University protests against Israel-Hamas war lead to fresh clashes between police and protesters on campuses across the country

Ohio State University has joined the growing list university demonstrations against Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. Clashes between demonstrators and police on campus gave rise to more than a dozen arrests during the night.

Those who refused to leave after warnings were arrested and charged with criminal trespass, university spokesman Benjamin Johnson said, citing rules prohibiting late-night events.

As the the death toll rises Amid Gaza war and deepening humanitarian crisis, protesters at universities across country demand schools cut financial ties in Israel and divest from businesses they believe promote conflict. Some Jewish students say that demonstrations turned towards anti-Semitism and made them afraid to set foot on campus, which in part sparked calls for police intervention.

Saar Noy Zylberman, a Jewish student at Columbia University in New York who grew up in Israel, told CBS News correspondent Nancy Chen on Thursday that many students knew people at the music festival that was targeted by the deadly Hamas terrorist attack last year.

“And adding to that the situation where people are shouting hate speech and verbally and physically harassing and attacking people, it just makes it impossible to be here,” Zylberman told Chen.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams said police officers were hit with bottles and other objects during some protests this week. He accused outside agitators of joining the real protesters. Officials at Emory University in Atlanta and the University of Texas at Austin said not all of the protesters at their schools were students and that outside groups initiated or joined the demonstrations.

In Emory, local and state police responded Thursday to dismantle an encampment. Some officers carried semi-automatic weapons, and video showed officers appearing to use a stun gun on a protester they had pinned to the ground. The university said Thursday evening that objects were thrown at officers and that officers deployed “chemical irritants” as a crowd control measure.

Jail records show 22 people arrested by Emory police were charged with disorderly conduct. Emory said it was informed that 28 people were arrested, including 20 members of the university community, and some were released.

In Texas, the UT Austin campus was much quieter Thursday after 57 people were imprisoned and charged with criminal trespassing a day earlier, when state troopers in riot gear and on horseback bulldozed protesters.

Police and protesters sometimes crossed a line, said Greg Lukianoff, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.

“You don’t have a blanket First Amendment right, you know, to turn the public area of ​​a campus into a campground,” Lukianoff told CBS News. “But we’ve certainly seen in places like Emory and places like UT Austin, the police go way too far.”

At UT Austin, authorities have since removed barricades and allowed protesters into the main plaza, beneath the school’s iconic clock tower. The Travis County District Attorney’s Office, which prosecutes minor crimes, dropped 46 cases stemming from Wednesday’s protests after finding deficiencies in probable cause affidavits, a spokesperson said in a statement.

Most of the detained protesters have not been charged with violent crimes, but there have been several instances of threatening and abusive behavior.

After a tent encampment appeared Thursday at Indiana University in Bloomington, police, armed with shields and batons, pushed back the demonstrators and arrested 33. Hours later, at University of Connecticut police tore down tents and arrested one person.

Time is running out as May commencement ceremonies approach, putting additional pressure on schools to stamp out protests. In Columbia, protesters defiantly erected a tent encampment where many are expected to graduate in front of their families in just a few weeks.

Columbia officials said negotiations showed progress as the school won early Friday. deadline Efforts to reach an agreement on dismantling the camp came and went. However, two police buses were parked nearby and private security and police were present at the campus entrances.

“We have our demands, they have theirs,” said Ben Chang, a spokesman for Columbia University, adding that if negotiations fail, the university will have to consider other options.

Just after midnight, a group of about three dozen pro-Palestinian protesters handed out signs and began chanting outside the locked gates of Columbia University. They then walked away as at least 40 police officers gathered nearby.

Hundreds of counterprotesters gathered in the streets outside Colombia on Friday morning, many waving Israeli flags and chanting for the release of hostages held by Hamas and other activists.

California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, has been negotiating with students barricaded inside a campus building since Monday, fending off an attempt by police to evacuate them. Faculty members met with protesters Thursday to try to negotiate a solution as the campus remains closed at least during the weekend.

A dean of the school, Jeff Crane, suggested at the meeting that the university form a committee that would include students to further the school’s investments. Crane also suggested that faculty and students continue to meet every 24 hours to maintain an open line of communication. The parties have not yet announced an agreement.

The school’s faculty and staff senate demanded the university president’s resignation in a vote of no confidence Thursday, citing the decision to call police to remove some barricaded students Monday.

On the other side of the state, the University of Southern California canceled the school’s graduation ceremony on May 10. The announcement came a day after more than 90 protesters were arrested on campus. The university said it will still host dozens of back-to-school events, including all traditional back-to-school ceremonies.

Tensions were already high after USC canceled an opening speech planned by the school principal pro-Palestinian valedictorianciting security concerns.

At the City College of New York on Thursday, hundreds of students gathered on the lawn beneath the Harlem campus’ famous Gothic buildings erupted in joy after a small contingent of police officers withdrew from the scene. In a corner of the quadrangle, “safety training” took place among the students.

Elsewhere in the city, a dozen protesters spent the night in tents and sleeping bags inside a Fashion Institute of Technology building. The institute’s museum, located in the building where the protesters were camped, was closed Friday.

Protesters also spent the night at the George Washington University encampment, according to local news channels. In a statement released after Thursday evening’s dispersal deadline, the University of Washington said the encampment violated university policies and that the administration and police were investigating how to remedy the situation.

HAS Emerson College In Boston, 108 people were arrested at an encampment Thursday morning. The video shows police first warning students in an alley to leave. The students clenched their arms to resist the police, who forcefully pushed through the crowd and knocked some demonstrators to the ground.

“As the night went on, it got tenser and tenser. There were just more cops on all sides. It felt like we were slowly being pushed and crushed,” said Ocean Muir, a second year student.

Muir said police picked her up by her arms and legs and took her away. Along with other students, Muir was charged Thursday with trespassing and disorderly conduct.

Boston police said four officers suffered non-life-threatening injuries during the confrontation.

Since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, the US Department of Education has launched civil rights investigations at dozens of universities and schools in response to complaints of anti-Semitism or Islamophobia. Among the institutions under investigation are numerous colleges facing protests, including Harvard and Columbia.