The latest on pro-Palestinian campus protests
- Protest encampments are in place on more than 40 college campuses across the U.S. and in Canada, including UCLA, Northwestern, George Washington, Harvard, Brown, UT Austin, the University of Michigan and MIT.
- The University of Southern California, where 93 people were arrested last night, announced today that it was canceling its main graduation commencement ceremony on May 10, citing safety concerns.
- Columbia University is engaged in an ongoing discussion with student protesters.
- Demonstrators waving Israeli flags gathered outside Columbia University and called for those taken hostage on Oct. 7 to be brought home. At UCLA, pro-Israel protesters clashed with pro-Palestinian protesters.
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Pro-Palestinian, pro-Israel protesters at USC find common ground: ‘It’s all about bridging that gap’
LOS ANGELES — University of Southern California alum Charlotte Korchak stood outside the gates of her alma mater draped in an Israeli flag on Thursday evening.
She flew to the U.S. from her home in Jerusalem this year and arrived in L.A. last weekend to celebrate Passover with her family.
When she watched on social media as pro-Palestinian students set up an encampment in solidarity with other campuses protesting the war in Gaza, she felt called to action.
“What I was seeing gave me a physical reaction,” she said. “It’s been a very hard week.”
Korchak was part of a larger pro-Israel counterprotest that set up tables outside campus and left empty plates for each of the hostages taken by Hamas.
While she was giving an interview to a reporter, a pro-Palestinian student interrupted her, shouting that she supported “a terrorist state,” referring to Israel.
Korchak said the two argued but eventually calmed enough to share their individual perspectives and hope for lasting peace. After a few minutes, they exchanged phone numbers and agreed to keep in touch.
“It’s all about bridging that gap and hearing each other,” Korchak said.
As USC cancels commencement, Columbia students worry theirs could be disrupted
As the University of Southern California in Los Angeles canceled its main commencement ceremony because of safety concerns over student protests, students at Columbia University in New York, where anti-war demonstrations led to dozens of arrests, said they feared theirs could be disrupted.
Schools across the country where protests have flared up are keeping mum about whether they will adjust or outright cancel their ceremonies, but some students said they feared a domino effect — much like what happened after students at students at Columbia became the first to set up an encampment on campus.
Those at other schools, from the University of Michigan to Cornell University in New York, then began to erect their own tents in shows of opposition to the Israel-Hamas war and to urge their schools to divest from companies that do business with Israel.
Graduating college students whose high school commencement ceremonies were canceled or delayed by the coronavirus pandemic say it is just another knock on their rocky road to getting an education.
Second gentleman Emhoff speaks with Columbia, Barnard Jewish leaders
Second gentleman Doug Emhoff spoke with two Jewish leaders from Columbia and Barnard this week, a White House official said.
Emhoff spoke with one leader from Orthodox Union-JLIC at Columbia and Barnard and another from Columbia/Barnard Hillel, a nondenominational campus-based Jewish organization.
The official said Emhoff's conversations "focused on the immediate need to address antisemitism on college campuses," and he offered his support on the Biden administration's behalf.
"During the calls, the Second Gentleman recognized that while every American has the right to freedom of speech and to protest peacefully, hate speech and calls for violence against Jews is both antisemitic and unacceptable," the official said.
Arrests made at Ohio State University
A number of people were arrested at Ohio State University in Columbus after demonstrators refused to leave part of campus Thursday night, a university spokesperson said.
The number of arrests was not immediately available.
“Well established university rules prohibit camping and overnight events. Demonstrators exercised their first amendment rights for several hours and were then instructed to disperse,” spokesman Ben Johnson said in an email.
“Individuals who refused to leave after multiple warnings were arrested and charged with criminal trespass,” he said.
The Columbus Dispatch newspaper reported that its reporters witnessed at least a dozen people being taken into custody.
UCLA students can stay inside encampment, officers say
LOS ANGELES — Public security officers at UCLA have set up metal fences around the pro-Palestinian student encampment perimeter to secure the area.
UCLA students are allowed to remain inside a large encampment indefinitely as tensions with counterprotesters eased on campus, officers said.
Outside the perimeter, pro-Israel protesters argued with security officers over protecting the encampment.
“We’re trying to keep both sides safe,” said Gary Johnson, head of campus security. “Because this is a public campus, they are allowed to be here as long as they want to be.”
Pro-Israel counterprotesters marched near Columbia University today as pro-Palestinian demonstrations continued there and at campuses across the U.S.
Columbia University calls rumors of NYPD untrue, says talks are progressing
Columbia University said tonight that progress is being made in talks with students who are protesting at the Manhattan campus, and it shut down rumors that police were on their way.
“There is a rumor that the NYPD has been invited to campus this evening. This rumor is false,” the university said.
Students have set up an encampment on the campus to protest the war in Gaza and to bring attention to the suffering of people there, which the university has said must be dismantled.
The university said a formal process is underway.
"The talks have shown progress and are continuing as planned," Columbia said.
Northwestern protesters meet with university over encampment, demands
EVANSTON, Ill. — Northwestern University officials met with a small group of the organizers of the campus’s growing pro-Palestinian encampment for two hours today, according to a release from the school and conversations with a student who attended.
The university said it offered during the meeting to let the demonstrators continue to assemble as long as they got rid of the bullhorns and tents that go against the school’s policy — but “the offer was declined.”
“Because of the fact that we left the meetings, without the demands that we were looking for, we have no intention of leaving the encampment,” said a student who was at the meeting and asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retaliation and to protect the integrity of future talks.
The student said the administrators would not commit to anything concrete tonight in terms of the university’s divesting funds from defense stocks or Israeli companies.
“Our interest is not in protesting for the sake of protesting but rather to see these demands being committed to,” the student said. “The purpose of the encampment was to stay there as long as necessary.”
The demands also include protecting student civil liberties and ending university partnerships with Israeli institutions.
The school said in its release that it “will move forward with other options to protect the safety of the community.” Earlier in the day a university spokesperson said students who refuse to remove tents are subject to arrest.
Families of American hostages held in Gaza respond to joint statement calling for release of hostages
The families of eight American hostages held in Gaza said a joint statement the U.S. and 17 other countries released today calling for the immediate release of all hostages "makes it clear that the hostage crisis is much more than an Israeli issue."
"The remaining 133 hostages pose a global humanitarian crisis and require an immediate, coordinated international response," the families said in a statement.
They added that they are "grateful" to President Joe Biden "for building this coalition of nations to bring attention to the magnitude of this crisis."
Their statement said that "the significant nature of this statement is a tragic indicator that our window to rescue the hostages is closing."
"Together, the international community must continue to act in coordination and with determination to keep the pressure on the terrorist leaders of Hamas," the statement said. "It is up to them to end this humanitarian crisis by releasing ALL of the remaining hostages as soon as possible."
Pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel protesters clash at UCLA
LOS ANGELES — Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters and pro-Israel counterprotesters faced off at UCLA tonight, each waving the flags of their movements and shouting at one another.
Israeli flags flew behind demonstrators who chanted “Free Palestine!”
“We see ourselves as part of a legacy of student activists,” said Tai Min, a second-year undergraduate student who helped organize UCLA’s encampment. “This is not our first time out here, and this won’t be the last.”
Min spoke from outside a perimeter that demonstrators against the war in Gaza set up, which was made of signs, a makeshift wooden fence and students with linked arms.
Inside the encampment, at least 40 tents have been erected within the last 24 hours. Protesters have set up supply stations with masks, food, water and first aid.
Outside the perimeter, Charlene, who asked that her last name not be used for fear of facing antisemitic harassment, stood with nine members of her family. Charlene flew in from New York this week to observe Passover with her Los Angeles-based extended family. Her cousin attends UCLA and told her that she was recently spit on while wearing a Star of David and called a “Zionist pig,” Charlene said.
“I obviously have to support them,” she said. “We are Iranian, but we’re almost Zionist.”
State Department veteran resigns over U.S. handling of Gaza
Hala Rharrit, a U.S. diplomat and veteran foreign service officer, resigned from the State Department yesterday in protest over the Biden administration's policy in Gaza as the death toll in the six-month war climbs over 34,000.
Rharrit served the U.S. government for almost two decades, holding positions in the Middle East, Hong Kong and South Africa, and most recently worked as a spokesperson for the State Department’s Middle East & North Africa, leading the Dubai regional media hub.
"I resigned April 2024 after 18 years of distinguished service in opposition to the United States’ Gaza policy,” Rharrit wrote on her public LinkedIn page. “Diplomacy, not arms. Be a force for peace and unity.”
Rharrit is the latest State Department official to publicly resign since Israel’s military campaign against Hamas started in response to the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, which killed more than 1,200 people.
Josh Paul, another veteran U.S. diplomat, resigned in the department’s bureau of political-military affairs less than a month into the conflict, citing the Biden administration’s “blind support” for Israel and the continued provision of U.S. lethal arms.
The State Department declined to comment directly on Rharrit’s resignation, citing personnel matters.
"Our workforce can share their points of view when they disagree with a certain policy or a certain action that the US government is taking. You’ve heard us talk about the dissent channel. That option that channel continues to be in place,” deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters today.
Trump says Charlottesville 'was nothing' compared to current protests
Former President Donald Trump downplayed a 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that left a young woman dead in comments outside a New York courtroom this afternoon following proceedings in his hush money trial.
Taking aim at President Joe Biden over protests related to the Israel-Hamas war, Trump said "Charlottesville was a little peanut" by comparison.
It "was nothing," Trump said of the Charlottesville rally. "This is tremendous hate, and we have a man that can’t talk about it because he doesn’t understand it."
Biden has often referred to Charlottesville as a key reason he decided to run for president in 2020. Trump's remarks today echoed comments he made on Truth Social yesterday, when he wrote, "Charlottesville is like a 'peanut' compared to the riots and anti-Israel protests that are happening" nationwide.
White House spokesman Andrew Bates blasted Trump's remark in a statement.
"Minimizing the Antisemitic and white supremacist poison displayed in Charlottesville is repugnant and divisive," Bates said. "That moment compelled President Biden to run in 2020, because he has fought Antisemitism and hate his entire life."
College protesters are demanding schools ‘divest’ from companies with ties to Israel. Here’s what that means.
In addition to a cease-fire in Gaza, protesters on college campuses across the country are calling on their schools to divest from all financial support of Israel.
Divestment usually refers to selling shares in companies doing business with a given country. Divestment has long been a goal of a movement that seeks to limit what it considers hostile operations by Israel and an end to expanding what the United Nations has ruled are illegal settlements.
Now, college protesters hope to force their universities to divest to put financial pressure on companies doing business in Israel to meet those two objectives.
Nearly 30 arrested at Emory; police used chemical irritants, school official says
Twenty-eight people were arrested while objects were thrown at police who used chemical irritants for crowd control today during a protest at Emory University in Atlanta, a school official said.
Shortly before 8 a.m., dozens of protesters pushed past police on the campus quad and set up tents where equipment and materials were in place for commencement, Cheryl Elliott, the college’s vice president for public safety, wrote in a letter to the university community tonight.
Of those arrested, 20 were “Emory community members,” Elliott said.
Emory police issued warnings, and when the police orders were ignored, Atlanta police and officers with the Georgia State Patrol assisted with crowd control and detaining protesters, Elliott said.
“During this process and the subsequent confrontations, objects were thrown at police officers,” Elliott said, adding that an officer who was not with Emory police may have used a stun gun on a protester.
Police also used other tactics, Elliott said, to gain control of the crowd.
“Due to the direct assault of officers, law enforcement released chemical irritants into the ground to assist with crowd control,” Elliott said.
The university's goal, Elliott said, was to clear the quad “of a disruptive encampment while holding individuals accountable to the law.”
Northwestern gives no timeline for removing tents, says it is in 'active discussions' with demonstrators
Northwestern University did not give a specific timeline today when it was asked when it will remove tents as a part of pro-Palestinian protests on campus.
The university said it is in "active discussions with the demonstrators to ensure the safety of members of the Northwestern community while also providing a space for free expression."
Earlier today, a spokesperson for the university said, "Students who refuse to remove their tents will be subject to arrest and their tents will be removed by the University."
The university president announced interim rule changes to the student handbook this morning, which include a ban on installing tents on university property that aren’t approved.
The school said tents near The Rock, a monument on campus that people can decorate, would be allowed to remain, as students have to "guard" The Rock for 24 hours to paint it with messages and typically sleep in tents to do so.