyika said students were grabbed, handcuffed with zip ties and officers were seen throwing chairs.
“All of this is being done under the justification that it is somehow protecting the NYU community. But I think what’s actually going on is that this university wants to avoid the call for divestment, the call for transparency about its investments in Israel. Just the idea that this is about safety is kind of ridiculous, given what I experienced last night,” he said.
He rebuffed the university’s claims of “disorderly, disruptive, and antagonizing behavior” that “interfered with the safety and security of our community.”
“In the spirit of solidarity between Jews and Muslims, they held a Seder at the protest. And there, what the university did was break that up, and somehow call that fighting antisemitism,” Kumanyika said.
Biden signs $95B foreign aid package, includes $26B to Israel and $1B to support Gaza
President Joe Biden signed a $95 billion foreign aid package today that includes $26 billion in assistance to Israel and humanitarian relief in Gaza.
Gaza will receive $1 billion in aid that includes funds for food, medical supplies and water.
“This bill significantly, significantly increases humanitarian assistance we’re sending to the innocent people of Gaza who are suffering badly, they are suffering the consequences of this war that Hamas started and we’ve been working intently for months to get as much aid to Gaza as possible,” Biden told reporters.
“Israel must make sure all this aid reaches the Palestinians in Gaza without delay,” he said.
Pro-Palestinian protests continue at UC Berkeley as students call for an end to Israeli ties and arms investments
Student protesters at the University of California’s Berkeley campus joined students across the country yesterday in demanding their school cut all ties with Israeli institutions.
The Berkeley protesters have camped out for the last two days in opposition to the war in Gaza.”I guess I’m not super surprised. I mean, it is Berkeley, things like this are happening all the time. The only thing that’s surprising me is, it’s this late in the semester,” UC Berkeley student Any Bass told KNTV, NBC News’ affiliate in the Bay Area.
“$2 billion of our tuition money goes to funding contacts with arms and weapons manufacturers, like Boeing, BlackRock, Lockheed Martin and many more,” another student, Malak Agenah, said.
The university, however, was unmoved. “We’re heard what their demands are and there are no plans to change our investment strategies, policies or practices,” spokesperson Dan Mogulof told KNTV.
Students at Brown University start solidarity encampment
An encampment protest started this morning at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, with about 90 students seen joining shortly after 6 a.m., the school said.
A university spokesperson said that encampment on the university’s “historic and residential greens is a violation of University policy.” Students participating were informed they’d face conduct proceedings, the school added.
“We have been troubled by reports of violence, harassment and intimidation at some encampments on other campuses, but we have not seen that kind of behavior at Brown. Any such behavior would not be tolerated,” the university said, noting it is monitoring the situation.
An Instagram post by the Brown Divest Coalition said the protest demands that Brown divest its endowment from “all companies enabling and profiting from the genocide in Gaza and the broader Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory.”
Columbia students commit to remove tents, as professor criticizes protests
A spokesperson for Columbia University says students have committed to dismantling and removing a significant number of tents amid nationwide protests.
The news came as some university staff, including journalism professor Hagar Chemali, criticized the protests.
“At the end of the day, we can’t be enabling hate or incitement to violence, or disruption to the students.” she told NBC’s “TODAY” show this morning.
Scenes from Columbia University campus overnight
Pro-Palestinian supporters rally inside Columbia University in New York City last night. Students are seen moving a tent inside the campus as demonstrations continue into the night.
Police arrest 9 at University of Minnesota pro-Palestinian protests
Nine people were arrested at the University of Minnesota’s Twin Cities campus yesterday, the institution said this morning.
Some students had set up an encampment on the north end of Northrop Mall and were warned by police early yesterday to disperse or be arrested. Some chose to disperse while others chose to remain and peacefully protest before they were arrested and later released.
“It’s important to note that the U of M supports and respects free speech through lawful protest. As a public research university, demonstrations where groups express diverse views and opinions occur regularly on our campus,” a school spokesperson said. “We support the rights of all members of our University community to speak and demonstrate peacefully.”
Over 200 arrested at pro-Palestinian rally near home of Chuck Schumer
At least 209 people were arrested last night after pro-Palestinian Jewish groups held a rally at Grand Army Plaza in New York, near the home of Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y, the NYPD told NBC New York.
The protests came after the Senate overwhelmingly passed a $26 billion package that included new assistance to Israel and humanitarian relief for Gaza.
University rallies and walkouts planned across the U.S. today
Universities across the country will stage their own protests today to decry the war in the Middle East and express solidarity with Gaza.
Encampment protests went late into the night at New York University and Columbia University last evening.
Today in Texas, Rice University in Houston will hold a Gaza protest starting at 10 a.m. local time (11 a.m. ET); meanwhile the University of Texas at Austin will see students walk out of class for a divestment rally just before noon.
In the Midwest, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has a walkout slated for 12 p.m. local time (1 p.m. ET) to demand acknowledgment of the killings of Palestinians because of Israeli occupation and to call for divestment from Israel.
The University of Michigan saw students set up an encampment protest Monday by a coalition of pro-Palestinian student organizations. A rally is scheduled on campus, as well, at 3 p.m. to support the encampment.
FBI coordinates with campuses over wave of protests
The FBI is coordinating with college campuses to make them aware of antisemitic threats and possible violence in connection with the ongoing wave of protests over the Israel-Hamas war, FBI Director Christopher Wray told NBC News’ Lester Holt in an exclusive interview last night.
He said the FBI is “keenly focused on working with state and local law enforcement, campus law enforcement and others to try to make sure that we stay ahead” of any threats of violence.
Wray said the FBI doesn’t monitor protests, “but we do share intelligence about specific threats of violence with campuses, with state and local law enforcement.”
Read more here
Senate passes $26 billion aid for for Israel, Gaza
The Senate yesterday overwhelmingly passed an aid package that includes $26 billion in assistance to Israel and humanitarian relief in Gaza.
The package, approved by a 79-18 vote, also includes aid for Ukraine and Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific.
Protesters gathered near Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s Brooklyn home yesterday, opposed to U.S. military assistance to Israel in the war in Gaza, which has killed thousands of civilians.
The total amount of the package to the three areas is $95 billion, and it includes a provision that could lead to a nationwide ban on TikTok.
President Joe Biden said he will swiftly sign the package into law.
Read more here
A look into college campuses’ long history of serving as a cultural movement platform
Valerie Castro breaks down the decadeslong history of college campuses serving as platforms for cultural movements as more groups from universities across the nation have joined in on the pro-Palestinian movement.
Protests to go on after student protesters agreed to remove ‘a significant number of tents’
Columbia University has said it will continue conversations with pro-Palestinian protest leaders for the next 48 hours, without forcing the encampment to be removed.
Student groups had been circulating messages that a new deadline to disperse had been set for 8 a.m. ET. But the college said there was no deadline and instead talks continue and some concessions had been agreed.
“We are making important progress with representatives of the student encampment on the West lawn,” a college spokesperson said. The statement also confirmed that:
- Student protesters have agreed to remove “a significant number of tents.
- Protest leaders will ensure only students enrolled at Columbia will be taking part.
- The encampment will comply with New York City Fire Department rules.
- And that protesters will “make the encampment welcome to all and have prohibited discriminatory or harassing language.”
Columbia previously said it had set a deadline of midnight for dismantling the encampment, dispersing and following university policies going forward.
