4/25/2024-|Last update: 4/25/202407:20 PM (Mecca time)
The New York Times quoted sources as saying that Columbia University President Nemat Shafik admitted at a meeting of the university’s Board of Governors that calling in the police to deal with students who support Palestine led to an exacerbation of the problem, in parallel with the continued confrontations between the police and students in a number of American universities against the backdrop of support for Gaza.
The sources said that the President of Columbia University met with the university’s Board of Governors to justify the decision to call the students to the police.
For its part, Boston Police reported that 4 officers were injured and more than 108 students were arrested during a protest at Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts.
The Texas State Police also announced that it deployed additional numbers of its members to the University of Texas under direct orders from the state’s governor, Greg Abbott, following the continuation of sit-ins in support of Gaza there.
In the same context, Al Jazeera’s correspondent reported that students supporting the Palestinian cause established a camp on the campus of George Washington University in the American capital.
Jewish students support the protests
On the other hand, a member of the student protests at George Washington University said, “The university gave us 6 hours before removing the protest tents, and security threatened us with arrest.”
Jewish students at Columbia University denied the validity of House Speaker Mike Johnson’s allegations that demonstrations in support of Palestine are considered an anti-Semitic threat.
In statements to Anadolu, American Jewish students confirmed that Johnson “did not tell the facts” during his visit to the university campus.
The Jewish student Sam explained that he supports the demonstrations in the campus garden to demand that the university administration cut off its commercial relations with companies that support Israel, and expressed his pride in participating in the demonstrations.
In response to a question about the presence of a threat against Jews at the university, Sam said, “Certainly, there is not,” indicating that he received more support in the protest area “than in any other part of the university.”
“I think students who claim to encounter a lot of anti-Semitism on campus are confusing anti-Israelism with anti-Semitism,” he added.
In turn, the Jewish student Elon confirmed that he did not encounter any anti-Semitic behavior on the university campus or the protest site.
He noted that they celebrated the Jewish Passover at the protest site with more than 100 Jewish students and some Jewish teachers.
“I don’t think Mike Johnson really cares about Jewish students other than his own agenda,” he said.
He pointed out that for the first time today he did not feel safe because “the campus was occupied by Mike Johnson and supporters of radicalism.”
“Antisemitism” claim
Yesterday, Wednesday, in a press conference at the university, US House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson called on its president, Nemat Shafiq, to resign if she failed to stop the pro-Palestine student demonstrations.
Johnson described the demonstrations in support of Palestine on university campuses as “hate and anti-Semitism.”
For her part, a Turkish student studying biology at the university expressed her regret for spreading false information about the protest in support of Palestine.
The student – who preferred not to reveal her name because she is an international student – confirmed that the protest was “completely peaceful.”
On April 18, pro-Palestinian students at Columbia University in the United States of America began a sit-in in the campus garden to protest the university’s continued financial investments in companies that support the occupation of Palestine and “genocide” in Gaza. 108 students were arrested during the demonstrations.
Later, pro-Palestinian student demonstrations spread to other leading universities in the United States, such as New York University, Yale University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of North Carolina.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza that has left tens of thousands martyred and wounded – most of them children and women – and massive destruction and famine that has claimed the lives of children and the elderly, according to Palestinian and UN data.
Israel continues its war despite the issuance of an immediate ceasefire resolution by the Security Council, and despite its appearance before the International Court of Justice on charges of committing “genocide crimes.”
