UN human rights chief Volker Turk on Tuesday said he was “troubled” by heavy-handed actions taken by US security forces during attempts to break up pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses.
“I am concerned that some of law enforcement actions across a series of universities appear disproportionate in their impacts,” Turk said in a statement sent to journalists, in which he made reference to arrests and sanctions of students. “It must be clear that legitimate exercises of the freedom of expression cannot be conflated with incitement to violence and hatred,” he added.
This rebuke came as Columbia University on Monday began suspending pro-Palestinian student activists who refused to dismantle a protest camp on the New York City campus after the Ivy League school declared a stalemate in talks seeking to end the polarising demonstration. In a statement, University President Nemat Minouche Shafik said that days of negotiations between student organizers and academic leaders had failed to persuade demonstrators to remove the dozens of tents set up to express opposition to Israel’s war in Gaza.
READ MORE: Columbia University Begins Suspending Pro-Palestinian Student Protesters After They Ignore Deadline To Disperse
The crackdown at Columbia, at the center of Gaza-related protests roiling university campuses across the US in recent weeks, occurred as police at the University of Texas at Austin arrested dozens of students whom they doused with pepper spray at a pro-Palestinian rally. Meanwhile, protesters have vowed to keep their encampment on the Manhattan campus until Columbia meets three demands: divestment, transparency in university finances, and amnesty for students and faculty disciplined for their part in the protests.
‘We will not stop, we will not rest’
Hundreds of demonstrators, many wearing traditional Palestinian keffiyeh scarves, marched around the perimeter of the encampment chanting, “Disclose! Divest! We will not stop, we will not rest.” Shafik faced an outcry from many students, faculty and outside observers for summoning New York City police two weeks ago to clear the protest camp. After more than 100 arrests were made, students restored the encampment on a hedge-lined lawn of the university grounds within days of the April 18 police action.
Since then, students at dozens of campuses from California to New England have set up similar encampments to demonstrate their anger over the Israeli operation in Gaza and the perceived complicity of their schools in it. The pro-Palestinian rallies have sparked intense campus debate over where school officials should draw the line between freedom of expression and hate speech. Students protesting Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, have said they are being censured as antisemitic merely for criticizing the Israeli government or for expressing support for Palestinian rights. Other Jewish groups counter that anti-Israel rhetoric frequently delves into or feeds overt forms of anti-Jewish hatred.
(With agency inputs)
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