(MENAFN) In a sweeping crackdown on pro-Palestine demonstrations across American university campuses, United States police arrested over 80 protesters on Wednesday, amid a wave of protests that have gained momentum nationwide. The demonstrations, which began last week at New York's Columbia University, have since spread from Massachusetts to California, with students demanding that universities sever ties with Israel and divest from companies allegedly contributing to the Gaza conflict.
At the heart of the protests are calls for universities to cut ties with companies like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft, which are implicated in a USD1.2 billion cloud-computing contract with the Israeli government. Arms manufacturers like Lockheed Martin, whose profits are tied to the war, have also faced condemnation from student activists.
Cameron Jones, representing Columbia's Jewish Voice for Peace movement, voiced the demands of students at various institutions, including New York University, Harvard, and Yale, calling for an end to United States government funding for Israeli weapons and denouncing what they term as genocide in Palestine.
However, the protests have faced criticism, with United States House Speaker Mike Johnson denouncing them as "mob rule" and decrying what he perceives as a "virus of anti-Semitism" spreading on college campuses. Johnson's visit to Columbia University on Wednesday saw him calling for the resignation of the university's president, accusing the institution of allowing "lawless agitators and radicals" to take control.
Despite these accusations, activists involved in organizing the demonstrations deny charges of anti-Semitism, highlighting the diverse participation, including Jewish students, in the pro-Palestine movement. The arrests and subsequent debate surrounding the protests underscore the complexities of campus activism and the ongoing tensions surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict within the United States.
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