College campuses across the United States have erupted in recent days with pro-Palestinian protests.
Several schools have called the police on protesters, leading to the arrests of hundreds across multiple campuses.
Tensions on many campuses have risen since Hamas’ October 7 attack, when militants killed about 1,200 people and took more than 200 hostages. Israel’s retaliatory assault on Gaza has killed more than 34,000 people, according to Gaza’s health ministry. CNN cannot independently confirm the numbers due to the lack of international media access to Gaza.
Columbia University, the epicenter of demonstrations that began earlier this month, has begun suspending student protesters who have refused to abide by a deadline to vacate the encampment on the New York campus. The students at Columbia had overwhelmingly voted to defy the order and stay.
Pro-Palestinian encampments have been also set up at other schools, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Emerson College, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Michigan and the University of California, Berkeley. Last week, police arrested nearly 100 protesters at the University of Southern California after a dispersal order.
As some Jewish students say they are concerned for their safety on campus, college administrators are facing increasing pressure from lawmakers to rein in protests.
A protester wears the university’s disciplinary notice covered over by support for Palestinians in Gaza at Columbia University in New York City, on Monday, April 29.
Students are arrested during the protest in Austin on April 24. There were dozens of arrests. University police had warned students in an email that they faced more arrests if they didn’t disperse from the site.
House Speaker Mike Johnson speaks to the media on the campus of Columbia University after meeting with Jewish students on April 24. He called on the school’s president to resign during a tense news conference where the crowd repeatedly interrupted him and at times loudly booed him and other Republican lawmakers who were with him.
A group of Jewish and non-Jewish students gather at the Columbia encampment to celebrate Seder, a ritual feast at the start of the Jewish holiday of Passover. Columbia student Cameron Jones told CNN: “I am Jewish and, to me, Passover symbolizes perseverance and resilience. I think this encampment represents those two ideals because we have seen the university take countless measures to try to suppress our student activism, and here is us persevering through that.”
