A college in California became the site of chaos Monday evening when a group of students took over a university building as pro-Palestine protests continue to sweep across the nation’s campuses.
Protesters set up a shanty town within the California Polytechnic University’s Siemens Hall equipped with beds and tents, reports KIEM-TV. The school is located in Arcata in rural northern California, close to the border with Oregon.
As the protests gain attention worldwide, billionaire investor Bill Ackman, an outspoken supporter of Israel, tweeted took aim at college leadership.
‘What’s remarkable about these university presidents is how they dance around the truth, ducking and weaving before they are forced to admit their failures of leadership,’ he wrote.
The group chanted slogans such as: ‘Free, Free, Free Palestine,’ a common war cry among college students nationwide. It’s estimated there were around 300 student protesters.
A confrontation eventually resulted in riot police from the California Highway Patrol being called to the scene just after 8pm. A standoff ensued with some students using a side door to exit the building and leave the confrontation.
A riot squad from the California Highway Patrol was called to the school in rural northern California around 8pm on Monday night
Student activists occupied one of the school buildings while chanting pro-Palestine slogans
A California Highway Patrol helicopter hovered above the scene before leaving after a drone nearly crashed into it
The riot police attempting to storm a barricade inside of Siemens Hall
At 11:30pm, law enforcement officers left the scene, leaving the students to occupy the building, reports Lost Coast Outpost
According to KIEM report, at one point during the standoff a truck arrived in order to transport arrested students however the driver of the truck fled when he was surrounded by students.
At 11:30pm, law enforcement officers left the scene, leaving the students to occupy the building, reports Lost Coast Outpost. A California Highway Patrol helicopter also flew away following a near-collision with a drone that was flying overhead.
The website said that some protesters went to the local courthouse in a show of solidarity with other activists who were earlier arrested.
The Lost Coast report also showed protesters inside the building holdings signs that read: ‘Help us please. They are going to attack,’ ‘They want to cut our wifi,’ ‘There are more of u than them’ and ‘Push them out.’
Arcata City Councilmember Sarah Schaefer was on scene at the protest. ‘From what I can see outside, I think this is overkill,’ she said of the police response, Lost Coast reported.
In the wake of the near-riot, officials at the school announced that the campus would be closed and classes moved online until Thursday.
On Monday night a group named Humboldt For Palestine issued a list of demands which included the school divesting from any ties to Israel, including any ties with Israeli education institutions, drop all charges against student activists and for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
The group also said that Monday’s protest was in ‘solidarity with students across the nation occupying campuses for Palestine.’
Tents erected by pro-Palestinian protesters stand in an encampment at the Columbia University campus in New York
Students of New York University (NYU), held a Gaza solidarity encampment outside the NYU Stern School of Business in solidarity with Columbia University
Earlier on Monday, Columbia canceled in-person classes, dozens of protesters were arrested at New York University and Yale, and the gates to Harvard Yard were closed to the public as protests raged on.
At New York University, an encampment set up by students swelled to hundreds of protesters throughout the day Monday.
The school said it warned the crowd to leave, then called in the police after the scene became disorderly and the university said it learned of reports of ‘intimidating chants and several antisemitic incidents.’
Shortly after 8:30 p.m., officers began making arrests.
‘It’s a really outrageous crackdown by the university to allow the police to arrest students on our own campus,’ said New York University law student Byul Yoon.
‘Antisemitism is never ok. That’s absolutely not what we stand for and that’s why there are so many Jewish comrades that are here with us today,’ Yoon said
The protests have pitted students against one another, with pro-Palestinian students demanding that their schools condemn Israel’s assault on Gaza and divest from companies that sell weapons to Israel.
Some Jewish students, meanwhile, say much of the criticism of Israel has veered into antisemitism and made them feel unsafe, and they point out that Hamas is still holding hostages taken during the group’s Oct. 7 invasion.
A red flare is lit during the NYU protest against Israel
Tensions remained high Monday at Columbia, where the campus gates were locked to anyone without a school ID and where protests broke out both on campus and outside
Tensions remained high Monday at Columbia, where the campus gates were locked to anyone without a school ID and where protests broke out both on campus and outside.
U.S. Rep. Kathy Manning, a Democrat from North Carolina who was visiting Columbia with three other Jewish members of Congress, told reporters after meeting with students from the Jewish Law Students Association that there was ‘an enormous encampment of people’ who had taken up about a third of the green.
‘We saw signs indicating that Israel should be destroyed,’ she said after leaving the Morningside Heights campus.
Columbia announced Monday that courses at the Morningside campus will offer virtual options for students when possible, citing safety as their top priority.
A woman inside the campus gates led about two dozen protesters on the street outside in a chant of, ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!’ — a charged phrase that can mean vastly different things to different groups.
A small group of pro-Israel counter demonstrators protested nearby.
University President Minouche Shafik said in a message to the school community Monday that she was ‘deeply saddened’ by what was happening on campus.
‘To deescalate the rancor and give us all a chance to consider next steps, I am announcing that all classes will be held virtually on Monday,’ Shafik wrote, noting that students who don’t live on campus should stay away.
Protests have roiled many college campuses since Hamas’ deadly attack on southern Israel, when militants killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took roughly 250 hostages
During the ensuing war, Israel has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the local health ministry
Protests have roiled many college campuses since Hamas’ deadly attack on southern Israel, when militants killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took roughly 250 hostages.
During the ensuing war, Israel has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the local health ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between combatants and non-combatants but says at least two-thirds of the dead are children and women.
On Sunday, Elie Buechler, a rabbi for the Orthodox Union’s Jewish Learning Initiative at Columbia, sent a WhatsApp message to nearly 300 Jewish students recommending they go home until it’s safer for them on campus.
The latest developments came ahead of the Monday evening start of the Jewish holiday of Passover.
Nicholas Baum, a 19-year-old Jewish freshman who lives in a Jewish theological seminary building two blocks from Columbia’s campus, said protesters over the weekend were ‘calling for Hamas to blow away Tel Aviv and Israel.’
He said some of the protesters shouting antisemitic slurs were not students.
‘Jews are scared at Columbia. It’s as simple as that,’ he said. ‘There’s been so much vilification of Zionism, and it has spilled over into the vilification of Judaism.’
The protest encampment sprung up at Columbia on Wednesday, the same day that Shafik faced bruising criticism at a congressional hearing from Republicans who said she hadn’t done enough to fight antisemitism.
Two other Ivy League presidents resigned months ago following widely criticized testimony they gave to the same committee.
In her statement Monday, Shafik said the Middle East conflict is terrible and that she understands that many are experiencing deep moral distress.
‘But we cannot have one group dictate terms and attempt to disrupt important milestones like graduation to advance their point of view,’ Shafik wrote.
Over the coming days, a working group of deans, school administrators and faculty will try to find a resolution to the university crisis, noted Shafik, who didn’t say when in-person classes would resume.
U.S. House Republicans from New York urged Shafik to resign, saying in a letter Monday that she had failed to provide a safe learning environment in recent days as ‘anarchy has engulfed the campus.’
In Massachusetts, a sign said Harvard Yard was closed to the public Monday. It said structures, including tents and tables, were only allowed into the yard with prior permission.
‘Students violating these policies are subject to disciplinary action,’ the sign said. Security guards were checking people for school IDs.
The same day, the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee said the university’s administration suspended their group.
Several hundred students and pro-Palestinian supporters rally at the intersection of Grove and College Streets, in front of Woolsey Hall on the campus of Yale University
Yale University Police remain at Beinecke Plaza following the arrest of pro-Palestinian supporters
In the suspension notice provided by the student organization, the university wrote that the group’s April 19 demonstration had violated school policy, and that the organization failed to attend required trainings after they were previously put on probation.
The Palestine Solidary Committee said in a statement that they were suspended over technicalities and that the university hadn’t provided written clarification on the university’s policies when asked.
‘Harvard has shown us time and again that Palestine remains the exception to free speech,’ the group wrote in a statement.
Harvard did not respond to an email request for comment.
At Yale, police officers arrested about 45 protesters and charged them with misdemeanor trespassing, said Officer Christian Bruckhart, a New Haven police spokesperson. All were being released on promises to appear in court later, he said.
Protesters set up tents on Beinecke Plaza on Friday and demonstrated over the weekend, calling on Yale to end any investments in defense companies that do business with Israel.
In a statement to the campus community on Sunday, Yale President Peter Salovey said university officials had spoken to the student protesters multiple times about the school’s policies and guidelines, including those regarding speech and allowing access to campus spaces.
School officials said they gave protesters until the end of the weekend to leave Beinecke Plaza.
The said they again warned protesters Monday morning and told them that they could face arrest and discipline, including suspension, before police moved in.
A large group of demonstrators regathered after Monday’s arrests at Yale and blocked a street near campus, Bruckhart said. There were no reports of any violence or injuries.
Prahlad Iyengar, an MIT graduate student studying electrical engineering, was among about two dozen students who set up a tent encampment on the school’s Cambridge, Massachusetts, campus Sunday evening.
They are calling for a cease-fire and are protesting what they describe as MIT’s ‘complicity in the ongoing genocide in Gaza,’ he said.
‘MIT has not even called for a cease-fire, and that’s a demand we have for sure,’ Iyengar said.
