Written by Maria Caspani
(Reuters) – Police on Saturday arrested at least 25 pro-Palestinian protesters and evacuated a camp at the University of Virginia, the University of Virginia said in a statement, as American universities brace for more unrest during graduation ceremonies.
Tensions have flared on UVA's Charlottesville campus, where protests had been largely peaceful until Saturday morning, when police officers wearing riot gear were seen on video moving into an encampment on a campus lawn, restraining some protesters with zip ties and using what appeared to be… Chemical spraying.
Students across the United States rallied or set up tents on dozens of campuses to protest the months-long war in Gaza and to demand that President Joe Biden, who supports Israel, do more to stop the bloodshed in Gaza. They also demand that their schools divest from companies that support the Israeli government, such as weapons suppliers.
The University of Virginia said in a press release that the protesters violated several university policies, including setting up tents on Friday night and using loudspeakers.
Jim Ryan, president of the University of Virginia, wrote in a letter that officials learned that “individuals not affiliated with the university” who expressed “some safety concerns” had joined protesters on campus.
It was not immediately clear how many of those arrested were University of Virginia students.
A group called UVA Encampment for Ghana, which said earlier this week it had set up the camp, condemned the university's decision to call the police in an Instagram post.
Dozens of people were arrested for criminal trespassing outside the Art Institute of Chicago during a demonstration Saturday after the institute called in police to disperse protesters it said were illegally occupying its property, the Chicago Police Department said Saturday.
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Elsewhere, confrontations did not escalate into arrests. In Ann Arbor, pro-Palestinian demonstrators briefly disrupted a graduation ceremony at the University of Michigan.
Videos shared on social media showed dozens of students wearing traditional keffiyeh head coverings and graduation caps and waving Palestinian flags as they walked down the middle aisle of Michigan Stadium to cheers and boos from a crowd of thousands.
The party continued and campus police escorted the demonstrators toward the back of the stadium, but no arrests were made, according to Colleen Mastoni, a university spokeswoman.
“Peaceful protests like this have taken place at UM graduation ceremonies for decades,” Mastoni said in a statement. “The university supports freedom of speech and expression, and university leaders are pleased that today’s graduation ceremony was a moment of pride and triumph.”
Contradictory views about the Israeli war in Gaza have erupted, sometimes violently, on American campuses over the past two weeks.
Several schools, including Columbia University in New York City, called in the police to quell the protests.
Police have so far arrested more than 2,000 protesters at colleges across the country.
The University of Michigan is one of several universities that have changed their security protocols for graduation ceremonies.
The anti-war protests are being held in response to the Israeli attack on Gaza, which was launched after a Hamas attack on October 7 that Israel says killed 1,200 people. Israel killed more than 34,000 people in response, according to Gaza health authorities, and leveled Palestinian land.
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Rage at Ole Miss
Campus protests have emerged as a new political flashpoint during a hotly contested and highly divisive US election year.
On Thursday, a pro-Palestinian demonstration at the University of Mississippi was met by a larger crowd of counter-protesters who sang the national anthem and carried American flags.
The events at Ole Miss, the state's flagship university, sparked widespread outrage and condemnation after a widely circulated video showed a group of mostly white students taunting a Black female protester. Some shouted racist statements and the voice of one individual could be heard making what sounded like monkey noises towards the black student.
While the university's chancellor condemned the “racist overtones” of the incident and said an investigation was ongoing, Georgia Republican state Rep. Mike Collins shared the video on his X account on Friday, writing, “Ole Miss takes care of business.”
A spokesperson for Collins said he was referring to examples of “ordinary students… resisting a very small group of left-wing agitators who care only about disruption and destruction.”
South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said on Saturday that he had sent the famous fast food chain Chick-fil-A to counter-protesters who “protected our flag and stood up for America” on campus. North Carolina State in Chapel Hill earlier this week.
“The actions of these young men make me optimistic about the next generation’s love for our country,” Graham X’s post read.
