Mideast War blowback

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Columbia University students who inspired pro-Palestinian demonstrations across the country said Friday that they reached an impasse with administrators and intend to continue their encampment until their demands are met.

The announcement after two days of exhaustive negotiations came as Columbia’s president faced harsh criticism from faculty — something that has been seen at several other universities where professors and staff similarly condemned leadership over the use of police against demonstrators, leading to fierce clashes, injuries and hundreds of arrests.

The tensions add pressure on school officials from California to Massachusetts who are scrambling to resolve the protests as May graduation ceremonies near.

As the death toll mounts in the war in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis worsens, protesters at universities all over the U.S. are demanding that schools cut financial ties to Israel and divest from companies they say are enabling the conflict.

In one crackdown, in Denver, police swept through an encampment Friday at the Auraria Campus, which hosts three universities and colleges. Forty protesters who set up there the day before were arrested on what the campus said were trespassing charges for violating a camping ban.

At Columbia, student negotiators representing the encampment said that after meetings Thursday and Friday, the university had not met their primary demand for divestment, although there was progress on a push for more transparent financial disclosures.

“We will not rest until Columbia divests,” said Jonathan Ben-Menachem, a fourth-year doctoral student.

On the opposite coast, protesters at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, barricaded themselves inside a building for the fifth day Friday. The administration gave them until 5 p.m. to leave and “not be immediately arrested,” a deadline that came and went.

University officials did not immediately respond to a request for an update or provide information on what they planned to do, and the campus has been closed for the remainder of the semester.

At Arizona State University, protesters pitched tents, including some that police dismantled, and at least one person was handcuffed and taken away Friday.

Police previously clashed with protesters Thursday at Indiana University, Bloomington, where 34 were arrested. There were about 36 arrests at Ohio State, and one at the University of Connecticut.

The president of Portland State University took a different approach Friday, announcing a forum to discuss protesters’ concerns and a pause on further gifts and grants from Boeing, after students asked that the school cut ties with the aerospace company.

Elsewhere in New York, about a dozen protesters spent the night in tents and sleeping bags inside a building at the Fashion Institute of Technology.

Protesters also stayed overnight at the encampment at George Washington University. Officials said in a statement that those who remained were trespassing on private property and disciplinary actions would be pursued against students involved in the unauthorized demonstrations.

At Emory University in Atlanta, video that circulated widely on social media showed two women who identified themselves as professors being detained, with one of them slammed to the ground by an officer as a second one pushed her chest and face onto a concrete sidewalk.

University President Gregory Fenves said via email that some videos of clashes were “shocking” and he was “horrified that members of our community had to experience and witness such interactions.”

Students in Paris inspired by Gaza solidarity encampments at campuses in the United States peacefully evacuated a campus building at a prestigious French university late on Friday after days of tensions.

The head of the Paris Institute of Political Studies, known as Sciences Po, said an agreement was found Friday with students. Sciences Po counts President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Gabriel Attal among its many famous alumni.

Tensions had break out on the campus as pro-Palestinian students sought to occupy an amphitheater earlier this week.

On Friday, pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli demonstrators faced each other in a tense standoff in the street outside the school. Riot police stepped in to separate the opposing groups.

Students later agreed to leave the site.

Pro-Palestinian protester and Sciences Po student Wajih, who declined to give his last name for fear of disciplinary sanctions by the university, said “the occupation has paused for now. But we’ll still support the Palestinian movement at large, we’ll support other universities, we’ll support all over the globe until Palestine is free.”

In an email to students, Sciences Po administrator Jean Bassères pledged Friday to hold a townhall meeting in the coming week and to suspend some disciplinary proceedings against students. In return, students “committed to no longer disrupting courses, examinations and all other activities of the institution,” the email said.

The Gaza war is sharply divisive in France, which has the largest populations of Muslims and Jews in western Europe. France initially sought to ban pro-Palestinian demonstrations after Hamas’ surprise Oct. 7 attack on Israel that sparked the war. Antisemitism has surged.

Columbia University said Friday that it has banned a student protest leader from campus after a video resurfaced Thursday that showed the student saying Zionists "don't deserve to live."

A university spokesperson said the student, Khymani James, has been "banned from campus." The university did not provide any further details on the circumstances surrounding the ban or offer any information on disciplinary proceedings.

In a statement Friday night about the ongoing protests, Columbia officials said a person whose "vile videos" had recently surfaced has been banned.

"Chants, signs, taunts, and social media posts from our own students that mock and threaten to 'kill' Jewish people are totally unacceptable, and Columbia students who are involved in such incidents will be held accountable," the statement said.

James, a junior and member of the group Columbia University Apartheid Divest, or CUAD, and a self-identified spokesperson for the student encampment at Columbia, is seen making the comments in a clip of the video verified by NBC News.

"Zionists, they don't deserve to live comfortably, let alone, Zionists don't deserve to live," James said in the video, which has been circulating on social media.

"The same way we're very comfortable accepting that Nazis don't deserve to live, fascists don't deserve to live, racists don't deserve to live, Zionists, they shouldn't live in this world," James added.

James, who uses he/she/they pronouns, said in a statement posted to X on Friday that their comments were "wrong" and that they "regret" them, adding "every member of our community deserves to feel safe without qualification."

James added that they wish they had said instead that, "Zionism is an ideology that necessitates the genocide of Palestinian people. I oppose that in the strongest terms."

James said in the statement that the comments were made before they were involved with CUAD and that both it and the Gaza Solidarity Encampment "have made clear" that their comments on the video "are not in line with the CUAD community guidelines."

"Those words do not represent CUAD," James said. "They also do not represent me."

It’s unclear whether James is still serving a a spokesperson. James did not appear to be at the protests Friday.

About 100 people were detained from a pro-Palestinian protest at Northeastern University’s Boston campus Saturday morning, according to university officials.

The university said its police department, with the help of local law enforcement, began clearing "an unauthorized encampment" on the campus early in the morning.

"What began as a student demonstration two days ago, was infiltrated by professional organizers with no affiliation to Northeastern," the university said in its statement on X. "Last night, the use of virulent anti-Semitic slurs, including 'Kill the Jews,' crossed the line. We cannot tolerate this kind of hate on our campus."

Video circulating online appears to show the statement being made by a counterprotester holding an Israeli flag, who was met with boos from other protesters on campus. It's not clear if the person who said the antisemitic phrase was among those arrested.

The leading student organization behind the protest, Huskies for a Free Palestine, or HFP, called the administration’s statement "false narratives," and accused the administration of implying the phrase was said by pro-Palestinian protesters and using it "as justification to arrest over 100 Northeastern faculty, workers, and students."

University spokesperson Renata Nyul said, “That language has no place on any university campus” no matter the context.

The university said that of the approximately 100 people police detained, students “who produced a valid Northeastern ID were released.”

“They will face disciplinary proceedings within the university, not legal action,” the statement said. “Those who refused to disclose their affiliation were arrested.”

Videos posted on HFP's Instagram showed what the group says were students being arrested. Police officers in riot gear could also be seen in videos on campus.

"Why are you in riot gear? I don’t see no riot here," protesters could be heard chanting to the officers, along with, "Who do you serve? Who do you protect?"

In other videos posted to HFP's Instagram, protesters chanted, "Free, free Palestine" and "Disclose, divest. We will not stop, we will not rest.

HFP shared a message to the administration on its Instagram regarding the arrests, which the group says were mostly of non-violent students.

"We sincerely hope that northeastern university administration is aware. You may arrest peaceful protestors. But you CAN NOT stop the movement," the statement read. "We are students against genocide, and we always will be. Your intimidation will never change that."

At Arizona State University, 69 people were arrested and accused of trespassing related to setting up an encampment, according to a university spokesperson. The school said the encampment was established by people who were not university students, faculty or staff, and that they refused instructions to disperse.

On Friday, Portland State University President Ann Cudd announced that the institution will put a pause on receiving "any further gifts or grants" from Boeing, after receiving a letter signed by members of the community. The university's Students United for Palestinian Equal Rights has accused Boeing of being "complicit in the occupation and genocide in Palestine," according to a post on their Instagram account. A spokesperson for Boeing said the company has no comment

I can't tell anything from the video

I would say her claims about being stabbed in the eye aren't supported by the video of incident which shows someone walk by her with a flag, not to mention the apparent lack of injury to her eye afterwards.

She must play soccer because it's a great example of faking an injury.

Nothing in the video would support her being stabbed in the eye, nothing in the video supports that she was not. I have stabbed myself in the eye a few times without getting a black eye.

As far as the menu “showing” she faked “Israeli” being cancelled from the menu item the nefarious assumption is she was caught red handed being a drama queen. I could make the nefarious assumption that the menu shown was a menu prior to “cancellation”. Since the “flag stabbing” is national story you think this is something that would be checked out, there were a lot of people at the protest, the alleged menu item alteration should be easy to check out.

Fights broke out at UCLA on Sunday among pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel supporters after a barrier that was meant to separate the dueling groups of demonstrators was breached.

A group called Stand With Us scheduled an 11 a.m. rally to show support for Jewish students after days of often intense pro-Palestinian protests at campuses across the United States, including at crosstown USC. The rally was co-sponsored by the United Jewish Coalition in partnership with the Israel American Council and several related organizations.

Members of the Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice scheduled a 9:30 a.m. demonstration to support students' right to protest, in response to a request from pro-Palestinian protesters at the campus.

“This morning, a group of demonstrators breached a barrier that the university had established separating two groups of protestors on our campus, resulting in physical altercations,'' Mary Osako, vice chancellor of UCLA Strategic Communications, said in a sta

According to the Daily Bruin, members of both groups were facing off on the lawn between Haines Hall and Kaplan Hall Sunday morning.

“Fights have broken out between protesters supporting Israel and those supporting Palestine in Dickson Plaza,'' the newspaper reported at 10:57 a.m.

Among the speakers at the pro-Israel rally was Elan Carr, CEO of the Israeli American Council.

“We will take back our campuses, from Columbia to UCLA and everywhere in between,” he told the crowd, according to the Daily Bruin.

No arrests were reported as of midday Sunday.

“My team and I are closely tracking the protests at UCLA today, and are in close communication with UCLA leadership and City officials to ensure the safety and wellbeing of everyone on campus,” City Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky posted on X.

Later in the afternoon, a phalanx of campus police entered the area to keep the groups apart. The Daily Bruin reported that the pro-Israel group had largely dispersed.

“Pro-Palestine protesters walked through campus and have now stopped between Pauley Pavilion and the Central Ticket Office,'' the campus newspaper posted at 3:12 p.m. “Some have formed a human wall by the Meyer and Renee Luskin Conference Center to stop counter-protesters who followed the crowd.”

A few minutes later, the newspaper reported that the pro-Palestinian demonstrators also began to disperse.

Overnight, pro-Palestinian protesters expanded their campus encampment outside to stretch from the top of the Janss Steps to the east end of Royce Hall.

The growing number of pro-Palestinian protesters has been met with an equally fervent group of counter-protesters who have played loud music near the encampment and shouted chants about Palestine preceded by an obscenity, according to the Daily Bruin, UCLA's student newspaper.

One counter-protester stomped on a Palestinian flag at the encampment while another ripped posters off the exterior of the encampment, the Daily Bruin reported.

As of Sunday morning, groups supporting the counter-protesters had raised $64,478 on GoFundMe to support Bruins for Israel, more than twice the initial $26,000 goal.

The makeshift cluster of more than 50 camping tents for the pro-Palestinian protesters began forming early Thursday and continued to grow over the weekend.

Organizers of UCLA's "Palestine Solidarity Encampment,'' similar to their counterparts at USC, issued a list of demands calling for divestment of all University of California and UCLA Foundation funds from companies tied to Israel, along with a demand that the university call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war and an academic boycott by UC against Israeli universities, including a suspension of study-abroad programs.

Columbia University’s president said Monday that talks with student organizers had failed to reach an agreement, and that the university will not divest from Israel — a demand that has sparked protests on college campuses across the country.

Minouche Shafik asked for those in encampment protests on campus to voluntarily disperse, saying the demonstration had created “an unwelcoming environment for many of our Jewish students and faculty,” that “external actors” have contributed to a “hostile environment” around university gates, and it had become a “noisy distraction” for students.

Shafik also cited the May 15 commencement, saying, “We also do not want to deprive thousands of students and their families and friends of a graduation celebration.”

While the University will not divest from Israel,” it offered to create an expedited timeline for a review of new proposals from students by the school's Advisory Committee for Socially Responsible Investing, which explores divestment, Shafik said.

“The University also offered to publish a process for students to access a list of Columbia’s direct investment holdings, and to increase the frequency of updates to that list of holdings,” she added.

Shafik said the university offered “to make investments in health and education in Gaza, including supporting early childhood development and support for displaced scholars."

“We urge those in the encampment to voluntarily disperse. We are consulting with a broader group in our community to explore alternative internal options to end this crisis as soon as possible. We will continue to update the community with new developments,” she said

Columbia University began suspending students who defied orders to vacate their pro-Palestinian protest by 2 p.m. Monday, after the school's president said it would not divest from Israel — a demand that has sparked protests on college campuses across the country.

"We have begun suspending students," Ben Chang, vice president for communications and a spokesperson for the university, said about three hours after the deadline passed.

The university did not say how many students it suspended.

The university had told student demonstrators to vacate by 2 p.m. or else “be suspended pending further investigation” and barred from completing the spring semester.

At the encampment, now in its second week, participants voted nearly unanimously to stay put.

Around 2:45 p.m. — after the 2 p.m. warning time to leave — protesters marched on the quad and chanted “Disclose! Divest! We will not slow, we will not rest!’"

A part of the encampment has been cleared to make space for the upcoming commencement ceremony for graduates, and picketers are largely sticking to the perimeters of the encampment.

On Friday, counter-protesters on the UCLA campus reportedly waved bananas in an apparent taunt aimed at a student in the pro-Palestinian encampment with a severe banana allergy. Video on social media also showed a counter-protester wrapped in an Israel flag dancing while eating a banana.

Police are working to break up a pro-Palestinian protest advocating for a ceasefire in Gaza in Richmond Monday night, making multiple arrests and deploying chemical agents on protesters as they tore down their encampment.

The protest outside of the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) James Cabell Library began earlier in the day on Monday, April 29, following several other similar protests across the nation.

Individuals gathered on VCU’s Monroe Park campus carrying signs saying “Free Palestine” and “Ceasefire Now,” among others.

8News team members on the ground witnessed VCU Police in riot gear create a police line around 8:30 p.m., exiting from a bus that had been staged near the protest’s encampment.

Soon after, a VCU alert was sent out calling the protest “violent” and an unlawful assembly was declared. Police then moved in on the protesters, working to break apart their line. Some of them were seen wearing gas masks.

8News team members on the ground said they saw hundreds of officers moving in, taking down the barricade by force. Virginia State Police deputies were seen among them, as well as officers with the Richmond Police Department.

videos taken by 8News team members, officers can be seen forcing protesters to the ground and binding their hands with zip ties.

According to our team members, some protesters were seen tossing water bottles at officers.

As state police continued to move in, officers began pushing the protesters back against Cabell Library. Video captured by 8News shows people inside banging on the windows of Cabell Library as people outside are forced back against the walls.

Our team members witnessed pepper spray being used on protesters.

By 9:15 p.m., the entire lawn was surrounded and state police were tearing down tents.

By 9:30 p.m., police were deploying tear gas, which hit many protesters and news crews, including our 8News team members.

The protest slowly began to disperse over the next few hours. At this time, it is not known exactly how many people were arrested.

In the early evening, protesters put up tents and established what they called their “Liberation Zone.” They called for VCU to divest all ties with Israel and, according to the protest’s student leader, advocated for the “liberation of Palestine.”

Prior to the arrival of police, protesters put on masks and created their own line surrounding the encampment. This involved using palettes and other large objects to create a barricade.

Dozens of pro-Palestine demonstrators at Columbia University have escalated their protest over the war in Gaza by occupying an academic building.

Activists at the university in New York City seized Hamilton Hall early on Tuesday, barricading themselves inside.

One student said the campus was "lawless", as officials grapple with the long-running demo which has prompted a wave of rallies elsewhere.

Columbia has urged students and staff to stay away from campus on Tuesday.

It earlier began suspending students who defied Monday's deadline of 14:00 EST (18:00 GMT) to leave their two-week encampment nearby.

But as the deadline passed, dozens of students rallied at the site.

Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), one of the main protest groups, vowed to defy the order in a post on X, and called on activists to "protect the encampment".

The group later announced the takeover of Hamilton Hall, highlighting that the venue was also the focus of student protests in 1968.

Another group, Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), said it had "reclaimed" the building in honour of Hind Rajab, a six-year-old girl found dead in Gaza earlier this year.

One student described the campus as "lawless, utter anarchy", with demonstrators breaking the building's windows to enter, before blocking the doors with furniture.

Speaking to the BBC's US partner CBS News, Jessica Schwalb said the group had entered with "bags full of stuff", adding: "I'm guessing they're going to be living in there indefinitely."

Hundreds of people have been arrested across the country - among them dozens of protesters at the University of Texas at Austin on Monday.

Officials there said protesters had ignored directions to take down their tents and that "baseball-size rocks" had been found in the encampment.

The UN human rights chief Volker Turk has voiced his concern that some law enforcement actions witnessed on American campuses have been "disproportionate in their impacts".

"Freedom of expression and the right to peaceful assembly are fundamental to society," he added in a statement.

Elsewhere, there has been a rare agreement reached in Evanston, Illinois, between Northwestern University and protesters who have camped out for days in solidarity with the Palestinians.

Under the deal, the university said it would permit "peaceful demonstrations", provided the encampment was limited to a single tent.

The BBC is tracking protests or encampments on campuses in at least 22 other states and Washington DC. They have also been reported in Canada, France and Australia.

The White House is walking an increasingly fine line over the campus protests, seeking to balance the right to peaceful protest with condemnation of hate speech.

"It is a painful moment, we get that," press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.

Declining to say how university leadership should act, she added: "Free expression has to be done within the law."

Americans favor Israel in its war against Hamas by a margin of four-to-one and nearly three-quarters support a military operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

Four out of five voters (80%) back the Jewish state in its nearly seven-month-old war against the Islamic terrorist group, with the highest levels of support concentrated among older age groups, according to a Harvard CAPS/Harris survey released Monday.

Meanwhile, 72% of voters say they back an Israel Defense Forces military operation in Rafah to “finish the war,” with 28% saying Israel should “back off now and allow Hamas to continue running Gaza.”

However, two-thirds of voters in the Harris poll said Israel was already trying to avoid civilian casualties in the densely populated Palestinian enclave.

Respondents also gave Biden low marks for his handling of the Israel-Hamas conflict, with just 39% saying they approved of his response.

While Americans were overwhelmingly supportive of Israel, the Harvard CAPS-Harris poll flagged a deep schism by age.

Among registered voters between 18 and 24, only 57% backed Israel compared to 43% who favored Hamas.

Among voters between 55 and 64, however, support for Israel reached 91%, with 93% of those 65 and up backing the Jewish state.

When asked about the possibility of a cease-fire that would permit Hamas to rule Gaza and continue to hold dozens of hostages taken on Oct. 7, more than two-thirds of all voters (68%) opposed the idea.

However, voters ages 18 to 24 were in favor of the proposal by a margin of 57% to 43%.

The Harvard CAPS/Harris was taken April 24–25 and surveyed 1,961 registered voters with a margin of error of plus-or-minus 2 percentage points.