Anti-Israel protests in US: UN rights chief ‘troubled’ by police brutality
The UN human rights Chief Volker Turk says he has been “troubled” by the heavy-handed tactics of US security forces against pro-Palestinian protests across campuses as more students were arrested Tuesday.
Hundreds of students have been arrested by law enforcement on campuses nationwide since pro-Palestinian demonstrations and encampments began on April 18.
More than 900 arrests have been made over the past two weeks across the country, with video emerging of US police officers beating demonstrators with batons and firing pepper spray at demonstrators.
A central demand of demonstrators is for universities to divest from Israel.
The regime has killed more than 34,500 Palestinians in Gaza since early October.
The UN human rights Chief said on Tuesday he was “concerned that some of law enforcement actions across a series of universities appear disproportionate in their impacts.”
“It must be clear that legitimate exercises of the freedom of expression cannot be conflated with incitement to violence and hatred.”
In the latest crackdown, officers arrested dozens of protesters at universities in Texas, Utah and Virginia.
And at Columbia University — the epicenter of pro-Palestinian protests — students faced an ultimatum to leave the encampment before a 2 p.m. Monday or be suspended.
The protests, however, continued on the university’s Manhattan campus on Tuesday with students locking arms in front of Hamilton Hall and carrying furniture and metal barricades to the building.
In a post on X, protesters said they planned to remain at the hall until the university conceded to their three demands; divestment, financial transparency and amnesty.
Posts on an Instagram page for protest organizers also urged people to protect the encampment and join them at Hamilton Hall.
At the University of Texas at Austin, at least 40 protesters had been arrested Monday.
Videos have emerged showing officers in riot gear encircled about 100 sitting protesters, dragging or carrying them out one by one.
The protests have even spread to Canada and Europe, with French police removing dozens of students from the Sorbonne university on Monday.
And in Canada, student protesters set up camps at the University of Ottawa, McGill University in Montreal and the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, The Canadian Press reported.
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