I remember how it was -- JR
Pro-Palestinian protesters attacked at UCLA, hundreds arrested in New York at encampment
Groups of protesters have clashed overnight at a pro-Palestinian camp at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) — while 280 people have been arrested at similar encampments in New York.
More than 1,000 people have so far been arrested across the United States amid growing protests that have spread to Australian universities.
Witness footage from UCLA, verified by Reuters, showed people wielding sticks or poles to hammer on wooden boards being used as makeshift barricades to protect the pro-Palestinian protesters before police were deployed to the campus.
As student rallies have spread to dozens of schools across the US in recent days expressing opposition to Israel's war in Gaza, police have been called in to quell or clear protests.
The student protests in the United States have also taken on political overtones in the run-up to the presidential election in November, with Republicans accusing some university administrators of turning a blind eye to anti-Semitic rhetoric and harassment.
On Tuesday, UCLA officials announced that the encampment was unlawful and violated university policy. UCLA Chancellor Gene Brock said it included people "unaffiliated with our campus", though he provided no evidence of the presence of outsiders.
Footage from the early hours of Wednesday morning showed mostly male counter-demonstrators, many of them masked and some apparently older than students, throwing objects and trying to smash or pull down the wooden and steel barriers erected to shield the encampment.
Some screamed pro-Jewish comments as pro-Palestinian protesters tried to fight them off.
"They were coming up here and just violently attacking us," said pro-Palestinian protester Kaia Shah, a researcher at UCLA.
"I just didn't think they would ever get to this, escalate to this level, where our protest is met by counter-protesters who are violently hurting us, inflicting pain on us, when we are not doing anything to them."
Police said they had responded to a request from UCLA to restore order and maintain public safety "due to multiple acts of violence" within the encampment.
Broadcast footage later showed police clearing a central quad beside the encampment.
On Tuesday night local time, New York police arrested dozens of pro-Palestinian demonstrators holed up in a building at Columbia University and removed a protest encampment that the Ivy League college had sought to dismantle for nearly two weeks.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said that about 170 of the 280 arrested at Columbia University and City College have received summonses.
The remaining 100 or so cases will be making their way through the court system, with the earliest arraignments later Wednesday afternoon and into the evening local time.
It is not yet known how many of those arrested were students and how many weren't affiliated with the colleges, he said.
New York mayor Eric Adams told reporters that the occupation of the building at Columbia was led by people not affiliated with the university.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-02/pro-palestinian-camp-attack-at-ucla/103793068
*******************************************Jewish students rally at University of Melbourne
Hundreds of pro-Israel supporters, many draped in Israeli and Australian flags, have gathered at The University of Melbourne.
The group is calling on educational institutions to make its campuses a safe place to be for Jewish students.
Zionist Federation of Australia chief executive officer Alon Cassuto opened the rally.
“We know that students don’t feel safe to be who they are and celebrate who they are,” he told the crowd.
“And since October 7 … anti-Semitism around the world has been on the rise.
“We’re here to say that the past seven months are not something we’re prepared to tolerate any longer. Our campuses have to be free of hate.”
The Australasian Union of Jewish Students president Noah Loven said he would not give the pro-Palestinian encampment any oxygen.
“We don’t want to lean into what they want. So we’re here to stand proud as your students and to stand together for peace,” Mr Loven said.
“In response to the troubling trend that has taken root in our academic institutions across Australia and New Zealand … Jewish students, my peers, have increasingly become targets of fear intimidation, and harassment.”
Protesters were holding signs that read “keep hate off campus” and “stand together against anti-semitism”.
Groups of police officers were stationed around the parameter of the event.
Jewish students say they are in fear of being intimidated and harassed on campus.
The Australasian Union of Jewish Students has voiced concerns and decided to take action after hearing reports of Jewish students avoiding their universities
The union is calling for a roundtable with Education Minister Jason Clare, state education ministers and vice chancellors, and are also demanding that universities implement policies that prohibit hate speech on campus.
It also demands that universities require students to show their student identification “to ensure that external extremist actors do not hijack our campuses”.
The union’s Victorian branch president Holly Feldman said she had friends at Columbia University in the US who have been harassed for being involved in Jewish life.
“The situation continues to escalate and Jewish students are distressed,” Ms Feldman said.
“It’s simply not safe for many Jewish students on campus at the moment, and it’s unacceptable that many feel they cannot attend their lectures and classes in person without fear of intimidation, harassment and violence,” Mr Loven said.
“This is not an issue of free speech – it is of vilification and the endorsement of terror.
“Some of these extreme groups are crossing the line.”
The protest, to take place on Thursday afternoon, is in response to student activists camping out at Australian campuses, including at the University of Melbourne.
Thursday will mark the eighth day members of Uni Melb for Palestine have camped out on the campus’ south lawn.
Students at the University of Sydney, University of Queensland and Australian National University are also holding their own camps.
Australian Palestine Advocacy Network president Nasser Mashni has shown his support for the Melbourne outfit by attending and giving a speech, and in Sydney, Greens Deputy Leader Mehreen Faruqi also addressed students camped out.
The new wave of protests take inspiration from university encampments across the United States, which on Wednesday saw a heavy police presence descend on Columbia University to forcibly clear protesters out.
Uni Melb for Palestine issued a warning to students ahead of the Jewish student-led protest to “not engage with agitators or Zionists at all” and to “not divulge information/details of comrades to cops or security”.
The group are hosting a “teach in” event which will include speeches from Melbourne Law School senior research fellow Dr Jordana Silverstein and a Jewish anti-Zionist student who will discuss “Palestinian liberation from an anti-Zionist Jewish perspective”.
Zionist Federation of Australia chief executive officer Alon Cassuto said he was concerned about the welfare of Jewish students on campus and voiced his support for the demonstration.
“We warned universities last year about the manifestations of antisemitism on campuses, but the situation has gotten worse since that time,” Mr Cassuto said.
“There has been a collective absence of leadership, with appalling and intimidatory behaviour being ignored in the hope that it will go away. Instead, in the face of inaction, it’s gotten worse.”
He claimed that Jewish students are scared to complain “for fear their marks will be affected” which has resulted them to stay away from campus.
“Societal cohesion requires community and political leaders to publicly and strongly call out and push back on those seeking to undermine that cohesion,” the ZFA leader said.
“Anti-Semitism under the guise of political discourse is still antisemitism. We must be vigilant and clear in our opposition to any form of hate on our campuses.”
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Top French university loses regional funding over pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protests
The Paris region authority sparked controversy Tuesday by temporarily suspending funding for Sciences Po, one of the country’s most prestigious universities, after it was rocked by tense pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel demonstrations.
“I have decided to suspend all regional funding for Sciences Po until calm and security have been restored at the school,” Valerie Pecresse, the right-wing head of the greater Paris Ile-de-France region, said on social media on Monday.
She took aim at “a minority of radicalized people calling for antisemitic hatred” and accused hard-left politicians of seeking to exploit the tensions.
Regional support for the Paris-based university includes 1 million euros ($1.07 million) earmarked for 2024, a member of Pecresse’s team told AFP.
On Tuesday, the university’s acting administrator, Jean Basseres, said he regretted the decision.
“The Ile-de-France region is an essential partner of Sciences Po, and I wish to maintain dialogue on the position expressed by Mrs. Pecresse,” he told French daily Le Monde in an interview.
In an echo of tense demonstrations rocking many top United States universities, students at Sciences Po have staged a number of protests, with some students furious over the Israel-Hamas war and ensuing humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.
France is home to the world’s largest Jewish population after Israel and the US, as well as Europe’s biggest Muslim community.
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