- Written by Brandon Drennon
- BBC news
Columbia University has extended distance learning at its main campus in New York City for the remainder of the semester amid tense Gaza war protests that have spread to universities across the United States.
Hybrid learning came after some students reported anti-Semitic harassment around Columbia University's campus.
About 133 people were arrested at a protest at New York University on Monday.
Dozens of people were arrested at a rally at Yale University, and Harvard University has restricted access to its campus.
Gaza war demonstrations also occurred at universities in the Midwest and West Coast of the United States, leading to the closure of one campus.
Nine students were arrested in Minneapolis on Tuesday morning after attempting to set up a protest camp in front of a library on the University of Minnesota campus.
In New York, hundreds of protesters gathered near the New York University campus in Washington Square Park on Tuesday.
The crowd chanted “shame, shame” and demonstrators criticized the New York City Police Department and university administrators.
Police were called to NYU on Monday to quell a demonstration as university officials warned hundreds of protesters to leave.
University leaders accused the group of breaching the school's barricades and said they were acting in a “disorderly, disruptive and hostile” manner.
New York University officials also indicated that protesters not affiliated with the university participated.
Dylan, an NYU student who declined to give his last name to the BBC, said NYU administrators are “trying to flip the script and say this was a destructive and hostile protest.” .
“We were chanting. We were singing. We were beating drums. If that represented violence, on what basis is NYU reasoning? I don't understand.”
Columbia University officials said Tuesday that an ongoing protest encampment on campus, also in Manhattan, violates regulations.
“Columbia students have the right to protest, but they cannot disrupt campus life or harass or intimidate other students or community members,” university spokesperson Ben Chan told reporters. “This cannot be tolerated,” he said, without going into details of the disciplinary action.
On Monday night, Columbia University President Angela Olinto announced that students will have the option of attending remote classes at the Ivy League's main Morningside campus until the last day of classes on April 29.
“Safety is our top priority,” she said in an email.
Jewish students have expressed concern about anti-Semitism on and around Columbia University's campus.
President Joe Biden said Monday he condemned both the “anti-Semitic protests” and “people who don't understand what's happening to the Palestinians.”
One of the students filed an NYPD hate crime report Monday saying he was hit in the head with a rock while holding an Israeli flag, the New York Post reported.
Shai Davidai, a Columbia University professor who has publicly supported Israel, said he had been banned from campus and his ID had been “deactivated.”
Colombian Students for Justice in Palestine said it “categorically rejects hatred and bigotry in any form” and disavows “incendiary individuals who do not represent us.”
Columbia University President Nemat Shafik said tensions on campus were “exploited and amplified by people who are not affiliated with Columbia and came to campus to pursue their own agendas.”
Dr. Shafik testified before a U.S. Congressional committee last week, defending his efforts to combat anti-Semitism on campus.
Also last week, New York City police arrested more than 100 people during Gaza War demonstrations on Columbia University's campus, including the daughter of Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar.
Campus unrest poses a dilemma for higher education officials seeking to balance the right to free speech with the need to maintain safe and inclusive learning spaces.
Harvard University closed its central campus to public access until Friday, apparently in anticipation of similar student protests.
On the US West Coast, pro-Palestinian students set up “solidarity camps” at the University of California, Berkeley and California State Polytechnic State University, Humboldt on Monday.
Cal Poly's campus has been closed until at least Wednesday due to “dangerous and unstable conditions,” with students using tents and beds to cordon off one of the buildings, school officials said.
A similar encampment has been set up at the University of Michigan.
Activists are calling on universities to “retreat from genocide.”
They accuse the university of using students' tuition fees to invest in companies that support Israel's war in Gaza.
Israel strongly denies any suggestion that it is committing genocide in the Palestinian enclaves, but the International Court of Justice has called the accusations “plausible”.
The war began on October 7 when Hamas militants carried out an unprecedented attack on southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people (mostly civilians) and taking the remaining 253 hostages back to Gaza. It started from.
Since then, more than 34,180 people, mostly children and women, have been killed in Gaza, according to the region's Hamas-run health ministry.
Report from Rebecca Hartman in New York
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