Yale, NYU follow Columbia’s wrongheaded lead with arrests of pro-Palestinian protesters
Columbia University President Nemat “Minouche” Shafik’s extraordinary decision to call the New York Police Department on peaceful pro-Palestinian protesters last week drew massive outrage. Yet similar scenes unfolded at other campuses Monday as dozens of student protesters were arrested.
At Yale University, campus police officers arrested 60 pro-Palestinian demonstrators, including 47 students, who had set up an encampment on campus to demand that the school divest from weapons manufacturers that are being used for Israel’s siege on Gaza. Yale police charged those arrested with trespassing.
At New York University, the NYPD arrested 120 people, including students and faculty members, on Monday night after receiving a request from the school for police to clear an encampment at a campus plaza. Protesters said officers used pepper spray indiscriminately as they tried to break up the crowd; NYPD Deputy Commissioner Kaz Daughtry condemned “dangerous acts of aggression” against officers, such as thrown bottles.
Tensions between pro-Palestinian protesters and college administrators have risen sharply ever since Shafik’s ill-advised handling of protests at Columbia galvanized support for such encampments. Shafik now faces the possibility of being censured by the Columbia chapter of the American Association of University Professors. The draft resolution says:
President Shafik’s violation of the fundamental requirements of academic freedom and shared governance, and her unprecedented assault on students’ rights, warrants unequivocal and emphatic condemnation.
More than 34,000 people have been killed in Gaza since October, according to local health officials, and human rights groups say more than 30 people — mostly children — have died of malnutrition and dehydration.