There are many updates to the bulletin, now daily, on the mobilizations of university students against the Israeli attacks on Gaza. In the United States, above all, but not only. Columbia University, the epicenter of protest in America, has begun to suspend students who participate in pro-Palestine demonstrations and who have refused to vacate the campus. In response, students occupied the Hamilton Hallrenaming it Hind’s Hall in honor of Hind Rajab, 5-year-old boy killed by Israeli forces in January. Also there Cornell Universitynear New Yorkfollowing the example of Columbia, began suspending students. This was announced by the president of the University of the State of New York, Martha Pollack. Monday evening police made arrests on the campus of California State Polytechnic University and attempted to disperse pro-Palestinian protesters who had occupied a campus building for over a week. The police also have arrested about 30 protesters at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. He instead made thirty-five arrests at the University of Texas. In the US, over 1,100 have been arrested since the protests began people. In Canadastudents demonstrate on the university campus of Ottawa.
Second Joe Biden “Forcibly occupying a building on a university campus is the wrong approach”, says the spokesperson for the American Security Council, John Kirby, in a briefing with a small group of journalists about the pro-Gaza protests at Columbia University in New York. “Interrupting legitimate university activity is not compatible with the idea of peaceful demonstration,” the official underlined. Three days ago the Secretary of State Antony Blinken, from Beijing, said the protests are “part of democracy”, however criticizing the “silence” on the part of protesters at Columbia University and other universities regarding the Palestinian Hamas militants who attacked Israel on October 7. “Protests are a mark of democracy. Our citizens they make their opinions known, their anger, whenever they think it is necessary. This reflects the strength of our country,” said the Secretary of State.
Read Also
Why does the arrest warrant from the Hague Court worry Netanyahu so much? How judges can act against the government of Israel
In France the police evicted a group of pro-Palestinian students who were occupying a department of the University of Saint-Etiennein central France, while other students from beyond the Alps continue to mobilize in other cities of the country, such as Lyon, Grenoble and Dijon, after similar protests in Paris. In Saint-Etienne, the police cleared, in particular, the entrances to the political studies department of the Jean-Monnet University, around 10.30 in the morning, without encountering resistance from the police. thirty student activists. The demonstrators, who according to the police did not damage anything, obtained that a delegation be received to discuss with the rector the organization of a debate on the Palestinian question. Monday the police intervened at the Sorbonne in Paris to evict the pro-Palestinian activists who had occupied the university. The French Minister for Higher Education, Sylvie Retailleauguaranteed that the French State “will not cut its grants” to Sciences Po Paris, the prestigious Parisian university that started the pro-Palestine student mobilizations in France.
Hundreds of university students have been demonstrating since this morning on the campuses of Beirut, in Lebanon, to express “solidarity towards the Palestinians” and to call for an “end to the Israeli offensive” in the Gaza Strip. As reported by the Lebanese media, this morning there is a demonstration on the campus of the American University of Beirut (Aub) and in some branches of the Lebanese State University (Lu).
Here the students exhibit banners askingamong other things, the boycott by the respective leaders of the two universities of a series of commercial products supplied by international companies such as Hewlett Packard, Cisco, Oracle and Huawei. These brands are referred to as providing technology services “to the Israeli occupation.”