Student protests occupying universities in support of the Palestinian cause have led to police interventions at several universities in the United States, which have begun to have repercussions and inspire similar movements in Canada, Australia and European countries.
In America, there were huge protests with student occupation Premises from Columbia University in New York State and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Police intervention to clear the camp and occupation of buildings by other members of the academic community, including students and teachers, led to the arrest of more than two thousand people in total, the English newspaper reported. GuardianCiting information from the Associated Press.
In Canada, the appeal launched by the American occupiers reached McGill University in the province of Quebec, where students set up seven dozen tents inside. CampusNext to the main entrance, and the University of Toronto, there was a camp set up with fifty tents.
On Thursday, a spokeswoman for Quebec Premier François Legault said he wanted to remove the tents from the McGill University site. “We want the camp to be removed, we trust the police and let them do their job,” he said, according to Reuters.
Speaking to pan-Arab television station Al-Jazeera, the student, identified as Farrah, 21, who took part in the protests in Quebec, said she believed her protest was not an isolated one.
“We may be a group, but we know that we have support and that we are participating in a movement that spans the world. We are not the only ones fighting for what is right,” the student said: “These camps are everywhere.”
The wave of pro-Palestinian student protests also reached Europe. At the French University of Sciences Po de Paris (Paris Institute of Political Studies), following the example of the incident at the Sorbonne, the police decided this Friday to remove dozens of protesters occupying the university’s main buildings. Monday.
“Firm and persistent”, French Prime Minister Gabriel Attel’s office said this Friday of the occupations, “some resolved through negotiations” and others “with a firm approach”, with 23 companies empty. Valérie Pecresse, head of the Paris regional government, said on Monday she would suspend funding for Sciences Po for the duration of the occupations, which she considers “perpetrated by a minority of extremists. Anti-Semitic hatred, instrumentalized by the LFI (Independent France, a left-wing party that supported the opposition) and its Islamist-left allies.
In the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak defended the same position as his French counterpart in the face of protests that reached several British universities. As stated therein GuardianNew student camps are spread across several UK universities in Manchester, Sheffield, Bristol and Newcastle.
Although the youth wing of the British movement Palestine Solidarity Campaign insisted the protests were “totally peaceful”, Sunak’s office was quoted as saying. GuardianHe said police officers would not tolerate “any anti-Semitism” and insisted they had “wide powers in matters of public order to combat disorder at protests and, if necessary, would continue to provide full support in doing so”.
One of the students who attended the University of Sheffield camp further mentioned Guardian“Some of the most dedicated activists were Jewish students,” he said.
“We are fundamentally an anti-racist movement. “The fight against anti-Semitism is an integral part of the fight against racism,” he added.
The wave of protest also reached Australia. Several camps involving dozens of students were set up at universities in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth.
However, despite appeals from Jewish student unions, the Group of Eight, which brings together the heads of Australia’s largest universities, declined to call on police to intervene, according to The Australian. Guardian.
University of Sydney Vice-Chancellor Mark Scott, A Mail On the social networking site Linkedin, what is happening at North American universities “does not demonstrate a path to greater safety and security for any student or staff, nor does it help create a community committed to freedom of expression” of dissenting views.
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