There were protests against the war in Gaza this weekend

“Kill the Jews” on campus: The Indiana University anti-Israel protest and a counter-protester criticized by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

More than two hundred miles away at Indiana University, campus police and Indiana State Police arrested 23 protesters at 12:35 p.m. Saturday. A group set up “unapproved temporary or permanent structures” on the campus’s Dunn Meadow and then refused to leave, according to a university statement obtained by NPR.

The school said that the first priority is to create a safe and secure environment that supports teaching and learning.

There was a pro-Palestinian protest on the Washington University campus on Saturday. The protesters spread out on campus with tents and made calls for more help, according to a university statement.

“The actions of this group made it clear that they did not have good intentions,” the statement read. The group set up a camp that was in violation of university policy so we told everyone present that they needed to leave.

When the group refused, campus police arrested 80 people – including Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein. The Stein campaign confirmed the arrest in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

According to Washington University, many of the people arrested face charges of resisting arrest and assaults on a police officer.

“The Indiana University Police Department continues to support peaceful protests on campus that follow university policy,” according to the university statement.

And another 800 miles east at Northeastern University in Boston, state police arrested more than 100 people at a pro-Palestinian demonstration Saturday morning.

It’s unknown who made the comment “Kill the Jews” at Northeastern, but a video on social media has caught the moment. The socialist and pro-Palestinian group posted the video. They claim a pro-Israel counter-protester made the antisemitic call, in what they said appeared to be an attempt to criticize the chants of pro-Palestinian demonstrators.

The movement is largely focused on support for people in Gaza and demands that universities divest from companies that profit or support Israel’s war effort in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is one of many politicians who have criticized the demonstrations as antisemitic.

Antisemitism has always existed. It exists today,” Sanders said on All Things Considered. We are not going to suggest that all of the people who don’t want to support any more U.S. military aid are antisemitic.

Pro-Israeli protests against Israel’s killing of children and women in Los Angeles and Baltimore, and an unknown number of protesters at Virginia Tech University

On Oct. 7, Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 Israelis and took roughly 240 others hostage, according to Israeli authorities. Israel then launched a war against Hamas inside Gaza. According Gaza’s health ministry, Israel’s military response has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, a majority of them women and children.

The pro-Palestinian demonstrators still show up at schools despite the risk of being arrested and being suspended, with nearly 300 more arrested over the weekend.

The University of California’s Los Angeles campus became more secure after pro-Palestinian protesters and pro-Israeli protesters clashed on Sunday.

Elsewhere in the state, an unknown number of protesters were arrested at Virginia Tech University in the early hours of Monday morning, according to the Washington Post. NPR wants more information from the university.

The school said in a series of posts on X that police activity around theGraduate Life Center had begun, and that it had subsided by about 3 a.m. The protesters are chanting at the police while they drive them into white vans.

The students were able to set up a second campsite on H Street after the school put up barricades to restrict access.

Shortly before midnight on Sunday, protesters knocked down the barricades — piling them in a stack in the middle of the lawn — and flooded the lawn, with people remaining there overnight in some 85 tents, the GW Hatchet reports.

GW officials said in a statement early Monday that a group of “approximately 200 protesters from across [D.C., Maryland and Virginia], including professional organizers, activists, and university students, have joined the unauthorized encampment on our campus.”

The University of Florida students protested on Wednesday and Friday, they could face suspension or a three-year ban from campus if they violate specific protest rules.

Barnard College officials announced Friday that it will allow most of the 53 students who were arrested and suspended after protesting at Columbia University to return to campus. The New York Times says that students who have reached agreements with the college have their access back, even though others are still trying to do so.

On Sunday, Jay Bernhardt, the president of Emerson College in Boston — where more than 100 protesters were arrested at an encampment early Thursday morning — said the college will not bring disciplinary charges against protesters, and will “encourage the district attorney not to pursue charges related to encampment violations.”

He said it is taking steps to support students who were arrested, including posting bail for them, and providing local housing support for students who have to stay local for court appearances after their dorm closes.

“The College has done its best to keep all community members safe every day during these challenging times, but we recognize that we must do more,” he added.

Source: As student protesters get arrested, they risk being banned from campus too

Students, Bullhorns, Speakers, and Protests in Cal Poly Humboldt, Pennsylvania, and other University Campuses

After a judge found insufficient evidence to proceed, the district attorney in Texas dropped charges against 57 people who were arrested during a UT-Austin protest.

Some schools are threatening students with punishment if they don’t comply with directives to leave their campsites that they say violate their policies.

They are not allowed to have bullhorns or speakers on campus, but they are allowed to have weapons and protest at school, according to a list circulating late Thursday.

After student protesters occupied two academic buildings, school officials at Cal Poly Humboldt closed the campus to the public on Saturday. They had previously given protesters until 5 p.m. on Friday to leave with a guarantee of no immediate arrest — but said they would still face consequences.

The release said that this doesn’t mean that University conduct-related sanctions or legal implications are gone. “In addition, voluntarily departing in this way will be considered as a mitigating factor in University conduct processes and may reduce the severity of sanctions imposed.”

The campus will be closed from April 7 to May 10, with classes and work not available during that time. Officials say they are planning for “various scenarios” for commencement.

The rules have been broken, and those who do will face punishment, she said.

At the University of Pennsylvania, officials say a campus statue was vandalized with antisemitic graffiti and are calling on demonstrators — from Penn and other area schools — to disband.

A group of Penn faculty and Philadelphia-area elected officials signed a letter last week urging university leaders to “respect students’ rights to engage in nonviolent protest” by refraining from calling in law enforcement to make arrests and from filing disciplinary and criminal charges against peaceful protesters at the encampment.

“Threatening students with sanctions of this kind is unconscionable and should not be the means by which Yale responds to peaceful protest,” they added.

Faculty at universities in California, Georgia and Texas have either passed symbolic votes of no confidence in their leaders or initiated them, according to the Associated Press.