new york — Tension prevailed on college campuses across the U.S. Tuesday morning as Jewish students celebrated Passover amid disturbing allegations of anti-Semitism at pro-Palestinian protests. Demonstrations have intensified in recent days as Israel’s devastating war against Hamas intensifies in the Gaza Strip. The Hamas-run Health Ministry says more than 34,000 people have died in Gaza, most of them women and children.
In New York, the president of Columbia University canceled in-person classes on Monday after protests and said the school would have hybrid classes through the end of the semester.
As Passover begins, the school announced it has more than doubled its security presence to ensure Jewish students feel safe.
Meanwhile, at Cal Poly Humboldt in Northern California, there were scenes of chaos overnight as police in riot gear clashed with pro-Palestinian protesters holed up in campus buildings. In messages posted online, the group made a series of demands for the university to disclose and sever all ties with Israel, for Israel to end its occupation of Palestinian territory and agree to a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. I put it out.
At one point, live video streaming online showed police pushing and shoving students as they tried to enter the building.
Another pro-Palestinian protest was broken up by NYPD officers on Monday outside New York University, and several protesters were arrested on Monday. Reported by CBS New York’s Dan Rice. At least 20 demonstrators were taken by police to four waiting buses as officers dismantled and removed tents.
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Rice said at one point some demonstrators began throwing objects at police.
Demonstrations have spread to campuses from coast to coast, with the majority of demonstrators expressing support for Palestinians, not Jews, and anger at Israel’s handling of the war, but many Jewish students have expressed their support for anti-Semitism. He said he was concerned for his safety following the incident.
Anti-Semitic slogans such as “Go back to Poland” could be heard in protesters’ chants near Columbia University. One video shows a demonstrator holding a sign reading “Al-Qassam’s next target” near a Jewish student.
Al-Qassam is the military wing of Hamas, which carried out a terrorist attack against Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people and sparking the Gaza war.
Some Jewish students say such threatening messages have left them intimidated to even set foot on campus.
At the University of Michigan, one student told CBS Detroit.“It’s scary, it’s scary. The signs say ‘Long live the intifada’… It’s not a comfortable feeling.”
But many protesters at Columbia and other universities say they reject anti-Semitism and direct their anger at Israel and its policies.
“Many of the people you see here today are Jewish,” one Columbia University protester told CBS News. “many people arrested on thursday They were Jews…Anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism are two completely different things. ”
But the actions of some protesters have blurred that line, with Adam Lehmann, president and CEO of Hillel, the world’s largest Jewish student organization, saying in recent days that students He said the anti-Semitic chants directed at students could bring back painful memories for Jewish students. Their family fled persecution in Europe just a few generations ago.
“The issues we are addressing with Jewish students and other students are not about speech, they are about conduct. They are about targeted harassment,” he told CBS News. Ta.
“Jewish students themselves, even if they are young, their families and the people they will sit with at the seder table have, in some cases, experienced aspects of the Holocaust,” Lehman said. Told. “So when they see these chants as pro-Hamas chants, or as we saw in Colombia…when someone suggests that the next Hamas targets will be Jews, of course they I feel it deeply, I feel it in a post-traumatic way.”Of course we are working hard to eradicate it. ”
In his speech Monday, President Biden said he condemned “anti-Semitic protests,” but added: “I also condemn those who don’t understand what’s happening to the Palestinians.”
