Jimu News reporter Song Qingying
Student protests have erupted in many colleges and universities in the United States in recent days, with protesters showing solidarity with Palestine and demanding an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. The intensifying protests culminated on April 18 at Columbia University, where more than 100 students were arrested. The protests have now spread to Harvard, Yale, the University of Michigan, New York University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, among others. In the early morning of the 26th local time, Zhang, a student studying at Columbia University, told Jimu News reporters that the protests have appeared sporadically since October last year, but they began to grow in scale in early April, after he went to the school library and witnessed the whole process of the police arresting the students, and he is now worried that the graduation ceremony to be held in mid-May will be postponed or canceled.
Tents set up by protesters on the Columbia campus (photo courtesy of the interviewee)
Witnessing the police arresting the student at the scene, "the scene was a little panicked"
According to the Global Times, at about 4 a.m. local time on April 17, in front of the Butler Library of Columbia University in New York City, many students set up tents on the lawn and established the "Gaza Solidarity Camp". The occupation movement was organized by the Coalition for the Apartheid Divestment of Columbia University (CUAD), Students for Palestinian Justice (SJP), and Jewish Voices for Peace (JVP) to sever economic ties with companies that "profit from Israeli apartheid, genocide, and occupation of Palestine." The demonstrators promised to stay on the lawn until the school met their demands.
Zhang said that the protests had been sporadic since October last year, but they began to grow in size in early April. Zhang saw that the protesting students set up tents in front of the library, and at night the students lived in tents, and some people brought pizza, fruits, coffee, mineral water and other supplies to the students, and during the day, the demonstrators would shout slogans and give speeches, and at night he also saw some demonstrators reading and studying near the tents, and the demonstrations were generally peaceful.
According to the Washington Post reported on April 18, the school reported to the police on the grounds that the students had violated a number of school rules, and the New York City police entered Columbia University and arrived at the protest site, the police asked the students to leave the scene as soon as possible, and the students refused to leave, and the police immediately dispersed the protesting students and arrested more than 100 people.
"At 12 noon, I walked through the procession to the library, where the demonstrators were singing and shouting slogans, and the police shouted and warned after the police entered the venue, and the demonstrators did not back down, and then a large number of heavily armed police arrested the students. ”
New York police arrest protesters (photo provided by the interviewee)
The area around the campus is not very safe, and the graduation ceremony may be affected
Zhang said that after the protests broke out, the campus and study life were greatly affected, in addition to many courses were changed to online classes, and exams were also changed to remote classes. "The school gate has been sealed, leaving only two small gates, guarded by a large number of security personnel, and you need to check your student ID and swipe your card to enter and exit, and now you need to go to the school a long time in advance because you are worried about queuing. ”
In addition, Zhang also noticed that there are a large number of New York police patrols around the school, and a large number of security personnel are also arranged to patrol the school, and they will check their student ID cards from time to time. I used to be able to take my friends to Columbia University to play, but now I can't, there were guides in the school with a large number of tourists to visit, but now there are no more, and the principal's office area is also fenced off. ”
"Because Columbia University is surrounded by people from all over the United States, some of whom support Columbia's protesters, and some who are scolding the protesting students across the school, the campus is not very safe, and many of my classmates who live in dormitories near Columbia University don't go out much at night. Zhang said.
According to the Global Times, citing the New York Times, the current wave of protests in American colleges and universities may continue until the end of the year, when even some graduation ceremonies will turn into angry confrontation occasions.
Zhang also introduced that from May 10th, different departments of Columbia University will hold graduation ceremonies related celebrations, and the 15th is the whole school ceremony. However, due to the ongoing demonstrations, preparations for the graduation ceremony were also affected. The school has been setting up a viewing platform for the ceremony for a long time, but on April 25, when he went to the school for an exam, he saw that the number of people who set up the viewing platform had also decreased, and he was "worried that the graduation ceremony would be postponed or even canceled."
The school and the protesting students are still in conversation
As for the turmoil at Columbia University, some media analysts believe that this is a microcosm of the recent intensification of differences between American universities on the Palestinian-Israeli issue.
New York police and Columbia protesters confront each other (photo courtesy of the interviewee)
According to the Global Times, according to statistics from the Axios News Network on the 23rd, since last week, demonstrations in support of Palestine have erupted and spread in colleges and universities across the United States, including students from Yale University, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton University, University of California, Berkeley, Boston University, University of North Carolina and other more than 20 well-known universities have joined the protests.
Many university students have "set up" on campus in preparation for long protests, but most of these rallies have been dispersed by the police. Videos on social media of police handling of the protesters showed chaos at the scene, with officers tearing down tents erected by demonstrators and officers beating up protesters, who kept shouting slogans: "Our protests will not stop!"
It is reported that in the early morning of April 22, Columbia University President Shafik spoke for the first time after the police entered the school and arrested him. In an email to students, she wrote that the current tensions were being "exploited and amplified by individuals unrelated to Columbia who come to campus to seek their own agendas," noting that the university needed to "recalibrate" from the tensions. Shafiq said he would find a way to defuse the campus crisis and talk to the protesting students.
Zhang said that since the protests broke out, the school has kept students informed of the progress of the incident by email. According to the latest news sent by the school, as of 11 p.m. local time on the 25th, the school said that negotiations between the school and the student demonstrators continued.
After the outbreak of the war in Gaza last October, pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian camps in U.S. colleges and universities have faced off tensely, sometimes escalating into violence, according to China Newsweek. Balancing the right to free speech with campus safety has become a problem for university administrators. This time, the police entered the university campus and arrested a large number of students, thus entering a new stage of the "Palestinian-Israeli crisis" that has been fermenting in US colleges and universities for more than half a year.
(Source: Jimu News)
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