The University of Southern California in the US has canceled its main graduation ceremony due to new security measures in the campus where protests over the Israel-Hamas war have been taking place.
The university announced this today, a day after more than 90 protesters were arrested in the student town. The ceremony was scheduled for May 10.
Tensions continue to rise today on American college campuses where the protest movement against the war in Gaza is spreading.
Across the US, news of hundreds of arrests, police in gear to suppress demonstrations against students who don’t give up their protests, is being reported from universities, France Press reports.
From Los Angeles to Atlanta, from Austin to Boston to Chicago, the movement of pro-Palestinian American protesters has been growing by the hour since it began just over a week ago at Columbia University in New York.
This movement affected some of the most prestigious faculties in the world, such as Harvard, Yale or Princeton, France Press reports.
Los Angeles police said more than 90 people were arrested last night during a protest on the University of Southern California campus for alleged trespassing, and one person was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon.
Across the country, the scenes are being repeated, with students pitching tents on campus to denounce US military support for Israel and the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip. They are then kicked out by police in anti-demonstration gear at the request of the university administration.
Some American universities have called in the police to break up demonstrations against Israel’s war with Hamas, resulting in ugly clashes between police and protesters and dozens of arrests, while other universities have decided to let students demonstrate as the end of the semester approaches and graduation ceremonies loom.
At Emerson College in Boston, 108 people were arrested last night in a camp formed by students. New rallies and protests continued to erupt in college towns across the country.
Although many students will soon leave those places for summer vacation, university officials worry that the ongoing protests could disrupt many of the graduation ceremonies that take place in May.
Students protesting the war are demanding that schools cut financial ties to Israel and distance themselves from companies that support the conflict. Some Jewish students say that the protests have turned into anti-Semitism and that they have become afraid to come to university.
Despite the fierce suppression, the movement is growing. Early this morning, a new camp was set up on the George Washington University campus in the US capital.
On the UCLA campus in Los Angeles, more than 200 students made a mini-village of about thirty tents and barricaded themselves with posters.
In Austin, Texas, about 2,000 turned out today at the University of Texas to show support for Gaza.
